Plays On Word Radio

Ep 154: From Global Listens To A Year Of Gospel-Fueled Growth - Season Four Begins!

• Pastor/ Artist Fred Kenney Jr. • Season 4 • Episode 154

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"How can seeing Jesus as rescue, not restriction, reshape your faith this coming year? Today we kick off season four with global gratitude, gospel clarity, stories from the road, and practical discipleship, urging renewed joy and courage."

Season four launches with gratitude, a global roll call, and a clear gospel reset for the new year. We share stories from tours and church planting, celebrate salvations at the plays, and call believers to renewed power, purity, and purpose.

• how the podcast began and stayed weekly
• listener reach across 75 countries
• reading scripture in multiple languages
• 2025 interview highlights and takeaways
• church planting and touring balance
• salvations during performances and follow-up
• the cross as perfect justice and mercy
• Christ as the only way to the Father
• practical counsel for repentance and purity
• identity, resilience, and pressing forward
• upcoming plays and plans for Keswick

This program was made possible by the Plays One Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonword.org

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Email us: team@playsonword.org

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for joining us on the security today. Let's join after Kenny, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr. He's made the founder of Plays on Word Theatre as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen, amen, amen. Welcome to all of you to Plays on Word Radio. Season four. What? Are you kidding me, man? Season four for real. Oh man, thank you, all of you who have helped make this possible, who have been part of the Plays on Word family. How is this possible, man? Four years we're rocking? This is amazing. We started uh just an idea, you know. It was like, wow, the Lord just put on my heart. It's like, listen, go just record the podcast a podcast. And I was like, what? Record a podcast. Okay, all right. And Katie thought I was out of my mind. Well, that's how that's how all of this happens. Everything seems to work that way. She'll I like spring it on her last minute. And um I didn't really tell, I just said, uh, I think the Lord wants me to do a podcast. And she was like, What? You have enough to do, you got enough going on right now. Really? And I said, I really, I'm telling you, I think the I'm uh and this was at the end of December, um, four years ago. And uh it was she was thinking, okay, well, you know, uh maybe a few weeks or a month or something. And I was like, no, um, this Friday. This Friday. So 7 a.m. Friday. We've been holding it down. I believe we have only not done two episodes. Um, other than that, we have been praise the Lord, thank you, Jesus, we have been consistent. And those of you listening have been consistent. And according to my wife, what she says at the end of each one of our plays, if I'm not mistaken, we have been heard in, I want to say 64 countries. You know what? Hold on a second. I'm gonna go, she's not in the studio right now. I'm gonna go ask her how many countries we've been listening streamed in. Okay, I'm back. Yeah, that's the magic of uh of radio. I went and and found out we have been streamed in 75 countries. Plays on word radio. Praise God for that, man. Um hey, my man or the lady, whoever it is, in Russia. I'm giving you a shout-out. I know somebody in Russia, I was like, wow, I got somebody in in Russia listening. All right. Um, we had we have some had some listeners in Iran. All right. Keep your heads down, y'all. Praise the Lord. May He bless you and protect you and multiply success in ministry where you guys are located. Um and yeah, it's just all over all over the world, man. It's been really cool. I don't know if we've had anybody listening in Japan yet. I probably could just check this. Hang on a second. I might be able to check this stat. Hold on. Yeah, okay. So the majority of our our streams have taken place in North America, but we still have uh we've been listening to it in the UK, Singapore, Albania, Zambia. I think I know who it is in Zambia.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, what's up, man? Axa Kawanga, uh, Uganda, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

My man Isaac Wabamba and the whole family out there want to say hello to y'all. And um, of course, in Albania, we have a whole family, a bunch of fam uh plays on word family members. The funny thing about Albania, Albania, this um this person came up to me in Albania and actually spoke decent English. And um they said, oh, you're you're the you're the um you're the famous American actor. And I was I was like, uh uh, well, not not really, no, I'm not really that. I'm not not like a famous American actor. I uh, you know, but that's that's how they that's how they they went and told me, well, famous American actor. So A, the Lord Jesus Christ knows me, so I that's the only fame that I care about. That is it. So in that sense, it was true, yes, famous American actor. Um, so yeah, we've been listening to in the Philippines. I know we have a bunch of people over in the Philippines, uh, India, Puerto Rico, Ciales, and um uh Aracibo, Puerto Rico, shout out to Burgos and the whole family there. We've been listening to in France. Bonjour, comment? Um man, I really want to go to France. Bad, really, like oh man. I took um I took French. I didn't take French in high school, I took it at UPenn. And that was that was an um UPenn French was a uh a revelation. Talk about talk about drinking from a fire hose. The funny thing is everybody there, like everybody there was top of their class, and I'm like, I'm looking around like, what am I doing here, man? How did I end up here? Uh and the this one kid, uh not a kid, young guy, he took uh my buddy Bennett. Yeah, he took French, I think in high school and in and like advanced French in uh junior college before getting to UPenn. And he was like, We were in the intro French class, and he was like, yo man, they didn't even touch this stuff into the advanced French classes back in school. Yeah, it was it was definitely drinking from a fire hose, but the cool thing was I remember I was beginning to think in French, and I was just meditating on French, and I was reading the Bible in French. What a great way to you want to learn a language? Go to Bible Gateway, find that language, look up a Bible translation, right? Look up a Bible translation and pull up the parallel. You can pull up an English parallel, and just you know, it might not be exact, but you'll get the gist of what's going on slowly. And um, that's what I'm doing actually this year. I've read I've doubled back down again. I'm doubled down. I'm gonna try to read the Bible in French and in Spanish this year as well. And um it doesn't take long. I mean, you just literally you pull it, go up to BibleGateway.com. It's probably the best Bible site. And I'm not knocking the other ones. There's many great Bible sites, but the one my bread and butter really happens from Bible Gateway, um, blue letter Bible when you want to study and drill down and learn. Blue letter Bible and and study light. Uh, oh, is it.com? I don't know if it's studylight.com. Forgive me, studylite.com or dot org. Let me see. It's studylight.org, yeah. Studylight.org is a is a solid site. Um, very good. And um, yeah, so we've man, we got Ghana. Now I know someone coming up on the program, God willing today, uh, is from Ghana. Yeah, Pastor Emmanuel. He's got the best Christmas name for any pastor ever. His name's his name's Emmanuel. Come on now. It's always Christian Christmas at his house. Um, our dear brother Emmanuel, yes. And wow, Morocco. They don't have an English accent in Morocco, but yeah, Norway, Romania, man, Bahrain, Ukraine, Barbados. That might have been my buddy Edison. Yeah, Edison might have. Yeah, we've had um at least one download in Iraq. Look at that, man. Cameroon, man, Poland, uh, Cambodia. Look at that, Panama, Panama. Probably not to ADD, but probably one of the greatest single guitar tracks, Eddie Van Hillen, in that song Panama. It's panned, I believe, hard, not hard left, but medium left, or medium right, depending on how you have your headphones, but it's not center, the guitar track. If you just listen to him playing guitar, it's just him, man. The whole track. And the other musicians are holding it down. I'm not knocking him, you know, bass player and the drummer. Now, I'm not knocking them, but but like the the meat of the song and the tone of the guitar is unbelievable, man. And the way he plays let me just not, this is not a a musician's podcast, although it absolutely could veer into that. Um one of the that's one of my favorite just performances as far as in a recording. And uh, yeah, nobody's tone got Eddies, man. Nobody got that dude. He invented, but let me just let me just get this all my chest. This guy, he and he was like, you know what? He was chasing tone, and for him, everything was about tone. He he would spend hours, days, weeks trying to find, trying to get the right tone, making micro adjustments on different things. And he was close, but he was like, it's not right yet, it's not right yet. So he invented a way to actually uh change the the the electric current in an amp. He tuned it down. He he he changed it, man. Changed the electric that's next level. He was like, you know what? If I tune, if I change the actual current coming through here, listen to what it does to the tone. And he, I'm telling you, dude, was that nobody's doing that? That's next level, and it shows in his guitar tone, which people still have a hard time trying to emulate just the way he played. Okay, I a dd'd enough. Back to our regular scheduled program. Um yeah, we we've been we've been streamed in a bunch of countries around this globe. This is a um new year 2026. This is amaz I I mean, this is amazing that we're in this next season of the podcast. And just looking back at the past year, first of all, I want to say happy new year to everybody. I don't think I even said that. Please forgive me. I haven't said happy new year to you. But uh, you know, I just thinking back in 2025, you know, all the different interviews we I mean, uh we had just so many great interviews. Just top of my head, I'm thinking like uh uh Mark Crabtree, shout out to you, Scott and Lynn and Um Jackson and Jeffrey Ekstein and and Mike Morgan was on again, and Tony Reyes, and just a lot of um just fantastic uh uh interviews. Steve Reynolds, uh just you know, so many people that we had the opportunity and the we were blessed to meet and then to share with you listening. That's one of the joys. I'm always I'm always thinking, I'm like, this would be great for the podcast audience or people listening. You know, I would when I'm talking to somebody, I'm like, man, you know what? Hold on, man. Let me let me let me let me break up my microphone. Let's let's let's record this, man, because the family needs to hear this, not just me. And so um we had just not only on the podcast, but we had a blessed tour uh period this past year. We had to make some adjustments because we planted a church in North Carolina, and the equilibrium of that, or finding the equilibrium was challenging, but you know, the Lord led us and guided our path. And we had uh it was just a blessing to plant the church and and grow with believers, have a home base where we're located, but at the same time, we also love just getting out and meeting people. We met so many new people this past year. People that were um just blessed, not only by the podcast, but by the plays. They came out to the plays. There were people that we we always give an invitation at the end of the play, or maybe in the sent middle of the play, like in Christmas Joe, we do it in the middle of the play. And um I think every single play we did, there was at least one person that raised their hand and said, Yeah, I I prayed with you to receive Jesus. Hey, one person. If one person comes to Christ, then the effort's worth it. It really is. If one person comes to Christ, then the effort we we put into it is worth it. We want people to know him, we want people to be snatched from from uh from hell for all eternity. And so many people in this world are going choosing to go there and it because they don't know. And that's just criminal. That's just it's just terrible. It's just uh that's catastrophic. Criminal is not the right word. Um, that's catastrophic. That is a disaster, a disaster of epic proportions because we're talking about people's eternal state for where they're gonna spend eternity. So we're absolutely 100% grateful for anyone that comes to Christ, particularly through the plays. There have been people that have come out that would not normally come out to church, that come out to the plays and like, you know, well, yeah, let me consider what this guy's saying. And some people have have prayed with me and raised their hand to to uh to follow Christ. Now it's between them and God if they're true about what they're doing. I can't I can't judge, you know, I can just look and see if there's any fruit unto repentance. It's my prayer that every single person that raises their hand catches the fire of Christ and catches, you know, and just can't be extinguished, and they just go on and then they have ministry. They preach to other folks, make it contagious. That's really the goal. Um is to is well let me back up. The primary goal is to strengthen the believer. That is our primary focus. Those that are in Christ, the church, the body of Christ. Our primary goal is to strengthen the body of Christ with the word of God and the medium that we use through song, through through the plays, acting him out, dramatizing him. That's the primary goal. The secondary goal is to the unbeliever, the person that is not in the body of Christ, and we want them to know him, and we give everybody an opportunity. And God does not send anyone to hell. God doesn't send anybody to hell. No. People send themselves to hell in spite of God holding out his hand and doing the impossible to keep them out. The cross of Christ is is the most impossible or improbable thing from a human perspective. It's it may it makes no sense. How can God be just and judge sin? How can he be just and judge sin and be gracious to the sinner? This is this is uh uh amazing. Only God could pull this off, man. He completely stays 100% just and judges sin 100%, judges our sin. Yet he's gracious to us and doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us mercy, he doesn't give us what we deserve. And then on top of that, beyond icing on the cake or the cherry on top, he gives us what we don't deserve, which is grace. He gives us he gives us grace. I mean, we don't deserve that. We don't deserve mercy, we don't deserve any of it. He's merciful to us and he's gracious to us. This is amazing. And yet, yet he doesn't let anything slide. Because if he did, then he wouldn't be just. You know, you think about the president of the United States when he all when he issues pardons. That's an uh injustice. That is an injustice when he issues a pardon to somebody who's guilty. Somebody who's not guilty, hey, it's it's a it's a good thing. You know, if he if he gets somebody off who was wrongly accused. But I'm talking about somebody who was straight up guilty. And we all know the pre that every president d steps in when somebody is dead to rights. Guilty and he's writing them a pardon. I don't care what party you're from, every president does that. That's an injustice when a president overrides justice and lets a criminal or a guilty party slide. God didn't do that. Nah. This is what makes him amazing. God is 100% just. And he let us slide, but the payment was still paid. That is amazing. And that's what Christ did. That's the cross of Christ. He paid a debt he didn't owe because we owed a debt we could never ever pay. And God made it possible for us to spend eternity with him. And people that reject that do so. And in spite of what he did, they send themselves. They send themselves to hell. They choose to go there. No thanks. I don't believe that. I believe uh all roads lead to God, or I believe in um many gods, or and I believe um, you know, your truth is not is that's good for you, but it's not good for me. Listen, man. Let me tell you something. You can follow that new age nonsense and that that that garbage that's been around for 2,000 years, whatever. Christ is the one who said it, and this there, you cannot outrun this. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. Those are the words of Christ. And if he didn't say that, somebody would have corrected that in the record. They would have corrected. Say, wait a second, he didn't say that. That shouldn't be in there. But it's in the the earliest manuscripts we have. So, you know, Jesus, and on there are other occasions where he made exclusive statements. But that's probably the the number one, um, the number one statement there. You know, he's the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but by him, making himself the gate, the door of the sheep. And so the problem's not with me, it's it's it's with him and his words. You can choose to reject his words, but do so at your own peril, man. That's like that's like eject, that's like rejecting a um uh a sign, a warning sign that says, hey, yo, the bridge is out. Don't keep going. And you're like, I don't, I don't really want to buy that, I don't believe it. And then you go off the bridge, you you did that to yourself. Unfortunately, that's what that's what many folks are doing. And he really went to such a great length for everyone. He made provision for every single person that drew breath. Every soul, every soul, Christ made provision for. Yeah. He bought the ticket. There's there's a room, there's there's room for you on this bus. So, anyway, we're starting out starting out the new year with with the gospel message. I tell you what, let me complete it. He Christ, he came and lived and died according to the scriptures and was put to death on and on and took your sin and my sin. And on the third day, he was raised to life again. And now by us putting our faith in him and what he did, we stand before God as if we had never sinned in the first place. We stand before God justified, right, correct, meeting the righteous requirements by faith, not by any works or anything that we have done, but by faith in Christ. We stand before God right. This is the gospel message. You don't have to do, he's already done it. What is your work? To believe on him who was sent. Trust in him. All right. So we give that message at every one of the plays, and we've seen hands go up. And I'm so blessed at that every single time that happens. We also give an opportunity for believers that are already in the body of Christ, but maybe have been getting beat up by the world, the enemy, themselves, and uh have no have no power, no joy in their walk with the Lord, have no passion for the things of God. The word of God just looks like words on a page. It doesn't even doesn't even light up to them. And we give them an opportunity to double down and to to uh to orientate themselves back towards the Lord and to be filled with his spirit and to re and that ask and officially ask him to remove um any hindrance in their life, any hindrance of him that will hinder the spirit of God.

SPEAKER_02:

What do you what are those what what do you mean, handwrites?

SPEAKER_01:

What are those things? Well if you're if you're a dude, and not even a dude, but if you but mostly dudes struggle with pornography, that's a hindrance to the spirit of God flowing through your life. Oh, it's just pictures. Let me tell you something. It's not just pictures, it's pornea in the Greek. And that hinders the spirit of God. It hinders so you you're not gonna have the power of God in your life if you mess with that stuff. You're not gonna you're not gonna have the power of God.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, but I I have to you don't know how hard it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, I understand. I understand, but God is your power. The Holy Spirit is your strength. He can help you if you struggle with that. Man, just throw that nonsense out. If it don't look at the stuff, turn your head, turn your eyes. Look, look what Job did. Job said, I will make, I made a covenant with my eyes. I'm not gonna look upon a a woman and lust after her, nothing like that. I made a covenant with my eyes. You could do that. You know? It can be, it absolutely can be done. It can be done. And it doesn't just have to be sexual sin, it's it's any kind of sin. You know what it is. The Holy Spirit, he convicts us of sin. He lets lets us know when it's not right. He doesn't condemn us, but he convicts us, believers. He convicts us and is like, hey, that ain't right. That's wrong. And we he's given us conscience. You can sear your conscience by plugging your ears and not listening to him. But if you just ask him, say, Lord, will you please help me out, please, Lord? Be my strength. Listen, he's God. If he's who he says he is, and he is, let him be God for you. Let the power of the one that hovered over the waters had creation. Let the power of God Almighty flow through you, live through you, give you victory. He's designed you to be a child of God, to be a daughter or a son of the king, man. Act like it. Come on now. And it's not in your strength. Just like salvation is not in your strength. If there's something you need victory over, let him be God. Give it to him. Reach out to him. Ask him.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I have, I have, Pastor. Sure, I have. I've asked him, I have I've asked him, and I just can't.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, you can change your approach. You know, a lot of people don't fast. I would suggest missing a meal or two and getting in prayer. Open up the scripture. Open up the Psalms. Miss a lunch, miss a dinner. And instead of eating, stuffing your face, stuff your face with the scripture. Stuff your mind and your soul. Eat the word of God. Let him speak to your heart. You will find power. You'll find strength for your journey. I'm telling you. I know it for a fact. And you know, just getting back on the whole sexual uh thing, you know. I know it's wrong, but I can't stop. Listen, if you're cheating on your wife or your husband or anything like that, and I I you know, this I can't stop, and I can't control myself, you you actually can control yourself. You know why? Because if the person you were messing around with had AIDS or some sexually transmitted disease, I bet you you wouldn't do it. So there are breaks. And you need to just apply those breaks to your to your to your mindset. You can apply those those breaks. Oh, but they don't really have AIDS. Well, imagine they did. And that that would that'll really help you. Because there are breaks, and the Holy Spirit can help you with that. Anyway, I don't know how this turned into a counseling session here. Please on Word Radio. Oh my goodness. Listen, we want to have a happy new year this year. We want to have a blessed new year this year. Um, and I it's my prayer that every single one of you is filled to the brim with the Spirit of God. And listen, I I might sound harsh in the last 10 minutes or whatever, but really it's it's because God wants He He has made us to live for so much more than what we live for, than what we settle for. He has designed us in such a way as the image bearers of God. Everything else was made after its own kind. Except for man. Man's not made after his own kind. Man is made in the image of God Almighty. Come on now. Listen, believer, Christian, if you really knew who you were and who it was that was calling you and how much he loves you, that would direct your steps. Next thing you know, you get a victory here, victory there, victory here and there. And then you're walking in victory. It doesn't mean you don't stumble and make mistakes. Good grief. I'd be a hypocrite if I was up here saying, I don't make mistakes. Listen, man, I hate the mistakes I make. I do. But this one thing I do, forgetting what's behind, I press forward, man. Stealing some some of Paul's lyrics right there. For the upward call in Christ Jesus. So, yeah, we are going to continue this year. We have a bunch of things planned for plays on Word. We will be uh heading back to Keswick, I believe at the end of January. We're supposed to head back to Keswick. But right now we are commencing our um what do you call it? This is our our creation phase. We're gonna try to tighten up the Dan play and other plays. Uh, the Adam play that we start, we did, we've done, and Paul also, the Pauly, Pauly play. So we have a lot planned for you guys. Looks like we're gonna have to get to the interview with Emmanuel next week. Because we are out of time for this episode of Plays on Word Radio. So until next week, season four, hallelujah. 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 health upon you. And for this whole next year, may he give you This program was made possible by the Plays One Word family of supporters.

SPEAKER_00:

To find out more, check out our website at plaismword.org.

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Fred David Kenney, Jr.

Host