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 114: Beyond Bitterness - Operating From a Position of Victory (Part 1)
"Feeling beaten down by the world? Today we’ll hear a powerful wakeup call about living from our position of victory in Christ rather than wallowing in bitterness."
Feeling beaten down by the world? Pastor Teddy, a.k.a Fred Kenney, Jr. delivers a powerful wake-up call about living from our position of victory in Christ rather than wallowing in bitterness. Through personal stories ranging from childhood dental visits to international ministry opportunities, he weaves together a message about discerning God's will and timing.
When a planned ministry trip to the Philippines seemed perfect "on paper", Pastor Teddy shares how God's lack of peace guided his decision to wait. "God didn't say no, He just said hold on a minute," he explains, revealing how submission to divine timing often contradicts our logical planning. This transparent account of spiritual discernment offers listeners practical insight into recognizing God's guidance in their own lives.
The episode takes us through Pastor Teddy's experience of teaching the entire Gospel of Matthew in just eight days at Calvary Bible Institute Luzon. Comparing Scripture to a Mandelbrot set that reveals endless depth the more you explore it, he describes how students from potentially hostile countries prepared to return home equipped with teaching outlines they created together. His passion for empowering international ministers shines through every word.
Most poignantly, Pastor Teddy addresses the concerning trend of Christians allowing world circumstances to embitter them. Referencing Paul's prison epistles written under dire circumstances, he reminds us to "rejoice in the Lord always" regardless of our situation. His childhood story about being slapped by a frustrated dentist becomes a humorous but powerful metaphor for the spiritual awakening many believers need today. Ready for a spiritual perspective adjustment? Listen now and reclaim your victory position in Christ! Share your own experiences of choosing joy amid difficult circumstances, and consider supporting Plays on Word's mission to spread biblical truth through innovative teaching and performances.
Calvary Bible Institute Luzon
Website: https://calvarybibleinstituteluzon.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbiluzon/
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Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:It's the best. The dentist dude slaps me across the face. You could do that back in the 70s. Slap me across the face. Now, looking back in retrospect, it wasn't hard, but it was trying to wake me out, like snap me out of my madness. Well, it worked. And then I gave the dentist a look and if it could have transferred into a thought bubble, it would have been. I'm going to tell my dad what you just did and he's going to kick your butt. Your name, your name, your name.
Speaker 1: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.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome all of you back to Plays on Word Radio. We are moving right through towards our destination with glory. Don't you feel like you're on a train sometimes? Or a bus, as we're traveling through life? We are just moving towards the destination. The bus don't stop, though. It's not going to stop Even in glory. It's not going to stop For all eternity. We're going to be exploring the wonders of the Lord. Can I get an amen on that? I'm just amped up. We are on this, we're on this journey and we are moving towards glory, being empowered by His Spirit, and the crazy thing is he's on the bus with us. He's driving the bus. Phil Sinclair really gets that. He understands that more than other people. Phil is my is is is one of the musicians and he's the bass player for Plays on Word. One of the bass players for Plays on Word and, uh, for many years I want to say for for 80 years, even though he's only in his fifties for 80 years he drove a bus in Staten Island and, uh, yeah, he was the Christian bus driver. So he wouldn't cuss you out if you cut him off. He would just pray for you. We need more of those people. Hey, I just wanted to let you know. We have something really special coming up, I believe next week I'll have confirmation later but yeah, we got something for your ears and your soul and I'm really looking forward to, and that's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 2:Last week, we finished up our teaching at Calvary Bible Institute. It is a Bible college known as CBI, and the main, or the original CBI is in Joshua Springs. We have not been to that campus yet, although I have been to the Thunderdome. So, if any of you are listening from Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel, we have been to the Thunderdome. In fact, we went out for our dear brother, robbie Reeves. Robbie and Kat they got married, I want to say back in 2019.
Speaker 2:Got a chance to meet Joe Arkham, my man. He's with the Lord right now and we went out there and I was like this is this is like my first time in the real desert, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I'm a New Jersey kid man. I don't know nothing about no desert. The only thing I know about the desert is Bennett, sand and Gravel. It's a gravel pit. That was about it. I didn't know anything about no desert cactus, snakes, all kinds of stuff, and so, yeah, we went out there it was in the spring I want to say May and the desert had just bloomed and I was like what it had just bloomed and like we were maybe a week or two after, and so, to my great surprise, there was even pollen in the desert. But it was fantastic. It was a great experience.
Speaker 2:We went out there for the wedding and we decided to visit the Calvary Chapel. Out there they're like McDonald's, they're everywhere. And I met Pastor Gerald. And keep him in your prayers, guys. If you don't know who to pray for, keep Gerald in your prayers. He's dealing with some health issues. But we went to visit and I forget the sister's name, but the lady from the church, she just came right up to us and said I don't recognize you guys, something along those lines Come on in. And we went and sat with her. I don't recognize you guys, something along those lines Come on in. And we went and sat with her and I'm looking at Katie. It was a great time, a fantastic time, a great time in the Word. It was a blessed time in church, fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ, but then at the end of the service and sisters in Christ, but then at the end of the service. Actually, I know Pastor Gerald is. He calls me and Katie up. He calls people to come up, it wasn't just us. But then he calls me and Katie up and he prays over us, the ministry that we have.
Speaker 2:I think the lady that invited us I'm going to have to have Katie on the program here to explain it probably properly, because I'm not doing justice to the story but the lady who invited us in or said come on in. I think she told him they're visiting from New Jersey and they have a ministry. So, yeah, he prayed over us, laid hands on us, the whole church prayed over us and we were just visiting, not trying to, we were trying to go up front or nothing. You know, it just came up like in conversation with that lady as we're walking to the. She said something like well, what do you guys do, you know? And I said, well, we're here for a wedding and we're going to be doing some plays. Be doing some plays, because we had some of our Pete plays were set up in the Camarillo California area, which is just north of LA. So that would that was supposed to take place after the uh, the wedding and this Sunday service we're at, and so I guess she told him and next thing, you know, the whole church is praying over us. Man, I'm like what is going on? This is amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, anyway, next door or around the corner is the Calvary Bible Institute. I want to say it's the original CBI. Now there are CBIs around the world. There's one, I believe it's South America, there's one in the Mediterranean and there is one. These are the ones I know of. I have not looked on their website and checked, but there's one in the Philippinesilippines and I met pastor tony reyes.
Speaker 2:Uh man, maybe four, no wait, four or five, four years ago, might be four years ago, I don't know if it's four, something like that. I think it was during covid thing thing. I met him at a pastor's conference in Philly and we got to talking and we wanted to go out and you guys remember we were supposed to go to the Philippines last fall and we were going to do some plays and we were going to teach at the Calvary Bible Institute and the Lord it was, ah, man, it was just, it was difficult because I wanted to go. I really bet I still want to go and we're still planning on going, but sometimes the Lord kind of puts the brakes on and just puts in your spirit hold on, wait a minute, slow it down, hit the brakes and for whatever reason, he just didn't give me any peace with it, especially when I prayed for peace.
Speaker 2:For you know, you pray for His will. Lord, show me your will, tell me what you want me to do, show me direct my steps. And unfortunately, sometimes it's difficult for us to decipher what he's saying. But one of the great things is he has given us of His Spirit. So we have conscience, our own conscience, but we also have the Holy Spirit of God, who is God, who was hovering over the waters at creation, who descended on our Lord Jesus Christ in the form of a dove, who descended on the church at Pentecost and who has been filling believers since and empowering believers since, since Pentecost, since we have him. So, uh, you know if, if you honestly pray, say Lord, help me out, help me understand at least direction, uh, give me peace please with what you want.
Speaker 2:And there was no peace. I mean, it was almost like, almost like he woke me up in the middle of the night. You're not supposed to do this, man. And I was like, oh man, how can this, how can this be On paper? It makes perfect sense. We are, we are designed for ministry, that's what we do, so this on paper is a perfect fit. A hammer is designed to hit the nail, so why not? You know that's, that was the mentality, so why not? You know that was the mentality.
Speaker 2:And it turns out that Katie was getting the same lack of peace and some people that we dearly trust, that pray for this ministry all the time, they also had like a lack of peace about it. I think about our dear sister Lydia. You know I she's like EF Hutton when she talks people listen. And you know she said she didn't have peace and I just I was like, wow, okay, all right, lord, lord, I'm going to. I'm not going to be anxious about anything, but in everything excuse me for coughing, it's not from cigars or anything like that, believe me, it's all from pollen. This pollen down here is unbelievable. It's like snow coming off of the trees anyway, trees, anyway. Yeah, the pollen is making me choke here.
Speaker 2:Anyway, by prayer and petition, we make our request known to God. And what, what does it say there? Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which, by the way, surpasses all understanding, you know, it goes beyond what you can even comprehend it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So you know, that's what I was seeking, and there are, um, there are, times when God will direct your steps and then he'll give you peace, and I had complete peace.
Speaker 2:It broke my heart to have to reach out to Pastor Tony and be like listen man. I don't know how to tell you this, but I think the Lord's telling me I'm not supposed to come out here. I committed to it and told him yeah, sure, they told the students I'm going to be teaching teaching blah, blah, blah the whole nine. And nah, man, I had to tell them I can't come out and it broke my heart. I wrestled with that, but I said I have to operate in truth and, being a man of God that he is, he completely understood and got it and was graceful. I was waiting to get chewed out or something, but I should have known better. From a human perspective, I'm like, oh boy, he's going to be angry at me the whole night.
Speaker 2:But no, he was very, very graceful and he submitted to the Lord's will. He said you know what the Lord's will be done here? Yeah, it puts me in a, it puts me in a uh, a difficult position, but um, it, it, it, and it turned out. It actually worked out for the best, because there were so many things happening even over there at the time that coordinating um an additional mission, while we were there we would have been doing plays, I would have been teaching the students and we would have been traveling long distances and trying to teach it. Just, it was not a tenable situation for us. It wouldn't, it would not have worked. And, thank God, the Lord intervened. So what I did? I said you know what? I will honor my commitment as best I can, and because of technology, I can teach remotely if you want. And Tony said, oh, that'd be great, Okay. And I had peace with that. I was like, okay, well, we'll do that then.
Speaker 2:And so they asked earlier in the year, when we were setting everything up, I was going to teach the Gospel of John. And you know, I could probably teach the Gospel of John with my eyes closed because I've spent so much time in it and I've taught from it so many times. And so I was like, okay, yeah, let's do the Gospel of John. I'm ready to rock on that. And I don't know a week or two, a couple weeks, it feels like a couple weeks before. And I don't know a week or two, a couple. It feels like a couple weeks before, maybe it was a month, but it feels like a couple weeks before we. I got a message Excuse me, and they asked me. They said, hey, can you teach Matthew instead? Hey, you know me, those of you that know me. I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah, I could do that. And I have taught from Matthew, but I've never taught from chapter 1 to 28. You know, I've never taught the entire gospel as a unit. I've taught many things from it. And so I was like, yeah, okay, alright, sure, no problem, scripture is scripture, man, I love it. And I was like, as I'm going through it, I'm like, oh man, oh, wait a minute. This is like a protein bar, like that's packed beyond belief. It's like a. It's like a I don't know man, a 10-yard protein bar. How are you gonna eat that? How do you eat that in one sitting? You can't. Oh, and on top of that the teaching is. The teaching is not like a semester or anything like that. It's not a semester long, it's not even a five or six week summer course. This is eight days. Eight days to teach the entire Gospel of Matthew.
Speaker 2:My beloved Pastor Bert, I think he's been in the Gospel of Matthew maybe a year and a half now and I don't even know if they've gotten to chapter 17 yet. So if you guys have UCCLW-ites, let me know and I will amend this. But yeah, it's not because Bert is dragging his feet at all. It's because the gospel it's loaded, man. It is loaded. The more you magnify in on it, the deeper it becomes. It's like it's like the Mandelbrot set for you mathematicians out there, you, you scientists and mathematician people. I tell you what you guys. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google Mandelbrot set and preferably a video. You want to see a video of it. You go to YouTube and say Mandelbrot set Okay, mandelbrot set Fractal geometry at its best.
Speaker 2:But the bottom line is that's like the gospel. You think you're drilling in getting to the bottom of it. Oh, wait a second. It never ends. Second it just it is. It never ends. The depths of the Word of God are unsearchable. Man, it's literally, it's unsearchable. It just keeps going and going and going. And so I found myself like, how do, how am I supposed to do this in eight days? Well, let me break it into chapters and just divide it that way. And I told the students, I said, listen, you guys are going to be drinking from a fire hose. Okay, you're going to, you'll get some water, but most of it's just going to go over you, blast through you and everything else, so, but don't beat yourselves up. Anyway, that was a blessed time. We had a um, we had a lot of active discussions and if you guys know my teaching style, especially those of you that I would, uh, we would do like Sunday morning at CCLW, um, I'm very interactive. I liked, I like questions, I like to, you know, and it's not ADD, we, you know, we take questions, we go into it and allow the spirit to speak to us, try to find answers, and so it's interactive in that way. So we had some really, really good discussions and it was a blessed time and we got through it. Well, that wasn't a fall, this one. We just finished.
Speaker 2:We took a similar approach. I kicked it up a couple notches though, rather than me just giving a lecture, I had the students. I had them every chapter we did, I had them create an outline based on what we were talking about and discussing, and they would create a chapter outline. Because these students that are out here, they're going to be leading ministries, some of going to. Some of them are going to be pastors leading churches, some of them are going to be leading different ministries. It's all going to be ministry. They want to, they want to draw closer to God, they want to learn the word of God.
Speaker 2:I had a student from from Bangladesh, student from Vietnam, I mean, they're from all over the place and some of these places are, let's just say, they're not. I don't want to say that they're hostile to the gospel, but some of these places, you know, these students could be going back and find themselves in hot water for preaching the gospel. So I wanted to try to pour into them and encourage them as best I could. So we had them do outlines for each chapter. After I would give a lecture, discussion on it, and I would give them some prompts for a potential teaching outline. But the goal was that at the end of the teaching sessions or the end of the whole class. After eight days they would actually have their own outline of the Gospel of Matthew that they could go back to multiple times and teach, and I believe we accomplished that. Most of the students let us know that.
Speaker 2:So that was a blessed time. And so thank you, brother Tony Reyes, out there in the Philippines, and we do plan on coming out to you, the Philippines, and we do plan on coming out to you. God didn't say no, he just said hold on a minute, just wait. So in His right time we plan to come out and do some plays. So on the Plays, on Word side of things, we also have done our Genesis Joe play. We brought the Genesis Joe play to the Wilmington Bible Chapel in Wilmington, north Carolina, last week. Last Saturday, blessed time, had a really blessed time there bringing the Genesis Joe and this is the I don't want to say this the latest.
Speaker 2:We usually do Genesis Joe in the March and then switch over to Pete. I'm hoping to work Dan in this year. I just heard some people say oh, it's about time. Yeah, great, great, great, amen. Yes, we do plan on working Dan in. I don't have a date on that yet and I'm still waiting on the director to help us out with a few things on that. The director is the Lord, so maybe you guys could send him some email or some text message, or pray or something you like. How, I just passed the buck too. That's how ministry should be. That's what I do. I'm like, listen, I'm waiting on him. You know, he's the boss, I'm the horse. Okay, some of you guys might get that too. So, anyway, we have another Genesis Joe coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're traveling back to New Jersey, new Jerusalem. We're traveling back early April, beginning of April. We have something we're doing at America's, keswick and then we're going to be over in Jamesburg with our brother Vinny Whitehead. Yeah, that's right, crossfields, calvary Chapel, crossfields, yes, and Jamesburg there. So we'll be visiting those guys, that part of the family. Hey, if you're in that area, you need to roll out. You just ought to come out and say hello and check out. Genesis Joe, yeah, we're going to be doing that there. Thank our brother Vinny Whitehead, looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:And so, before we close up, this is my just saying hello and touching base with everybody, but before we close up, you know, I've been kind of not even kind of, I've been extremely concerned with some of our brothers and sisters in Christ that seem to be letting the world circumstances beat them into a pulp Not only beat them into a pulp. And I want you, if you're listening, say amen. I'm going to say it again, if you're listening, say amen, yeah, okay, listen to this. If you're in Christ right, you are in Christ. We're not supposed to be bitter, angry. There's a such thing as righteous anger. Jesus was angry, but never because he was treated a certain way. It was for the glory of the Father and that's righteous anger, okay. But many of our brothers and sisters are all bent out of shape and upset and this is not how we're. We're not supposed to be living like that. We have victory, victory, you have the victory. I was actually going to make a um, an award, the victory award, and I was going to find all the people I know named vick and put them on this tree and make it like a trophy. Yeah, so, michael vick, uh, vick tavak, vick Caboo, just everybody I know with the name Vick. I was going to put on this tree and then say, listen, you have the victory. And it is true, we have the victory in Christ. The victory in Christ, we're operating from a position of victory. Man, wake up up.
Speaker 2:But when I was a little kid uh man, I might've been six or seven, I think my mom took me to this dentist Right, and the dentist was, and I was. I lost my marbles. I was going nuts in the dentist chair. I was going crazy and my mom was standing over there. I didn't like, I didn't know what was going on. But the dentist guy, he was clearly getting frustrated with me. I was trying to bust out the chair. I was a bad little kid there. I wasn't a bad kid, but I was not compliant with what they wanted to do.
Speaker 2:So, out of nowhere, as I'm having my complete meltdown tantrum, the dentist dude slaps me across the face. You could do that back in the 70s. Slap me across the face. Now, looking back in retrospect, it wasn't hard, but it was trying to wake me out, like snap me out of my madness. Well, it worked. It was like he slapped me and I looked at him like wait what? Then I looked over at my mom like wait what? And my mom was like she wasn't having that. She was like hold on, hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
Speaker 2:And there was, I want to say about three seconds where I calmed down and then I gave the dentist a look and if it could have transferred into a thought bubble, it would have been I'm going to tell my dad what you just did and he's going to kick your butt. I was, I was, I wanted, I was wanting to find my dad, cause I was like I'm going to find Freddie, fred and he's going to put an end to you. That was my mentality, man, as a little kid, as a little. That was the thought like. And I had lost my marbles man. I was trying to turn into the Hulk and everything.
Speaker 2:But so, listen, I don't want to.
Speaker 2:Why do I say that I don't want to?
Speaker 2:I don't want to slap anybody, but sometimes we need to be slapped, to be woken out of our, or knocked out of our, mentality of walking around absolutely bitter and salty at this world. Listen, I'm going to end with what Paul said in Philippians Rejoice in the Lord, always, man. Again I say it rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
Speaker 2:And he also says in another prison epistle he says let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear and don't grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, let all bitterness and all wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's from Ephesians. Let us, let us not be bitter, okay, and I wanted to spend so much more time on that and maybe we will next time. That's all the time we have for today, but I tell you what, god willing, we will be back and until we're back, 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 1:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
