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 157: When God Says No - Grief, Prayer, And The Promise Of Comfort
"We face unanswered prayer through sadness and loss, searching Scripture for resilient comfort — Paul’s thorn, resurrection hope, shared grief. Question: When prayers end in "no", how does God’s grace sustain faith?"
We share a hard week with our Plays On Word family: praying for baby Samuel, grieving with James and Sara, and holding to the comfort God promises when the answer is "no". Scripture, story, and prayer lead us to a hope that outlasts storms, diagnoses, and silence.
• the God of all comfort amid affliction
• storm updates and travel plans put on hold
• the story of our dear brother James Serpico
• pleading for a miracle and facing a "no"
• Paul’s thorn, weakness, and sufficient grace
• the Gospel as hope stronger than death
• Joseph and Job as patterns for endurance
• community duty to help by prayer
• a closing prayer and blessing over the grieving
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Lord, you know, listen. Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Friends, we share abundantly in Christ's suffering of Christ, we share abundantly in comfort. If we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and suffering.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to Plays on the Word Radio Cut and Lyze Work and Play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on the security today. Let's join Pastor Kenny, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr., the up the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01:Amen. Amen. Thank you very much, Mr. Josh Taylor and Katie Kenny. Thank you very much. Both of you for that fantastic introduction to Plays on Word Radio. Hello to all of you listening. Amen. Amen. Amen. It is um storms coming to the northeast. Those of us down south don't really have to worry too much about it. Thank God I'm not in the northeast anymore. I used to dread the storms coming through and wreaking havoc on my bones, my arthritic bones. I could feel this. Ah man, I don't know. You know, I mean, I muscled through it, but uh somewhere around 45-ish, I was like, man, I'm not feeling this cold anymore. You know, actually, that's not true. I remember I was up on a telephone pole back when I was maybe 27. Yeah. I was up on a telephone pole working for cable vision. And the let me see, no, I was 28. I forget, somewhere around there. And uh I was in good shape, but and I had on this overall outfit, and the wind blew, and it was cold. It was like that northeast New Jersey, 19 degrees, cold, bitter wind, and it blew up the pole, and the wind hit me, and I was layered up at everything, and the wind hit me, and I I remember looking up in the sky saying, Lord, I'm done with this, get me out of here. Come on, and then I think shortly after that, I was transferred to the head end department, which was inside. So God's been looking out me for me my whole life, but I oh my goodness, I rem I can like thinking back, I'm feeling cold thinking back to that day. I remember it. It was, I just couldn't take anymore. And uh so I yeah, we're actually supposed to travel. We we are scheduled to travel up to a pastor's conference at America's Keswick for starting next week. But I I don't think we're gonna make it because of the storm that is going to completely flatten the northeast with snow, ice. Uh I'm praying no one lose their life, loses their lives. Um, so yeah, you know what? If you're not in the northeast of United States, and if you are, uh just join me in prayer that this storm does not kill anybody. And that no one freezes to death. They're saying it's gonna be one of those storms. Who knows? You know, they've been wrong before, but they've also been right. So hunker down. We will try to report back to you. Uh if we head up there, we'll report to you from the storm. Uh, it's still up in the air whether or not we're gonna go. We're gonna try to make a decision maybe Saturday if we're gonna head up or not. Um, yeah, and speaking of America's Keswick, if you guys could keep our dear brother and his wife, uh, James Serpico and his wife, in prayer. Um we've been praying they had a baby boy, Samuel, ten days ago. Or somewhere around there. This year. They just had a baby boy. And um, we received a prayer request for for James and Sarah. And James, you know, he's he's one of my dear brothers. He is part of the plays on word radio family, plays on word family. Let me just back up and tell you a little something. We did our Pete play back in 2019. It was it was very important, and still is very important for us to serve at the Colony of Mercy for the guys coming in for uh addiction recovery um and all the things that happen at America's Keswick. And there are guys that that come in there. And in 2019, we went and did our Pete play there at the Colony Chapel. I remember the play. Yeah, I remember it vividly. And um there was this young guy afterwards, pretty serious, had his game phase on, pretty serious. I could tell the Lord was doing something in him afterwards, after the play, and he he he just said to me after the play, he's he said something along the lines of wow, that was wow, that really touched me. That was thank you. That was really, really special. That was awesome. And I I could see that the play, it wasn't as much the play impacted him as much as the word of God was really just doing a number on him in his life. And this guy was only there. This was his introduction to Kesak. He had only been there of like a couple days. He just got there, and it's it's a it's a culture shock. It's like, whoa, can't have cell phones, can't make calls, nothing like that. You read the Bible, you're in the word and praying, and just you know, really, really pressing into the Lord, trying to, you know, make him your addiction, make the Lord the addiction. And uh this young man was James Serpico. And uh, I'll never forget because I remember him him saying after the play on the way out, um, I greeted the dudes and talked to him, and he he shook my hand, and um he said it was, you know, he was he was just blessed. I could see that it was something special about him. Anyway, James has been on our podcast. If you want to go back and listen to episode 120 and 121, we'll put them in the show notes, the link for it. But he is now on staff at America's Keswick. And he is technically the director of fun. That is his title, the director of fun. And a dear brother loves the Lord, he loves to worship God, plays the bass and sings, and uh when I get a chance, I try to just join him and just you know, it's all about Jesus, man. Jesus really set him free. And you will be blessed if you go back and check out the interview we did with him. It's two episodes, 120 and 121. And it really is worth checking out. But we got a prayer request for their baby boy that had just been born. They ended up having to go to CHOP, CHOP in Philadelphia, and they were told that baby Samuel had an untreatable neurological condition called NKH. I don't know what that is, but NKH. Um the neurologist told them that they need a miracle. There is there's no other way to to um to fix this. You know, it's 20 and 26 right now, and a lot of times we lean on our science and our we think we're so advanced. There are still so many things from this broken, um, tainted world that we have no clue about, we have no way to deal with. And this is one of them. And then the the neurologist told them they need a miracle, you know. Um, so we and many other churches started petitioning the God of all creations, just started petitioning him and saying, Lord, please heal that baby, and please, you know, please bless James and Sarah, and please just give them strength and encourage them and um help them through this difficulty. And uh we just received um I want to say a few minutes before I was gonna record this podcast, before we come on get on the air, we received um a text that uh James uh Samuel James, that's his the baby's name, Samuel James, baby James, uh baby Samuel, I'm sorry, baby Samuel James Serpico. He passed away at 8 30 p.m. on January 20th at 10 days old while wrapped in the arms and love of his parents you know um It's it's just it's difficult. What do you do? God answers every prayer, yes, no wait. And uh man, it's hard on when he says no, when you really hope for a yes, you pray for a yes. When he says no, it's difficult. It's it's faith shaking. You know, when you're talking about a child. Hey, even if it's not a child, you know, it's faith shaking when you're talking about a husband, a wife, um, a brother, a sister, a loved one, a neighbor. It it is it when you're petitioning God, who has the power to intervene and give you a yes. And he says no. I mean, I know personally, I know. I know what that tastes like. I know what that the the flavor of that is, and it's bitter. It's difficult. Extremely difficult. You know, the apostle Paul, he I'm gonna read a section from 2 Corinthians. He he talks about some things that that um he saw when he was caught up to paradise. You know, he was on the first missionary journey when him and Barnabas, when he and Barnabas went out on the first missionary journey, they went to Cyprus and then they went to what we would call modern-day Turkey today. And um they made their way to Antioch over there, Poseidon Antioch, and then they went to uh Lystra and Derby. When they went to Lystra, they the crowd rose up and stoned him after they were worshiping him and Barnabas, calling them gods, because this guy got healed, he healed this dude, the Lord healed him, but used Paul and Barnabas, and so he started worshiping. And um, then these Jewish folks came and turned the crowd against Paul and Barnabas, and they picked up stones and they stoned Paul and left him for dead. And many commentators believe that he died because he talks about something that happened to him when he writes to the Corinthians. He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up in the paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. One of the translations said it would be uh unlawful for him to say anything about it. On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on behalf of myself I will not boast, except in my weakness. Though if I should wish to wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me, I mean, he was brought up to to the realm of where the throne of God is, the third heaven. The way he saw the heaven in that period of time, they saw the sky as the and and the earth as the first heaven, um the the space and the stars and the second heaven there, and then where God dwells, or in with the spirit realm is the third heaven. And so he was caught up there, man, and he saw things that he said, man, it would be illegal for me to open my mouth if I I can't even, it would be raw. I can't mention what I saw, and he didn't know if he was in the body or if it was if he was out of the body, and then he says, So to keep me from be uh becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times look at that. It's not it's not that Satan is controlling things here. The Lord allowed Satan to be used here to harass Paul. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. And this is the key verse I want to get to. Let me back up and just read that verse eight again. He said, Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, this thorn in the flesh that was that was just clobbering him. And here is a dude who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament letters, okay? Two-thirds of them. A man that suffered unbearably, amazingly, and did not waver, strong for the case of Christ, all about the Lord's will, all about what God wanted, completely sold out for the Lord. And three times he said, Lord, please remove this. He pleaded with the Lord, not flippant, flip flippantly asked him, he pleaded, please, Lord, remove this. Verse 9 of this is uh 2 Corinthians 12. Verse 9 says, But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Close quote. And therefore, Paul says, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And it's it's that's it's still a difficult pill to swallow. The Lord said no to him. And that doesn't make the the the the no any type of um retribution or any type of judgment on him. No, when the everything the Lord does is right and perfect, and for the child of God it's it's loving, man. I can't understand it. But the Lord met Paul in the depth of that thing he was asking him to remove. Paul got closer to the Lord. This is a difficult thing. You know, they asked Tony Dungey, um somebody asked him, and I'm paraphrasing, uh man, I'm because I don't I don't remember exactly how he said it, but he was talking about, you know, if somebody if somebody asked him if he could give up his son to save everybody else. And he he said, No, no, man, I can't do it. And This was after um this was after Tony Junji's son he he committed suicide. Yeah. So you know his his son committed to suicide, I want to say in 2005 or six, somewhere around. Um but the pain, just the you know, the the the pain he had to deal with, and he he said, nah man, no, uh-uh, can't have my son. Yet the son of God was put to death for us, that anybody whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. He was put to death to take, first of all, he's put to death and took the sin of the world, took our sin, the things that disqualified us from being in God's presence, he took upon himself, took the blame, said, nah, that's on me. And he took that into the grave as far as the east is from the west. And on the third day, he was raised to life again because his sacrifice was accepted. He was the sinless, perfect Lamb of God that was capable of taking the sin of the world upon himself. Just as all the sin of the world was ushered in from the first sin of Adam by the sin of that one man, um, everyone was condemned. Everyone suffered the effects of that sin. Not it's not that everybody's guilty of Adam's sin, but everybody absolutely suffers the effects of that sin, and everyone is a sinner. Um but the the the sacrifice of the second Adam brought life, and on the third day, he was raised to life, and that sacrifice was acceptable and accepted in in the eyes of God. That's what the gospel message is, that we can stand before God right. Hallelujah, we can stand before God right, but the pain is difficult, it doesn't it doesn't just go away, so please keep James and Sarah in prayer. Hey, baby Samuel is with Jesus right now. Oh man, just waiting. He's in the place that Paul was couldn't speak about. He said it'd be illegal, man, if I opened my mouth about this. But Paul would also say, No eye is seen, no ear is heard, no mind can conceive of what God has prepared for those who love him. I'm telling you right now, God says no. He said no when I was praying for for my our our kids, me and Katie. We have two that are in heaven right now. And um, yeah, he he said no. You know, the first we lost the first one, and then when we lost the second one was right before Christmas, man. It I mean, oh that was a gut punch. That hurt. It was actually more than a gut punch. Maybe I'll go into it one day, but it was faith-shaking type of stuff, and I just knew that I, you know what? I need to praise God in the midst of this because he's still God, still good, even though I don't understand it. Just like Joseph did not understand why he was thrown in jail, why he was sold as a slave and then thrown in prison. He didn't understand that for years, man. It went on and on, and he was persecuted and he did nothing right, he was innocent. He didn't understand. But what they meant meant for evil, God meant for good. God allowed it. God said no. Um, you know, Joseph probably prayed, get me out of here right now, Lord. Get please get me out of here. Didn't mean God didn't care. He said no. Uh actually, he said, wait for Joseph. He told him, wait. But Paul, he's he said no. Some things we are gonna find out when we get to glory. But if the fact remains, though, that he is still God, he is still worthy of praise. No matter what our circumstances happen, we can be sad and keep it real with him. Absolutely. My heart breaks for the Serpicles right now, they're part of the plays on the word family, man. Um I'm brokenhearted about what happened. But there is hope, and they will see Samuel. I'm guarantee that they will see him again. That day is coming, they're gonna see him again. We're brokenhearted on how things went down and all the hope that just ended a couple days ago. But our hope in the Lord hasn't changed. We still keep our hope in him and we still trust in him, and we still praise him and worship him as God because he's still worthy of all praise, he's still God, and he is still glorious and worthy of all our praise. Though he slay me, I will I'm still gonna praise him. I'm paraphrasing Job right there, and Job's another one. How do you how do you make sense of the things that God allows? Hey, he only asked us to do this first run once, we only have to do it one time. But glory is coming, and then we're gonna understand it, we're gonna know like we are known. Things will make sense, and I'm telling you, we will be glad that we praised him from the midst of a difficult situation. So I just wanted to, you know, I want to close on this same book, 2 Corinthians, from the first chapter. Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. That is amazing that's Paul saying that. We despaired of life, man. That's how bad it was. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Paul's talking about the situations that they, the sufferings that they found themselves in. And it's interesting, he says, you also must help us by prayer. He doesn't say you also should, or you know, maybe you guys could get around to. No, he said you also must help us by prayer. And I think we must help the cerpicles and all of our brothers and sisters that are in difficult situations like that by prayer. So let me close on this. Lord God, we just want to lift up the our brother James and our sister Sarah. Lord, and we want to thank you, Lord, that they are in Christ and they have a relationship with you. Lord, we don't know why you said no to all the prayer requests to save that baby and do a miracle. But Lord, you're still worthy of praise and you're still God and you're on the throne. And they will see their son again. They will because of you. That day is coming. Lord, please comfort them. Please strengthen them, please encourage them, please encourage all the people that have been in prayer, Lord. And all the people involved, the whole family at America's Keswick. Lord, we love you. Lord, we thank you. And we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know, I I think about how uh me personally, how I was praying for them and how I prayed for my my buddy Vinny Whitehead. Maybe Vinny's, maybe Vinny's talking to to baby Samuel right now, telling them sports stories. Telling about the crazy plays on a word audience. You guys. Who knows? It's a very real, a very real possibility. You know, and the Lord, he he he didn't heal Vinny Whitehead the way we wanted. He did heal him, and he did heal baby Samuel. Yeah, he did heal that baby. Just not the way we wanted. So we're the ones that have to wait. But the day's coming when we're gonna see our loved ones again in Christ. Mark my words, the day's coming. And it's closer now than when you first press play on this podcast. That day is closer. Amen. So, until next week, y'all, and we're we're we're not gonna run any longer than this. 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.
SPEAKER_00:This program was made possible by the Playson Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at placemonword.org.
