August 22, 2025 • 28 mins
"What happens when God uses a series of personal crises to redirect your path and purpose? Pastor Geoffrey Eckstein's continuing powerful testimony reveals just how God did it in his life."
Pastor Geoffrey Eckstein shares his transformative journey from pursuing business success to embracing God's call to ministry through a series of personal crises that led to complete surrender.
• The reward for obedience is deeper obedience - God gives us more opportunities to be faithful when we first respond to His call
• God is the only contractor who uses broken tools - our weaknesses showcase His power and glory
• Small deviations (just one degree off) in our spiritual direction can lead us drastically off course
• Trials often bring us to the end of ourselves so we learn to trust God completely
• During difficult times, keep your eyes on the Shepherd rather than obsessing over the enemy's schemes
• The world doesn't need Christians to be mirrors of culture but lights in darkness
• Exegetical preaching through entire books ensures teaching the whole counsel of God
Visit Bethlehem Community Church near Albany, NY or connect with Pastor Geoffrey Eckstein through the links in our show notes.
Pastor Geoff's email: pastorgeoff@bccdelmar.org
Bethlehem Community Church: https://bccdelmar.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BCCdelmar/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bccdelmar
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lord, you know You're now listening to Playful Water.
It's the best.
Amen, that's right.
It goes right back to Psalm 23,.
Right, he is there leading usinto these paths.
He is there leading us to theplaces of still water.
But it's his right, those arehis paths, those are his fields,
it's his water right and it'shis valley we're walking through
(00:24):
.
We grow in our trust to know,look at the valley and go oh,
this is, this is too much.
I can't do this, but trustingthe Shepherd's leading us to the
place that he needs us to be,you're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
All right, we are going to continue with Jeffrey
Eckstein.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I think, one of the things that really is
encouraging to me and, I think,challenging to me as well.
You look at the Apostle Paul,right?
Yes, you know, when you thinkabout boldness, when you think
about courage, you think about aman who is able to stand in his
faith, in his faith alone, ableto stand in his faith, in his
(01:48):
faith alone, and yet, when heasks the church to be praying
for him, he's asking that theywould pray that he have greater
boldness and courage, and you go.
Well, he needs more boldnessand courage.
Well, and how about us?
Right?
And so, yeah, I think we'regiven these moments where and I
share I've come to kind of thisunderstanding, right, where
(02:09):
we're called into this place ofcourage and boldness, which is a
representation of our obedienceto the Word of God.
Right, and the reward forobedience is obedience.
Every time that we step into aplace of obedience, god gives us
(02:30):
another opportunity to beobedient.
Yes, it just drives us deeperand deeper into this place of
obedience to his word and hiscall upon our lives.
Yeah, and it's such a beautifulthing and we don't have to then
worry about.
Well, how is this person goingto take it, and you know what is
their you know expectationgoing to wind up being, and we
(02:51):
can't be invested in the outcome.
No, you're right.
Hey look, you know I need to dothis in order that somebody
else does this, right, you know,you think that you're being
kind in that way, you think thatyou're serving them by thinking
about their feelings, but thetruth, is that you're just
selfish, thinking about your own.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You're right.
Yeah, I've often preached.
I say listen, god's looking forpeople to be faithful and
obedient.
He's not looking—leave theresults to Him.
The results are in His hands.
And if you can be faithful andobedient, he's not lookingleave
the results to Him.
The results are in His handsand if you can be faithful and
obedient, he's going to produceresults.
Don't worry about the results.
You worry about being faithful.
Like if I go to my toolbox andI grab a hammer because I have
(03:37):
to hit a nail, I don't expectthe hammer to be worried about
what the screwdriver's doing.
I need the hammer to just dowhat I'm asking it to do.
This is the amazing thing aboutthe Lord that blows my mind.
He's the only contractor I knowthat uses broken tools to bring
about what he, and that showshow spectacular.
(03:59):
No contractor uses broken tools.
Man, I don't know one that usesa broken hammer or a broken saw
.
But the Lord grabs us as brokentools and says watch what I'm
going to do.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Amen Brother, mic drop, there you go.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
That is so true.
He gets us focused on resultsand gets us looking at other
ministers and other ministries.
And now we're veering off andall it takes is one degree, man.
We veer off of the call thatwe've been called to.
The hammer is veering off fromjust dealing with hitting the
(04:40):
nail, being strong in themaster's hand to hit the nail
and to drive it into the wood.
Now it's looking at otherthings and it's one degree.
And I've used the example.
I said, man, if I went down tothe Atlantic Ocean, to the beach
, and two of us went down thereand we set our course and we
(05:00):
were one degree away from eachother if we went across the
ocean, I'd end up in England andyou'd end up in North Africa or
France.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
If we were one degree away from each other.
If we went across the ocean,I'd end up in england and you'd
end up in like north africa orfrance if we were one degree off
, that's right, that's right.
And it's so hard to see thatone degree.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
You can't see it, but that's exactly right that's
where the enemy attacks, thoughhe's like let me, I don't need
to get them 10 degrees off, Ineed one degree off, that's it.
And now they're not beingfaithful to the call.
Hey, if I can shut them up ormess up God's call on them
somehow, then that's good.
That's how the enemy works.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I didn't mean to preach at you, rabbi.
Hey, listen, brother.
You preach it, brother.
Yeah, man, tell me.
Okay now Jeff is saved, hiswife is saved.
So now, how does he end up inthe pulpit?
How do we?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
get there.
So you know it's reallyinteresting, right you talk
about.
You know broken tools, you knowbeing used by the Lord and you
know, even after getting saved,right and being, you know being
faithful to the Lord and beingin the Word and being in prayer
(06:11):
and being in discipleshiprelationships where I had men
who were speaking into my livesand being engaged in the life
and the body of the church,there was still a lot of me in
me, right, a lot of selfishness,a lot of pursuits of things
that were really tied to myunderstanding of what success
(06:31):
was right.
It goes back to what we werejust talking about here.
Stop worrying about the results.
You just be obedient, faithfulto the Lord.
Well, everything that I grew upbelieving my father and my
grandfather were CPAsaccountants grew up believing my
father and my grandfather wereCPAs accountants, right, and you
know their friends were verysuccessful business people, and
(06:55):
so understanding of success wasin dollars and cents, it was in
notoriety, it was in you knowwho you were and all this sort
of stuff, right?
So there was still a lot ofthat understanding that God had
to kind of drown out of me, ifyou will.
And so here I was, pursuingafter things, monetary things,
right.
Oh, and I convinced myself,right, here's a lie from the
(07:17):
enemy.
I convinced myself oh, thesepursuits, which I'm going to
make a lot of money, are goingto put me in a position in which
I can support all theseincredible ministries.
I can help God, oh, I can help.
Exactly, right.
Right.
I remember sitting at the deskof my pastor, you know at the
time, here at the church, andyou know saying to him hey, just
(07:40):
, you just come up with a listof all the ministries that you
need support on, and you know,give me a year and I'm just
going to start writing checks tomake this thing happen.
Right.
And he basically laid his headin his hands.
We'll see, right.
And so here I was, pursuing allthese particular things and I
(08:03):
came to this point.
Was it was in the buildingindustry, right?
Not getting into the whole bigthing?
Right, In the home building andtechnology side of things.
It was this thing I was doingwith another guy who wasn't
saved Don't be unequally yoked,right.
But I thought, oh, I'm going toshare the gospel with him.
You know, I'm going to light'sgoing to rub off on him.
(08:23):
That's not a good idea, right.
And so I found myself in.
There was a series of thingsthat happened all at once and in
a very short period of time.
And so I was down at abuilder's show in Atlanta and it
was a three-day show and I wasexhausted from being there and
at the very end I decided, hey,I'm going to go and tour around
(08:50):
see some of the other vendorswho were there.
And so I walked over and Ifound some guy who's got a cool
new tool Right and I'm liketalking to him a little bit and
he goes how was the show for us?
You know, I just can't wait toget back to the hotel and have a
beer and relax.
And the guy says to me you know, there is a much better way to
find rest.
And he starts to witness andshare the gospel with me.
(09:13):
And here I am in Atlanta as asaved man, as a born again
follower of Christ, and helooked at me and felt it was
necessary for him to witness tome and that hurt.
And I went where is the lightof Christ in my life?
Where's the witness through whoI am and the way in which I
(09:34):
behave, the way in which Iengage the world?
Where is that?
And then, shortly after that, Ihad the first migraine of my
entire life, I think.
The following weekend and I wasabsolutely convinced I had a
(09:56):
brain aneurysm and I was dyingand I just you know my wife is
driving me to the hospital Icalled pastor and he said you
need to pray for me.
I think I'm dying and it turnedout to be a migraine.
But that moment of hey, if Ihave to stand before my Lord,
you know where am I?
What is this saying?
Right, not questioning mysalvation, but questioning my
(10:21):
commitment to Christ.
Questioning my commitment toChrist.
The third thing was that my wifewound up with pulmonary embolus
.
She wound up with blood clotsin her lungs and spent eight
days in the hospital and it wasscary.
It was really, really scary.
She couldn't breathe, shecouldn't catch her breath.
(10:43):
Really scary, she couldn'tbreathe, she couldn't catch her
breath.
I wasn't sure if my wife wasgoing to die.
And I remember this man who Ihad been in business with called
me while I'm in the hospitalroom with my wife and yelling at
me that I wasn't available todo these business deals and have
these conversations, and how Iwas letting him down.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And, uh wow, my wife was in the hospital for eight
days.
I was broken.
I was like what have I done?
What's happening here?
And so I get to Monday morning,I'm driving my kids off to
school and I call this guy and Isay listen, I have no idea what
(11:28):
you're doing, but I'm droppingthe kids off at school, I'm
going to the church to pray andI'm not coming back.
And we walked away from a hugeamount of money.
I just signed everything overto him, walked away from this
entire thing, and I literallyspent the next four months in
(11:52):
prayer every day at the church,anywhere from four to six or
more hours, just on my knees onmy face in the word, my knees on
my face in the Word, crying outto the Lord.
And what became clear in thatmoment was now, are you ready to
be used by me?
(12:12):
Oh, amen, I love it.
Yeah.
And I came home and I said tomy wife I think that God is
calling me into ministry to be apastor.
And my wife said that's what Ithought before you ever got
involved in this foolishness.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Ah, so she had the confirmation going on already.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
She had the confirmation, and so it was—.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And I spent the next four years in ministry making
absolutely nothing right Inministry, just submitting myself
, going through you know,internal seminary, if you will
right the Word of God, and beingtrained up here by our pastor
(13:01):
and then getting ordained in2012.
Nice, and serving here aspastor since.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Praise God man, praise the Lord.
That's such an encouragingstory, even though you were
going through a difficult time.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
you know Amen right, and I think that that's the
thing that the Lord has taughtme through the midst of all of
this stuff is that he's notunaware of the things that are
going on in your life and, to avery large extent, he's allowing
these things in our lives thatwe would come to the end of
ourselves and just you know,trust in him.
(13:38):
Not that the circumstances ofour lives are always going to be
wonderful and amazing.
When we're faithful andobedient because that's not what
the gospel tells us we're goingto face trials and difficulties
and challenges as men, to buildperseverance and and that our
faith would grow and be provento ourselves and to the world
that it's real.
So that's not the—but how wesee those circumstances and that
(14:02):
we aren't pursuing after thethings the world says is what's
going to bring us satisfaction.
But it's in fact that oursatisfaction is, in total, our
relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That is just an amazing story.
I love it, man.
And you know I told ourcongregation down in North
Carolina a few months back.
Basically, I just posed thequestion.
I said is he not our goodshepherd?
Is he not our shepherd?
It's really, if we go throughdifficult times, I know one
person that's not surprisedabout it.
I might be surprised, but Iknow somebody who's not
(14:36):
surprised.
And do we not have a goodshepherd?
I mean, even if we go throughsomething difficult, the
shepherd is still right thereand sees what's happening and is
allowing it, and so the bestthing we can do is just pursue
him wherever he has us.
Yeah, because he is a goodshepherd, you know what I mean.
(14:57):
And so he's—.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Amen, that's right.
It goes right back to Psalm 23,.
Right, it's.
You know, he is there leadingus into these paths.
He is there leading us to theplaces of still water, but it's
his right, those are his paths,those are his fields, it's His
water right and it's His valleythat we're walking through.
(15:21):
We grow in our trust to know,look at the valley and go oh,
this is too much, I can't dothis, but trusting that the
shepherd's leading us to theplace that he needs us to be,
yes, I'm 100% agreement.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I think, and I've even said a lot of times, we
give the enemy way too muchcredit, because, you know what,
if the Lord's behind this,allowing us to purge something
out of me or to make me stronger, for whatever reason, to make
me more something?
I'm not.
I don't care what theenemy's—we're not unaware of his
(15:57):
schemes, but I don't obsessover what the enemy's doing.
My question is whatever theenemy has been allowed to do,
what's the shepherd's reason inallowing—okay, I'm looking for
the shepherd.
I'm not looking for the enemy,you get all caught up in the
enemy.
It's whatever man.
Watch out, the enemy's doing.
No, what's the shepherd doing?
(16:17):
Because the shepherd is the onewho.
He's the one who protects us,he's the one who leads us, he's
the one who guides us.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And he's the one who's going to anoint our head
with oil as we come in.
He's providing the salve on thewounds, so stop right.
Yeah, don't look for Satanaround every corner of the room
oh yeah, yeah right, Just keepyour eye on the shepherd.
100% with you, brother.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
so you ended up there and now you're—tell us a little
bit about the church we'rerunning low on time here, but
tell us a little bit about your—I don't want to take all your—I
could talk to you for hours,bro, that's all good.
That's all good, man, I'm withyou here, right?
So you know, look, the Lord hasreally called us here in this.
You know little town ofBethlehem, right, that's
(17:09):
Bethlehem Community Church,right outside of Halsey.
But you know we are in what hasbeen proven to be one of the on
these lists right of the top.
You know, post-christian areasacross our country, albany, new
York, ranks in the top threejust about every year.
Oh, it is, you know.
(17:30):
It is absolutely, you know,crazy.
We refer to ourselves up hereas the frozen chosen, you know
being up here.
And so there is a lot of notjust people who aren't
interested in the gospel.
There is antipathy towards thegospel.
There are people who areabsolutely outright offended by
(17:51):
the gospel of Jesus Christ andare doing everything that they
can to shut those voices down.
And so you know, we live in anincredibly liberal area, in a
liberal, progressive state, andit is difficult, right.
But what we really clearlyunderstand is our call is to be
(18:12):
faithful to the Word of God.
Really clearly understand isour call is to be faithful to
the Word of God.
And so we are a Bible believing,bible preaching, Bible-focused
church.
And so we stand rightly andboldly and courageously upon the
Word of God and we preach thewhole counsel of God's Word.
And we understand that that maybe offensive to some.
We understand that that may bedifficult for some.
(18:34):
Listen, there are things thatthe Word of God has to preach
and has to speak to that aredifficult for me, and I
recognize that as well.
And so we walk through itfaithfully and we put the Bible
first, not our experiences orour feelings first, our
experiences or our feelingsfirst.
And so you know that isincreasingly to some extent more
(18:58):
isolating from a culturalstandpoint but it is
increasingly unifying for thepeople who are coming here to
BCC.
And so we have people where atone point, you know, 80 or more
percent of the people who arecoming to our church were from
(19:19):
within three or four miles herewithin the town of Bethlehem.
Now, less than 40 percent ofour church is from that
demographic, and we have peoplewho are traveling as far as an
hour to come here.
And they're not just cominghere, and I think this is what's
really important, it's reallyspecial, and I think what you
experienced on Saturday nightwas that it's not just coming
(19:41):
and showing up on a Sundaymorning for our Sunday worship
service to sing praises to theLord and to join in with the
Lord's Supper and to open God'sWord, but that we are actively
participating and engaging ineach other's lives.
And so, you know, we're achurch on recognizing that if we
(20:02):
are born again followers ofChrist, we are called children
of God, the Son of the Most High, and my wife is a daughter of
the Most High.
That makes us brothers andsisters, and so we're a family.
Church is meant to be a family,and so that's really the purpose
that we see, you know, as achurch, and so we love the Lord,
(20:26):
we love the Word of God, welove God's people and we love
being together, and that reallyis the you know kind of the
heart of who we are.
As a church, we're unapologeticabout what we believe.
We put right on our website ourstatement of faith, which
includes 72 bullet points, underyou know 18 or so points that
(20:50):
we're sharing.
You know 18 or so points thatwe're sharing, and so we take a
conservative Orthodox you knowview of the scriptures and we're
going to be unapologetic aboutthat.
So we're going to stand withthe Lord, we're going to stand
in His Word and we're going topreach the gospel.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Amen.
And you know what I think,the—i know I don't even think I
know that the world and theculture does not need another
mirror.
The Lord is not calling us tobe a mirror to the culture.
He's calling us to be lightsand darkness.
And the beauty of going throughthe entire Bible is you're
going to deal with every topicthere's nowhere to hide.
(21:31):
And some places.
Sometimes you get some pastorsthat will just stick with what
they are comfortable with, butthe uncomfortable stuff they
won't touch.
And when you go through theentire Bible, if you're faithful
to go through it, you can'thide there's certain things
you're going to come across thatare going to make even you
(21:52):
uncomfortable.
But it's the Word of God andthe culture does not need a
mirror.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, amen, brother.
Yeah, you know I preachexegetically and so we go verse
by verse.
You know we just went throughthe book of James.
It took us almost nine monthsto go through the five chapters
of the book of James.
We went through 1 Peter lastyear.
Right, and so doing Peter wasjust, you know, was just
wonderful.
We're going to be starting ashort series here on what we
(22:22):
believe we're going to.
Every other year we go throughour statement of faith and we
preach through it from thepulpit, get us realigned and
understanding, and it becomes achallenge to everybody else to
say, hey, listen, it's notenough to just believe what I
believe or what you know.
You do agree with what thechurch believes, but you need to
have your own personalstatement of faith.
So that's going to be our focusthis year.
(22:43):
And then we're going to begetting in the book of Exodus
Nice and so I am excited to gothrough the book of Exodus and
and and.
Who knows how long that's goingto take us.
It's going to take as long asthe Holy Spirit wants us to take
in the book of Exodus, and justexcited to get you know again
(23:04):
into God's Word and hear fromHim.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Amen, amen.
So, man, we could probably talka whole other hour.
What we'll do is we'll scheduleanother play and come back and
do another interview.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Listen, everybody in the church is like we need that
back.
We need to get him back.
Amen, we're going to work withAndrew and get you back.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Amen, we are For Christmas.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Alright man.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That's a blessing I'm looking forward to.
Maybe we can catch the end ofour Genesis Joe season.
I think you would like that,because we're straight out the
Torah man and yeah, so there'sother rabbi incidences in that
as well, and it points to Christtoo, so you can't leave out of
there without going oh wow, yeah, we'll get together with you
(23:58):
and we'll set up another play oranother interview.
Thank you for joining the PlaysOnward radio family.
My pleasure being on this andnow we're going to put a link in
the show notes for the churchand your, I guess, socials or
whatever and online stuff.
If you have any of that,we'll'll put a link all of that
(24:20):
up in there.
And if you want to reach out toRabbi Jeff, please feel free to
.
If you want to contact him andyou can't find him, you can
contact me and we can.
We'll make it possible.
And if anybody's in the Albanyarea, Amen feel free to go visit
.
(24:40):
This is another brother andthey've been.
They have been gracious toPlays on Word and they're part
of the Plays on Word family.
Now we, you know we.
It was such a blessing man todo the play and to have such a
warm reception from everybodybecause and it was funny too,
because during the play, petesays those of you that were
(25:01):
there, you guys remember, and Isee people nodding their head,
going, that's right, I rememberthe feeding of the 5,000.
I think I was there and that'spart of the beauty of it,
because you end up feeling, wow,I really am part of the
Scripture here because I've readit, so it's familiar.
Yes, so anyway, rabbi, will youjust close us in prayer, sir?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Absolutely, I sure will.
Father, god, we thank you andpraise you for your glorious
presence.
Lord, we thank you for who youare and how you have revealed
yourself in powerful and amazingways in each one of our lives
that you have specificallydesigned us to seek after you.
And, father, I thank you thatyou aren't hiding, but you are
(25:47):
available right there, in plainsight for us.
Father, I thank you for Ted, Ithank you for Plays Onward.
I thank you, father, for thegreat gifting and the heart that
you have given him, thecommitment that he has made to
be obedient to what you have setbefore him, and so I ask for a
great blessing upon all of thosewho are going to hear these
(26:07):
plays, that are going to hearthe gospel of Jesus Christ and
who are going to have to come tothat place.
Lord, that crucible moment ofstanding and saying is this
really what I believe?
Crucible moment of standing andsaying is this really what I
believe?
And so, father, I thank you forwhat you have accomplished, not
only in my life, in the life ofmy wife and family, in the life
(26:29):
of the church, in the life ofTed and his wife and the family
and all those, lord, that he hastouched as a pastor and as a
playwright.
Lord, we just look forward towhat you are going to continue
to do, lord, not because youhave to do anything, lord, I
(26:49):
think about this recognitionthat Jews have been singing for
millennia, about theirunderstanding of the Exodus and
of the Passover.
That, father, it would havebeen enough for you just to hear
their cries.
It would have been enough foryou to respond and to bring
about the plagues.
It would have been enough, lord, for you to move upon Pharaoh
(27:12):
that he would release, lord,your chosen people.
It would have been enough thatyou would have led them to the
Red Sea.
It would have been enough, lordfor you to part and, lord, it
would have been enough.
There's nothing more that youhave to do to prove that you are
our God.
And yet, and yet, lord, youcontinue to pour yourself out
upon your children and upon yourcreation, not because we are
(27:34):
good, but because you are goodand because you want us all to
be and to see the revelation ofyour one and only son, jesus.
And so, father, I just thankyou for all the amazing ways
that you make yourself known.
I thank you for all those whoare listening today, lord, to
(27:56):
this podcast, this interview, tothis podcast, this interview,
lord, and I just ask that youwould shake all of us, shake all
of us, lord, that our faithwould grow, that our trust in
you would grow, that ourobedience would be the result,
father, and that you would beglorified In the name of Jesus,
be lifted on high and may yourchildren truly be blessed.
(28:19):
And we ask you these things inJesus' precious name.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Amen, amen.
Well, thank you, sir, god blessyou.
Thank you, brother, god blessyou.
Thank you for being on.
Plays All Word Radio.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
This program was made possible by the Plays on Word
family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Lord, you know You're now listening to Playful Water.
It's the best.
Amen, that's right.
It goes right back to Psalm 23,.
Right, he is there leading usinto these paths.
He is there leading us to theplaces of still water.
But it's his right, those arehis paths, those are his fields,
it's his water right and it'shis valley we're walking through
(00:24):
.
We grow in our trust to know,look at the valley and go oh,
this is, this is too much.
I can't do this, but trustingthe Shepherd's leading us to the
place that he needs us to be,you're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
All right, we are going to continue with Jeffrey
Eckstein.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I think, one of the things that really is
encouraging to me and, I think,challenging to me as well.
You look at the Apostle Paul,right?
Yes, you know, when you thinkabout boldness, when you think
about courage, you think about aman who is able to stand in his
faith, in his faith alone, ableto stand in his faith, in his
(01:48):
faith alone, and yet, when heasks the church to be praying
for him, he's asking that theywould pray that he have greater
boldness and courage, and you go.
Well, he needs more boldnessand courage.
Well, and how about us?
Right?
And so, yeah, I think we'regiven these moments where and I
share I've come to kind of thisunderstanding, right, where
(02:09):
we're called into this place ofcourage and boldness, which is a
representation of our obedienceto the Word of God.
Right, and the reward forobedience is obedience.
Every time that we step into aplace of obedience, god gives us
(02:30):
another opportunity to beobedient.
Yes, it just drives us deeperand deeper into this place of
obedience to his word and hiscall upon our lives.
Yeah, and it's such a beautifulthing and we don't have to then
worry about.
Well, how is this person goingto take it, and you know what is
their you know expectationgoing to wind up being, and we
(02:51):
can't be invested in the outcome.
No, you're right.
Hey look, you know I need to dothis in order that somebody
else does this, right, you know,you think that you're being
kind in that way, you think thatyou're serving them by thinking
about their feelings, but thetruth, is that you're just
selfish, thinking about your own.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
You're right.
Yeah, I've often preached.
I say listen, god's looking forpeople to be faithful and
obedient.
He's not looking—leave theresults to Him.
The results are in His hands.
And if you can be faithful andobedient, he's not lookingleave
the results to Him.
The results are in His handsand if you can be faithful and
obedient, he's going to produceresults.
Don't worry about the results.
You worry about being faithful.
Like if I go to my toolbox andI grab a hammer because I have
(03:37):
to hit a nail, I don't expectthe hammer to be worried about
what the screwdriver's doing.
I need the hammer to just dowhat I'm asking it to do.
This is the amazing thing aboutthe Lord that blows my mind.
He's the only contractor I knowthat uses broken tools to bring
about what he, and that showshow spectacular.
(03:59):
No contractor uses broken tools.
Man, I don't know one that usesa broken hammer or a broken saw
.
But the Lord grabs us as brokentools and says watch what I'm
going to do.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Amen Brother, mic drop, there you go.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
That is so true.
He gets us focused on resultsand gets us looking at other
ministers and other ministries.
And now we're veering off andall it takes is one degree, man.
We veer off of the call thatwe've been called to.
The hammer is veering off fromjust dealing with hitting the
(04:40):
nail, being strong in themaster's hand to hit the nail
and to drive it into the wood.
Now it's looking at otherthings and it's one degree.
And I've used the example.
I said, man, if I went down tothe Atlantic Ocean, to the beach
, and two of us went down thereand we set our course and we
(05:00):
were one degree away from eachother if we went across the
ocean, I'd end up in England andyou'd end up in North Africa or
France.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
If we were one degree away from each other.
If we went across the ocean,I'd end up in england and you'd
end up in like north africa orfrance if we were one degree off
, that's right, that's right.
And it's so hard to see thatone degree.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
You can't see it, but that's exactly right that's
where the enemy attacks, thoughhe's like let me, I don't need
to get them 10 degrees off, Ineed one degree off, that's it.
And now they're not beingfaithful to the call.
Hey, if I can shut them up ormess up God's call on them
somehow, then that's good.
That's how the enemy works.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I didn't mean to preach at you, rabbi.
Hey, listen, brother.
You preach it, brother.
Yeah, man, tell me.
Okay now Jeff is saved, hiswife is saved.
So now, how does he end up inthe pulpit?
How do we?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
get there.
So you know it's reallyinteresting, right you talk
about.
You know broken tools, you knowbeing used by the Lord and you
know, even after getting saved,right and being, you know being
faithful to the Lord and beingin the Word and being in prayer
(06:11):
and being in discipleshiprelationships where I had men
who were speaking into my livesand being engaged in the life
and the body of the church,there was still a lot of me in
me, right, a lot of selfishness,a lot of pursuits of things
that were really tied to myunderstanding of what success
(06:31):
was right.
It goes back to what we werejust talking about here.
Stop worrying about the results.
You just be obedient, faithfulto the Lord.
Well, everything that I grew upbelieving my father and my
grandfather were CPAsaccountants grew up believing my
father and my grandfather wereCPAs accountants, right, and you
know their friends were verysuccessful business people, and
(06:55):
so understanding of success wasin dollars and cents, it was in
notoriety, it was in you knowwho you were and all this sort
of stuff, right?
So there was still a lot ofthat understanding that God had
to kind of drown out of me, ifyou will.
And so here I was, pursuingafter things, monetary things,
right.
Oh, and I convinced myself,right, here's a lie from the
(07:17):
enemy.
I convinced myself oh, thesepursuits, which I'm going to
make a lot of money, are goingto put me in a position in which
I can support all theseincredible ministries.
I can help God, oh, I can help.
Exactly, right.
Right.
I remember sitting at the deskof my pastor, you know at the
time, here at the church, andyou know saying to him hey, just
(07:40):
, you just come up with a listof all the ministries that you
need support on, and you know,give me a year and I'm just
going to start writing checks tomake this thing happen.
Right.
And he basically laid his headin his hands.
We'll see, right.
And so here I was, pursuing allthese particular things and I
(08:03):
came to this point.
Was it was in the buildingindustry, right?
Not getting into the whole bigthing?
Right, In the home building andtechnology side of things.
It was this thing I was doingwith another guy who wasn't
saved Don't be unequally yoked,right.
But I thought, oh, I'm going toshare the gospel with him.
You know, I'm going to light'sgoing to rub off on him.
(08:23):
That's not a good idea, right.
And so I found myself in.
There was a series of thingsthat happened all at once and in
a very short period of time.
And so I was down at abuilder's show in Atlanta and it
was a three-day show and I wasexhausted from being there and
at the very end I decided, hey,I'm going to go and tour around
(08:50):
see some of the other vendorswho were there.
And so I walked over and Ifound some guy who's got a cool
new tool Right and I'm liketalking to him a little bit and
he goes how was the show for us?
You know, I just can't wait toget back to the hotel and have a
beer and relax.
And the guy says to me you know, there is a much better way to
find rest.
And he starts to witness andshare the gospel with me.
(09:13):
And here I am in Atlanta as asaved man, as a born again
follower of Christ, and helooked at me and felt it was
necessary for him to witness tome and that hurt.
And I went where is the lightof Christ in my life?
Where's the witness through whoI am and the way in which I
(09:34):
behave, the way in which Iengage the world?
Where is that?
And then, shortly after that, Ihad the first migraine of my
entire life, I think.
The following weekend and I wasabsolutely convinced I had a
(09:56):
brain aneurysm and I was dyingand I just you know my wife is
driving me to the hospital Icalled pastor and he said you
need to pray for me.
I think I'm dying and it turnedout to be a migraine.
But that moment of hey, if Ihave to stand before my Lord,
you know where am I?
What is this saying?
Right, not questioning mysalvation, but questioning my
(10:21):
commitment to Christ.
Questioning my commitment toChrist.
The third thing was that my wifewound up with pulmonary embolus
.
She wound up with blood clotsin her lungs and spent eight
days in the hospital and it wasscary.
It was really, really scary.
She couldn't breathe, shecouldn't catch her breath.
(10:43):
Really scary, she couldn'tbreathe, she couldn't catch her
breath.
I wasn't sure if my wife wasgoing to die.
And I remember this man who Ihad been in business with called
me while I'm in the hospitalroom with my wife and yelling at
me that I wasn't available todo these business deals and have
these conversations, and how Iwas letting him down.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And, uh wow, my wife was in the hospital for eight
days.
I was broken.
I was like what have I done?
What's happening here?
And so I get to Monday morning,I'm driving my kids off to
school and I call this guy and Isay listen, I have no idea what
(11:28):
you're doing, but I'm droppingthe kids off at school, I'm
going to the church to pray andI'm not coming back.
And we walked away from a hugeamount of money.
I just signed everything overto him, walked away from this
entire thing, and I literallyspent the next four months in
(11:52):
prayer every day at the church,anywhere from four to six or
more hours, just on my knees onmy face in the word, my knees on
my face in the Word, crying outto the Lord.
And what became clear in thatmoment was now, are you ready to
be used by me?
(12:12):
Oh, amen, I love it.
Yeah.
And I came home and I said tomy wife I think that God is
calling me into ministry to be apastor.
And my wife said that's what Ithought before you ever got
involved in this foolishness.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Ah, so she had the confirmation going on already.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
She had the confirmation, and so it was—.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And I spent the next four years in ministry making
absolutely nothing right Inministry, just submitting myself
, going through you know,internal seminary, if you will
right the Word of God, and beingtrained up here by our pastor
(13:01):
and then getting ordained in2012.
Nice, and serving here aspastor since.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Praise God man, praise the Lord.
That's such an encouragingstory, even though you were
going through a difficult time.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
you know Amen right, and I think that that's the
thing that the Lord has taughtme through the midst of all of
this stuff is that he's notunaware of the things that are
going on in your life and, to avery large extent, he's allowing
these things in our lives thatwe would come to the end of
ourselves and just you know,trust in him.
(13:38):
Not that the circumstances ofour lives are always going to be
wonderful and amazing.
When we're faithful andobedient because that's not what
the gospel tells us we're goingto face trials and difficulties
and challenges as men, to buildperseverance and and that our
faith would grow and be provento ourselves and to the world
that it's real.
So that's not the—but how wesee those circumstances and that
(14:02):
we aren't pursuing after thethings the world says is what's
going to bring us satisfaction.
But it's in fact that oursatisfaction is, in total, our
relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That is just an amazing story.
I love it, man.
And you know I told ourcongregation down in North
Carolina a few months back.
Basically, I just posed thequestion.
I said is he not our goodshepherd?
Is he not our shepherd?
It's really, if we go throughdifficult times, I know one
person that's not surprisedabout it.
I might be surprised, but Iknow somebody who's not
(14:36):
surprised.
And do we not have a goodshepherd?
I mean, even if we go throughsomething difficult, the
shepherd is still right thereand sees what's happening and is
allowing it, and so the bestthing we can do is just pursue
him wherever he has us.
Yeah, because he is a goodshepherd, you know what I mean.
(14:57):
And so he's—.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Amen, that's right.
It goes right back to Psalm 23,.
Right, it's.
You know, he is there leadingus into these paths.
He is there leading us to theplaces of still water, but it's
his right, those are his paths,those are his fields, it's His
water right and it's His valleythat we're walking through.
(15:21):
We grow in our trust to know,look at the valley and go oh,
this is too much, I can't dothis, but trusting that the
shepherd's leading us to theplace that he needs us to be,
yes, I'm 100% agreement.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I think, and I've even said a lot of times, we
give the enemy way too muchcredit, because, you know what,
if the Lord's behind this,allowing us to purge something
out of me or to make me stronger, for whatever reason, to make
me more something?
I'm not.
I don't care what theenemy's—we're not unaware of his
(15:57):
schemes, but I don't obsessover what the enemy's doing.
My question is whatever theenemy has been allowed to do,
what's the shepherd's reason inallowing—okay, I'm looking for
the shepherd.
I'm not looking for the enemy,you get all caught up in the
enemy.
It's whatever man.
Watch out, the enemy's doing.
No, what's the shepherd doing?
(16:17):
Because the shepherd is the onewho.
He's the one who protects us,he's the one who leads us, he's
the one who guides us.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And he's the one who's going to anoint our head
with oil as we come in.
He's providing the salve on thewounds, so stop right.
Yeah, don't look for Satanaround every corner of the room
oh yeah, yeah right, Just keepyour eye on the shepherd.
100% with you, brother.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
so you ended up there and now you're—tell us a little
bit about the church we'rerunning low on time here, but
tell us a little bit about your—I don't want to take all your—I
could talk to you for hours,bro, that's all good.
That's all good, man, I'm withyou here, right?
So you know, look, the Lord hasreally called us here in this.
You know little town ofBethlehem, right, that's
(17:09):
Bethlehem Community Church,right outside of Halsey.
But you know we are in what hasbeen proven to be one of the on
these lists right of the top.
You know, post-christian areasacross our country, albany, new
York, ranks in the top threejust about every year.
Oh, it is, you know.
(17:30):
It is absolutely, you know,crazy.
We refer to ourselves up hereas the frozen chosen, you know
being up here.
And so there is a lot of notjust people who aren't
interested in the gospel.
There is antipathy towards thegospel.
There are people who areabsolutely outright offended by
(17:51):
the gospel of Jesus Christ andare doing everything that they
can to shut those voices down.
And so you know, we live in anincredibly liberal area, in a
liberal, progressive state, andit is difficult, right.
But what we really clearlyunderstand is our call is to be
(18:12):
faithful to the Word of God.
Really clearly understand isour call is to be faithful to
the Word of God.
And so we are a Bible believing,bible preaching, Bible-focused
church.
And so we stand rightly andboldly and courageously upon the
Word of God and we preach thewhole counsel of God's Word.
And we understand that that maybe offensive to some.
We understand that that may bedifficult for some.
(18:34):
Listen, there are things thatthe Word of God has to preach
and has to speak to that aredifficult for me, and I
recognize that as well.
And so we walk through itfaithfully and we put the Bible
first, not our experiences orour feelings first, our
experiences or our feelingsfirst.
And so you know that isincreasingly to some extent more
(18:58):
isolating from a culturalstandpoint but it is
increasingly unifying for thepeople who are coming here to
BCC.
And so we have people where atone point, you know, 80 or more
percent of the people who arecoming to our church were from
(19:19):
within three or four miles herewithin the town of Bethlehem.
Now, less than 40 percent ofour church is from that
demographic, and we have peoplewho are traveling as far as an
hour to come here.
And they're not just cominghere, and I think this is what's
really important, it's reallyspecial, and I think what you
experienced on Saturday nightwas that it's not just coming
(19:41):
and showing up on a Sundaymorning for our Sunday worship
service to sing praises to theLord and to join in with the
Lord's Supper and to open God'sWord, but that we are actively
participating and engaging ineach other's lives.
And so, you know, we're achurch on recognizing that if we
(20:02):
are born again followers ofChrist, we are called children
of God, the Son of the Most High, and my wife is a daughter of
the Most High.
That makes us brothers andsisters, and so we're a family.
Church is meant to be a family,and so that's really the purpose
that we see, you know, as achurch, and so we love the Lord,
(20:26):
we love the Word of God, welove God's people and we love
being together, and that reallyis the you know kind of the
heart of who we are.
As a church, we're unapologeticabout what we believe.
We put right on our website ourstatement of faith, which
includes 72 bullet points, underyou know 18 or so points that
(20:50):
we're sharing.
You know 18 or so points thatwe're sharing, and so we take a
conservative Orthodox you knowview of the scriptures and we're
going to be unapologetic aboutthat.
So we're going to stand withthe Lord, we're going to stand
in His Word and we're going topreach the gospel.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Amen.
And you know what I think,the—i know I don't even think I
know that the world and theculture does not need another
mirror.
The Lord is not calling us tobe a mirror to the culture.
He's calling us to be lightsand darkness.
And the beauty of going throughthe entire Bible is you're
going to deal with every topicthere's nowhere to hide.
(21:31):
And some places.
Sometimes you get some pastorsthat will just stick with what
they are comfortable with, butthe uncomfortable stuff they
won't touch.
And when you go through theentire Bible, if you're faithful
to go through it, you can'thide there's certain things
you're going to come across thatare going to make even you
(21:52):
uncomfortable.
But it's the Word of God andthe culture does not need a
mirror.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, amen, brother.
Yeah, you know I preachexegetically and so we go verse
by verse.
You know we just went throughthe book of James.
It took us almost nine monthsto go through the five chapters
of the book of James.
We went through 1 Peter lastyear.
Right, and so doing Peter wasjust, you know, was just
wonderful.
We're going to be starting ashort series here on what we
(22:22):
believe we're going to.
Every other year we go throughour statement of faith and we
preach through it from thepulpit, get us realigned and
understanding, and it becomes achallenge to everybody else to
say, hey, listen, it's notenough to just believe what I
believe or what you know.
You do agree with what thechurch believes, but you need to
have your own personalstatement of faith.
So that's going to be our focusthis year.
(22:43):
And then we're going to begetting in the book of Exodus
Nice and so I am excited to gothrough the book of Exodus and
and and.
Who knows how long that's goingto take us.
It's going to take as long asthe Holy Spirit wants us to take
in the book of Exodus, and justexcited to get you know again
(23:04):
into God's Word and hear fromHim.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Amen, amen.
So, man, we could probably talka whole other hour.
What we'll do is we'll scheduleanother play and come back and
do another interview.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Listen, everybody in the church is like we need that
back.
We need to get him back.
Amen, we're going to work withAndrew and get you back.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Amen, we are For Christmas.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Alright man.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That's a blessing I'm looking forward to.
Maybe we can catch the end ofour Genesis Joe season.
I think you would like that,because we're straight out the
Torah man and yeah, so there'sother rabbi incidences in that
as well, and it points to Christtoo, so you can't leave out of
there without going oh wow, yeah, we'll get together with you
(23:58):
and we'll set up another play oranother interview.
Thank you for joining the PlaysOnward radio family.
My pleasure being on this andnow we're going to put a link in
the show notes for the churchand your, I guess, socials or
whatever and online stuff.
If you have any of that,we'll'll put a link all of that
(24:20):
up in there.
And if you want to reach out toRabbi Jeff, please feel free to
.
If you want to contact him andyou can't find him, you can
contact me and we can.
We'll make it possible.
And if anybody's in the Albanyarea, Amen feel free to go visit
.
(24:40):
This is another brother andthey've been.
They have been gracious toPlays on Word and they're part
of the Plays on Word family.
Now we, you know we.
It was such a blessing man todo the play and to have such a
warm reception from everybodybecause and it was funny too,
because during the play, petesays those of you that were
(25:01):
there, you guys remember, and Isee people nodding their head,
going, that's right, I rememberthe feeding of the 5,000.
I think I was there and that'spart of the beauty of it,
because you end up feeling, wow,I really am part of the
Scripture here because I've readit, so it's familiar.
Yes, so anyway, rabbi, will youjust close us in prayer, sir?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Absolutely, I sure will.
Father, god, we thank you andpraise you for your glorious
presence.
Lord, we thank you for who youare and how you have revealed
yourself in powerful and amazingways in each one of our lives
that you have specificallydesigned us to seek after you.
And, father, I thank you thatyou aren't hiding, but you are
(25:47):
available right there, in plainsight for us.
Father, I thank you for Ted, Ithank you for Plays Onward.
I thank you, father, for thegreat gifting and the heart that
you have given him, thecommitment that he has made to
be obedient to what you have setbefore him, and so I ask for a
great blessing upon all of thosewho are going to hear these
(26:07):
plays, that are going to hearthe gospel of Jesus Christ and
who are going to have to come tothat place.
Lord, that crucible moment ofstanding and saying is this
really what I believe?
Crucible moment of standing andsaying is this really what I
believe?
And so, father, I thank you forwhat you have accomplished, not
only in my life, in the life ofmy wife and family, in the life
(26:29):
of the church, in the life ofTed and his wife and the family
and all those, lord, that he hastouched as a pastor and as a
playwright.
Lord, we just look forward towhat you are going to continue
to do, lord, not because youhave to do anything, lord, I
(26:49):
think about this recognitionthat Jews have been singing for
millennia, about theirunderstanding of the Exodus and
of the Passover.
That, father, it would havebeen enough for you just to hear
their cries.
It would have been enough foryou to respond and to bring
about the plagues.
It would have been enough, lord, for you to move upon Pharaoh
(27:12):
that he would release, lord,your chosen people.
It would have been enough thatyou would have led them to the
Red Sea.
It would have been enough, lordfor you to part and, lord, it
would have been enough.
There's nothing more that youhave to do to prove that you are
our God.
And yet, and yet, lord, youcontinue to pour yourself out
upon your children and upon yourcreation, not because we are
(27:34):
good, but because you are goodand because you want us all to
be and to see the revelation ofyour one and only son, jesus.
And so, father, I just thankyou for all the amazing ways
that you make yourself known.
I thank you for all those whoare listening today, lord, to
(27:56):
this podcast, this interview, tothis podcast, this interview,
lord, and I just ask that youwould shake all of us, shake all
of us, lord, that our faithwould grow, that our trust in
you would grow, that ourobedience would be the result,
father, and that you would beglorified In the name of Jesus,
be lifted on high and may yourchildren truly be blessed.
(28:19):
And we ask you these things inJesus' precious name.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Amen, amen.
Well, thank you, sir, god blessyou.
Thank you, brother, god blessyou.
Thank you for being on.
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