September 19, 2025 • 29 mins
"What happens when you ditch your phone and truly focus on prayer? Today, we look at the transformative power of undistracted communion with God in this compelling episode of Plays on Word Radio."
Pastor Teddy shares about the upcoming Genesis 'JOE' play tour in the Northeast & reflects on the power of prayer as the foundation for effective ministry. He emphasizes the importance of focused, intentional prayer without distractions, comparing it to meeting with someone of great importance.
• Genesis 'JOE' tour coming to the Northeast US in October including New York, New Jersey, & Virginia/DC area
• Prayer is essential for ministry — riding "a wave of prayer" versus ministering in your own strength
• Avoid bringing your phone into prayer time — prevents distractions & maintains focus
• Pray both defensively (asking for help) & offensively (interceding for others)
• Scripture instructs us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
• Peter's miraculous prison escape in Acts 12 demonstrates the power of corporate prayer
• Speaking prayers aloud puts them "on record" with God & against enemy schemes
We have another tour coming up, so please pray that the Lord would go before us & that people would come to know Christ through our ministry. If you'd like to learn more about Plays on Word Theater or see our upcoming schedule, visit playsonword.org. Check back often for our new website coming soon! We'll be performing Genesis 'JOE' in October, along with 2 other special shows, & 'CHRISTMAS JOE' performances already booking up for the holiday season! To Help support upcoming tours financially, please visit: https://playsonword.networkforgood
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To Support Plays On Word Radio & Plays On Word Theater, please visit: https://playsonword.networkforgood
The Plays on Word Theater team is always setting up new performance dates! If you want us to visit your church/venue/community, please reach out with your inquiries here: https://playsonword.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/event-submission-form
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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 Play.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the best.
We have not been built by Intel.
Okay, don't multitask.
It makes you stupid, this guy.
It was so, put it this way.
It was so disheartening that Iactually stopped.
I stopped going to the dude'soffice.
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to the doodles.
(00:24):
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to be on his email.
He's going to be reading anemail while I'm trying to
explain something to him.
Do we do that with God?
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Hello and welcome to Plays onWord Radio, where we discuss,
analyze, work and play on theWord of God.
(01:07):
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):
Amen, amen.
Well, welcome to all of youlistening to Plays on Word Radio
.
That's right, this is anotherone for you.
Oh yeah, katie Kenney first ofall for that introduction, and
Josh Taylor for thatintroduction.
We're coming back up to theNortheast for our Genesis Joe
(01:51):
play that we will be bringing tosome churches and we also have
something special for a coupleof different fellowships, but
we're going to be doing ourGenesis Joe play.
This is our Genesis Joe season.
We're going to figure out howwe're going to work the Dan play
(02:12):
in.
Where's that going to find ahome?
As soon as the Lord finishes itfor me?
Please pray for me on that.
I'm finding it a challenge tojust get it done.
I'm enjoying the equilibriumI'm getting right now leading a
(02:35):
fellowship down here and we aregrowing and we are meeting just
fantastic people that are great.
It's just amazing.
We've had so many visitors comeout to Calvary, southport.
How do I explain this?
Those of you that would knowSouthport reminds me a little
bit of Cape May, ocean Grove,lava-led, seaside-ish, but
(03:01):
without the rides.
Yeah, maybe Ocean City, is thatit?
So it's something like that.
It's a tourist destination.
In a sense, this area is atourist destination.
Oak Island and Southportcarolina is where we are located
(03:26):
.
We're maybe about 45 minutes,about 55, 45 to 55 minutes north
of myrtle beach, south carolina, which is that is like seaside
on steroids.
It's more, that's more likeatlantic city actually.
Um, I'm trying, I'm givingselfish.
We have listeners all over theworld and they're probably
(03:48):
scratching their head going.
I don't know what he's talkingabout, but the folks in New
Jersey are going, oh, and somepeople in New York and even in
the Philly area are going.
Oh, okay, I see what you'retalking about.
Well, we've had a lot ofvisitors come and repeat
visitors so that when they comeback to the area they come back
to church.
We're their church, which isreally cool and the local yokels
(04:13):
are starting to come out.
It's a real blessing to havenative folks coming out and
we're just going throughscripture, we just go through
the word, and it's been a alittle bit of a balance, a
little challenge to do plays onword and the fellowship.
(04:38):
But god is faithful and he isgiving us strength and ability
to do what we need to do.
So we're going to be headingback up to the Northeast in
October.
We're going to be in New YorkState again, it will be in.
(05:00):
I want to say we're going to bein New Jersey.
I think we're going to VirginiaDC area.
So, yeah, we've got some stufflined up.
We're really looking forward tocoming back up and hopefully
seeing some of you.
(05:20):
Some of you can make it out, ifnot, some of you Some of you
can make it out.
If not, we will try to make atleast one of them available.
I don't know if Katie's goingto put it on her Facebook or
we'll try to stream it orsomething or parts of it.
Make that available for youguys to check it out.
Genesis Joe was the first playthat the Lord gave me, first one
(05:43):
we started doing and we've seena lot of fruit from that.
I've often talked about thetime we did Genesis Joe in a
jail and the response was it wasactually overwhelming.
It took me a minute to processmore than a minute.
(06:04):
It was actually overwhelming.
It took me a minute to processmore than a minute.
It took me days.
Whoa, wow.
(06:26):
Because the story is powerful.
First of all, it's, you know,the word of God is powerful,
it's alive, it's active, sharperthan any kind of two-edged
sword.
And the word of God, just leftalone by itself, doesn't need
anything.
It's like a really good ribeye,a really good steak.
(06:51):
Now, those of you that arevegetarians, please don't send
me hate mail, but there'snothing quite like a really good
ribeye, oh man, cooked right,you know.
And if it's a good cut of me,it doesn't need anything.
It needs nothing just grill it,man, get a knife and fork and
(07:13):
you can eat it as is and it'sgood.
That's the word of god.
Word of god is better than that, actually.
And um, so, yeah, we're lookingforward to that, we're looking
forward to coming, we're lookingforward to coming up and please
be in prayer for this tour,because the Lord does work and
people do pray to receive Christand the kingdom, enter the
(07:36):
kingdom of God and to have theirsins forgiven and become part
of the family of God.
And that happens because weride a wave of prayer.
It's not like there's anythingspecial about me or my formula,
that I say the right things oranything.
No, it's the Spirit of Godgoing before us, around us, and
(07:59):
he's the real star.
So please just be in prayer.
You guys can be part of thework that God.
Actually, I'm not even reallyasking.
It's more of a what is the word.
How about that?
We really need your prayer.
(08:22):
You're never going to hear me,god willing.
You're never going to hear mecome on here and say, oh, if we
don't get a donation in the nextfive minutes, we won't be able
to feed the poor children.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(08:44):
You know what I'm going to askfor.
I'm asking for prayer, man.
That's what I need.
I'm not here trying to shakethe trees for money or anything.
I'm here shaking y'all forprayer.
Please pray, a tidal wave of amove of God that we can serve.
Okay, so I'm making thatrequest to you now.
(09:14):
Now, what do you mean, pastor?
Why is prayer so important?
Katie hates it when I use thatvoice too.
She hates it when I do that,but that's my.
I've got to come up with a namefor that character, but that's
the character that is just inopposition and always has the
(09:37):
yeah but yeah, but Maybe I couldput that in reverse and make
the guy's name.
What do you mean, pastor?
What are you talking about?
Why is prayer so important?
I think his last name is goingto be unbeliever too, something
unbeliever, yeah, but unbeliever, yeah, but yeah, but Sounds
(09:57):
Jamaican.
Yeah, but yeah, but unbelieverman Me can't believe this thing.
You're telling me, anyway,prayer.
What's the deal with it?
Why is this guy shaking thetrees for prayer, instead of
money and other things thatthese TV evangelists do?
(10:22):
Prayer.
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to lookaround and say, yo man, what is
going on here?
I had nothing to do with this,but the Lord is moving.
Some of y'all that are inministry understand that.
(10:43):
Understand what I'm talkingabout.
Like you end up scratching yourhead saying whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa.
God is doing something waybeyond what I expected here.
Man, whoa, you're seeing heartschange, minds change.
So prayer is.
(11:04):
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to.
I know what.
How do I say this?
I know what it's like to go outand minister without properly
seeking God and without properlyasking for that wave of prayer.
And so I know what it's like todo ministry in my own strength.
(11:25):
Man, I'm still tired from thatdoing that.
It's that exhausting when youdo ministry in your own strength
for absolute exhaustion.
(11:47):
So I really try not to do thatas best I can.
I don't actually even want todo ministry If the Lord doesn't
go before what we're doing, Iwant nothing to do with it.
Man, I'm not trying to be partof that.
Ain't nobody got time for that?
The Scripture talks about prayerfor us and it gives us a whole
(12:11):
bunch of examples.
I'm not going to go throughthem all, I'm just going to
share a couple with you just toencourage us in what the Lord is
calling us to do.
One of them is and notice thesescriptures.
They have an admonition to prayand but there's always
(12:34):
thanksgiving thrown in there.
And every time I approach theLord, I think every time I say
thank you, thank you, lord,thank you, thank you God.
My brother, mike Morgan, saysLord, I thank you, I thank you
Lord, I thank you.
It's thanksgiving.
We enter his courts withthanksgiving.
(12:55):
You know and praise it'sThanksgiving.
We enter His courts withThanksgiving.
You know and praise it'sThanksgiving because that thanks
part is a recognition of who heis.
He says Paul says in Colossians4, he says continue steadfastly
in prayer, being watchful in it, with thanksgiving.
(13:18):
So continue with prayer.
This idea of praying andsteadfastly, kind of like not
being moved, being determined.
I mean, if the Spirit moves youaway from a prayer, that's fine
.
But you know, one thing we haveto do when we pray I've found
to be successful in prayer is tobe intentional.
(13:47):
So don't go into prayer withyour cell phone.
There's two reasons actuallyfor that.
The first is the distractionsthat are going to come.
You're going to get peopletexting you, calling you yeah,
pastor, what do you mean?
No, what are you talking about?
I pray at four o'clock in themorning.
There's that guy again.
I pray at four o'clock in themorning.
Yeah, okay, you might pray atfour o'clock in the morning, but
if you bring your phone inthere with you, you better put
(14:07):
it on airplane mode because outof nowhere, you're going to
start getting alerts and stuffcoming across, news flashes and
all these stuff, and somebodymight just text you.
You never know.
You might get something fromone of your YouTube
subscriptions.
Can I get an amen?
Somebody out there?
I'm the only guy that's got abazillion YouTube subscriptions
and out of nowhere I'll just getthe boom.
(14:30):
If I'm going to pray, all of asudden I'll see a video that I
would really like to see pray.
All of a sudden I'll see avideo that I would really like
to see Now.
My prayer is all subdivided anddistracted.
Don't bring your phone with youif you're going to pray.
Be intentional.
I tell you what if you weremeeting with whoever the
(14:56):
president of the United Statesis?
Just don't get wrapped up inpolitics.
That's the last thing I want todo.
The president of the UnitedStates If you meet with the
president of the United States,you're not trying to be
distracted.
First of all, it's rude.
You're sitting there talking tohim, he's talking to you and
all of a sudden you get a textand you start looking down at
your phone.
Let me tell you something.
(15:16):
I had this dude, this guy thatI worked with.
He was my manager many yearsago.
He was my manager.
I went in to talk to him and,as I'm talking to him, he's
typing every single time.
I went to talk to the guy and Ididn't talk to him a lot, but
when I needed to talk to the guyand get him up to speed, he's
sitting there typing to the guyand get him up to speed.
He's sitting there typing likean email to somebody else.
(15:40):
He's reading emails as he'stalking to me and I'm like yo
man.
You realize that, uh,multitasking makes you stupid.
First of all, newsflash it does.
It makes you stupid.
Multitasking is, it's not,smart.
We are not, um, we have notbeen built by Intel.
(16:01):
Okay, don't multitask, it makesyou stupid.
This guy it was.
It was so put it this way.
It was so disheartening it wasso put it this way it was so
disheartening that I actuallystopped.
I stopped going to the dude'soffice.
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to be on his email.
(16:22):
He's going to be reading anemail while I'm trying to
explain something to him.
Do we do that with God?
I hope not.
I don't want to be that guy,but I have.
I brought my phone in a coupletimes to pray and next thing,
you know, blip, here comes atext from somebody and I end up
(16:46):
looking at the text while I'mright in the middle of a
conversation with God.
Don't do that to him.
We need to recognize who thisis.
We are in front of Somebody waymore important than the
President of the United States.
He's way more important thanthe most important person on the
planet.
So it says well.
(17:09):
Let me tell you the other reason?
The first reason is that it's adistraction.
The second reason now I'm goingto put on my tinfoil hat, the
conspiracy guy kicks in.
You guys know I love a goodconspiracy.
Now, hey, why is it that if Ihave my phone with me and just
(17:31):
randomly I say you know, I'dlike to visit Iceland I say that
to my wife just in passing andconversation why is it?
The next time I go on theInternet I'm getting
advertisements for trips toIceland, tours and cruises to
(17:51):
Iceland and discount travelagents.
I'm like wait, what the heck manwho's listening to me here?
Hey, it's not even like I askedAlexa or Siri anything.
I didn't ask them, but they'redefinitely listening.
So you know, hey, if you'repraying and really praying and
(18:17):
interceding for folks, you knowit's bad enough.
The enemy is listening.
Okay, bad enough.
The opposite team is listening.
I pray out.
See, the thing is, I pray outloud.
I pray out loud.
I speak things into this worldwhen I speak.
Not that words are magical inany kind of way, but I pray and
(18:41):
I go on record with the Lord andI would encourage you to pray,
speak out loud.
Yes, he knows your heart aswell.
You could sit there and praycompletely with your lips closed
, silent, and the Lord willunderstand your heart.
But, lord, that you would breakthe teeth of the enemy what
(19:15):
he's doing in any of their livesand make all of his schemes
completely fall apart right now.
In the name of Jesus, hey, amen, I'm on record right.
That's a prayer that's on theLord's desk right now, and it's
not only in the Lord's desks.
The enemy is scrambling rightnow.
(19:35):
You know why?
Because the plans of the enemywere just attacked.
That's offensive prayer.
We can pray on defense andthat's fine.
You know, basketball is thesame way, football, soccer.
You have offense and defense.
(19:55):
Unfortunately, many Christiansspend all their time on defense.
Oh Lord, please help me.
Oh Lord, I'm sick, thisperson's sick, we need your help
.
Okay, that's fine, I'm notknocking that.
That's important, don't neglectthat.
But what about the offense?
What about taking it to theenemy?
Praying over your neighbors,praying over your school,
(20:18):
praying over your co-workers,calling out their name to the
King of creation?
It's going on record,interceding for them If they're
not saved, that the Lord wouldengineer circumstances in their
life so that they would come toknow Him, that the Lord would
send people to Him.
(20:40):
If it's not you yourself.
You can be involved in it.
You can pray and ask the Lordto bring someone to share the
gospel.
Have them by accident somehowturn on Christian radio.
Have them turn on Christian.
Well, I was going to sayChristian TV, but a good
Christian TV program.
So much bad stuff on TV.
Now you're on offense, you'reon offense.
(21:07):
Defense Prayer is important.
You're on offense, prayer isimportant, and offense and
defense is important for theChristian.
In Thessalonians, paul says youknow, he says chapter 5, 16
through 18, he says rejoicealways.
These are like some of theshortest verses in the Bible
together Rejoice always,together Rejoice always.
(21:37):
Verse 17 is pray withoutceasing, meaning being tethered
to him in a continual state ofprayer, don't hang up the phone.
And verse 18 says give thanksthere it is again in all
circumstances.
For this is the will of God inChrist Jesus for you.
Look at that, check that outright there.
(21:57):
The will of God is that yourejoice always, you pray without
ceasing and give thanks in allcircumstances.
For this is the will of God inChrist Jesus for you.
Now I kind of extended it alittle bit.
Some people might just say well, it's just his will is that you
give thanks in allcircumstances.
I would submit.
He also wants you to praywithout ceasing, and his will is
(22:19):
that you would rejoice always.
Can I get an amen, amen.
So pray without ceasing, don'thang up the phone Now.
There are some stories in theScripture that I love and I
(22:40):
probably don't have time to gointo it right now, but we'll
just touch on them.
I love the story about the bookof Acts, in chapter 12, where
Peter he is.
Well, let me back up a littlebit.
Herod puts James, the brotherof John.
(23:04):
He puts him to death with thesword, and he found out that the
Jewish folks that were opposedto the Christians, they were
down with that.
They loved it.
They were like, wow, all right,herod, yay, they were grateful.
So he was like hey, and so hehad Peter arrested.
All this is going to be in thesecond play that we're doing,
(23:26):
which is about the second halfof Peter's life, basically the
book of Acts, and that's calledRepeat.
I hear the groans and moans.
Let me continue.
So, yeah, repeat that play.
I don't know when we're goingto launch that tour or the play,
(23:48):
but yeah, this is part of it.
And so they had him in jail.
Now let me just read from verse6.
This is chapter 12 of the bookof Acts.
It says now, when Herod wasabout to bring Peter out, on
that very night, peter wassleeping between two soldiers
bound with two chains, andcenturies before the door, herod
had him guarded by like four.
Let me just make sure, let melook at it Four, let's see Four
(24:16):
squads of soldiers to guard him.
Yep, in verse four it says it Iknew I was right Four squads of
soldiers were guarding Peter.
This is not like two guards man, this is four squads.
And it says back in verse sixcenturies before the door were
guarding the prison verse seven.
And behold, an centuries beforethe door regarding the prison
verse 7,.
And behold, an angel of theLord stood next to him and a
(24:37):
light shone in his cell.
He struck Peter on the side andwoke him, saying get up quickly
.
And the chains fell off hiswrists verse 8,.
And the angel said to him dressyourself, put on your sandals.
And he did so.
And he said to him wrap yourcloak around you and follow me
(25:00):
Verse 9,.
And he went out and followedhim.
He didn't know that what wasbeing done by the angel was real
, but thought he was seeing avision Verse 10.
When they passed the first andsecond guard, they came to the
iron gate leading into the city.
It opened for them of its ownaccord.
(25:24):
Are you following me on this?
Is this not some kind of crazymovie?
This is amazing.
It opened for them on its ownaccord and they went out and
went along the street andimmediately the angel left him.
Verse 11,.
When Peter came to himself, hesaid now I'm sure that the Lord
has sent his angel and rescuedme from the hand of Herod and
(25:46):
from all that the Jewish peoplewere expecting.
Like that's when he came to therealization that he didn't just
eat some funny food and he'shaving a weird dream Verse 12.
Then he realized.
Then he realized this and wentto the house of Mary, the mother
of John, whose other name wasMark, where many Whoop.
(26:09):
This is the key.
This is the key.
Verse 12 is key.
He went to the house of Mary,the mother of John, whose other
name was Mark, where many weregathered together and were what
they were praying Verse 13.
(26:34):
I'm going to come back to thatin a second verse 13.
When he knocked on the door ofthe gateway, a servant girl
named rhoda came to answer verse14.
Recognizing peter's voice.
In her joy, she didn't open thegate but ran and reported that
peter was standing at the gate.
Verse 15.
They said to her you're out ofyour mind.
But she kept insisting that itwas so and they kept saying it's
(26:59):
his angel Verse 16, but Petercontinued knocking and when they
opened they saw him and wereamazed.
Verse 17,.
But motioning to them with hishand to be quiet, be silent, he
described to them how the Lordhad brought him out of the
prison and he said tell thesethings to James and to the
brothers.
Then he departed and went toanother place.
(27:23):
Now let's go back to verse 12for a second.
Many were gathered part B, thesecond half.
Many were gathered together andwere praying While those things
were happening to Peter and hedidn't even realize what was
(27:45):
going on.
While it was happening, theywere praying and interceding.
Do not miss that man.
Don't miss that, oh, pastor.
(28:05):
Is prayer really that important?
Yes, it is that important,absolutely.
The prayers of the righteousare extremely valuable and the
Lord, for whatever reason,allows us to participate in His
work.
Could he do it without prayer?
(28:26):
Absolutely.
But the fact that he mentionsthem here and points it out that
they were in prayer while thesethings were happening, and some
of them, they couldn't evenbelieve it.
Let's pray with a belief thatGod's going to answer us in
(28:47):
Jesus name.
Oh, help me, holy ghost, I'mgoing to keep going.
I'm out of time.
The Lord bless you and keep youto make us.
Lord make his face shine uponyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Now y'all pray for us .
Come on now.
This program was made possibleby the Plays on Word family of
supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Thank you.
Lord, you know You're now listening to Play.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the best.
We have not been built by Intel.
Okay, don't multitask.
It makes you stupid, this guy.
It was so, put it this way.
It was so disheartening that Iactually stopped.
I stopped going to the dude'soffice.
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to the doodles.
(00:24):
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to be on his email.
He's going to be reading anemail while I'm trying to
explain something to him.
Do we do that with God?
You're the only name.
You're the only name.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You're the only name.
Hello and welcome to Plays onWord Radio, where we discuss,
analyze, work and play on theWord of God.
(01:07):
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):
Amen, amen.
Well, welcome to all of youlistening to Plays on Word Radio
.
That's right, this is anotherone for you.
Oh yeah, katie Kenney first ofall for that introduction, and
Josh Taylor for thatintroduction.
We're coming back up to theNortheast for our Genesis Joe
(01:51):
play that we will be bringing tosome churches and we also have
something special for a coupleof different fellowships, but
we're going to be doing ourGenesis Joe play.
This is our Genesis Joe season.
We're going to figure out howwe're going to work the Dan play
(02:12):
in.
Where's that going to find ahome?
As soon as the Lord finishes itfor me?
Please pray for me on that.
I'm finding it a challenge tojust get it done.
I'm enjoying the equilibriumI'm getting right now leading a
(02:35):
fellowship down here and we aregrowing and we are meeting just
fantastic people that are great.
It's just amazing.
We've had so many visitors comeout to Calvary, southport.
How do I explain this?
Those of you that would knowSouthport reminds me a little
bit of Cape May, ocean Grove,lava-led, seaside-ish, but
(03:01):
without the rides.
Yeah, maybe Ocean City, is thatit?
So it's something like that.
It's a tourist destination.
In a sense, this area is atourist destination.
Oak Island and Southportcarolina is where we are located
(03:26):
.
We're maybe about 45 minutes,about 55, 45 to 55 minutes north
of myrtle beach, south carolina, which is that is like seaside
on steroids.
It's more, that's more likeatlantic city actually.
Um, I'm trying, I'm givingselfish.
We have listeners all over theworld and they're probably
(03:48):
scratching their head going.
I don't know what he's talkingabout, but the folks in New
Jersey are going, oh, and somepeople in New York and even in
the Philly area are going.
Oh, okay, I see what you'retalking about.
Well, we've had a lot ofvisitors come and repeat
visitors so that when they comeback to the area they come back
to church.
We're their church, which isreally cool and the local yokels
(04:13):
are starting to come out.
It's a real blessing to havenative folks coming out and
we're just going throughscripture, we just go through
the word, and it's been a alittle bit of a balance, a
little challenge to do plays onword and the fellowship.
(04:38):
But god is faithful and he isgiving us strength and ability
to do what we need to do.
So we're going to be headingback up to the Northeast in
October.
We're going to be in New YorkState again, it will be in.
(05:00):
I want to say we're going to bein New Jersey.
I think we're going to VirginiaDC area.
So, yeah, we've got some stufflined up.
We're really looking forward tocoming back up and hopefully
seeing some of you.
(05:20):
Some of you can make it out, ifnot, some of you Some of you
can make it out.
If not, we will try to make atleast one of them available.
I don't know if Katie's goingto put it on her Facebook or
we'll try to stream it orsomething or parts of it.
Make that available for youguys to check it out.
Genesis Joe was the first playthat the Lord gave me, first one
(05:43):
we started doing and we've seena lot of fruit from that.
I've often talked about thetime we did Genesis Joe in a
jail and the response was it wasactually overwhelming.
It took me a minute to processmore than a minute.
(06:04):
It was actually overwhelming.
It took me a minute to processmore than a minute.
It took me days.
Whoa, wow.
(06:26):
Because the story is powerful.
First of all, it's, you know,the word of God is powerful,
it's alive, it's active, sharperthan any kind of two-edged
sword.
And the word of God, just leftalone by itself, doesn't need
anything.
It's like a really good ribeye,a really good steak.
(06:51):
Now, those of you that arevegetarians, please don't send
me hate mail, but there'snothing quite like a really good
ribeye, oh man, cooked right,you know.
And if it's a good cut of me,it doesn't need anything.
It needs nothing just grill it,man, get a knife and fork and
(07:13):
you can eat it as is and it'sgood.
That's the word of god.
Word of god is better than that, actually.
And um, so, yeah, we're lookingforward to that, we're looking
forward to coming, we're lookingforward to coming up and please
be in prayer for this tour,because the Lord does work and
people do pray to receive Christand the kingdom, enter the
(07:36):
kingdom of God and to have theirsins forgiven and become part
of the family of God.
And that happens because weride a wave of prayer.
It's not like there's anythingspecial about me or my formula,
that I say the right things oranything.
No, it's the Spirit of Godgoing before us, around us, and
(07:59):
he's the real star.
So please just be in prayer.
You guys can be part of thework that God.
Actually, I'm not even reallyasking.
It's more of a what is the word.
How about that?
We really need your prayer.
(08:22):
You're never going to hear me,god willing.
You're never going to hear mecome on here and say, oh, if we
don't get a donation in the nextfive minutes, we won't be able
to feed the poor children.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(08:44):
You know what I'm going to askfor.
I'm asking for prayer, man.
That's what I need.
I'm not here trying to shakethe trees for money or anything.
I'm here shaking y'all forprayer.
Please pray, a tidal wave of amove of God that we can serve.
Okay, so I'm making thatrequest to you now.
(09:14):
Now, what do you mean, pastor?
Why is prayer so important?
Katie hates it when I use thatvoice too.
She hates it when I do that,but that's my.
I've got to come up with a namefor that character, but that's
the character that is just inopposition and always has the
(09:37):
yeah but yeah, but Maybe I couldput that in reverse and make
the guy's name.
What do you mean, pastor?
What are you talking about?
Why is prayer so important?
I think his last name is goingto be unbeliever too, something
unbeliever, yeah, but unbeliever, yeah, but yeah, but Sounds
(09:57):
Jamaican.
Yeah, but yeah, but unbelieverman Me can't believe this thing.
You're telling me, anyway,prayer.
What's the deal with it?
Why is this guy shaking thetrees for prayer, instead of
money and other things thatthese TV evangelists do?
(10:22):
Prayer.
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to lookaround and say, yo man, what is
going on here?
I had nothing to do with this,but the Lord is moving.
Some of y'all that are inministry understand that.
(10:43):
Understand what I'm talkingabout.
Like you end up scratching yourhead saying whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa.
God is doing something waybeyond what I expected here.
Man, whoa, you're seeing heartschange, minds change.
So prayer is.
(11:04):
I know what it's like to ride awave of prayer.
I know what it's like to.
I know what.
How do I say this?
I know what it's like to go outand minister without properly
seeking God and without properlyasking for that wave of prayer.
And so I know what it's like todo ministry in my own strength.
(11:25):
Man, I'm still tired from thatdoing that.
It's that exhausting when youdo ministry in your own strength
for absolute exhaustion.
(11:47):
So I really try not to do thatas best I can.
I don't actually even want todo ministry If the Lord doesn't
go before what we're doing, Iwant nothing to do with it.
Man, I'm not trying to be partof that.
Ain't nobody got time for that?
The Scripture talks about prayerfor us and it gives us a whole
(12:11):
bunch of examples.
I'm not going to go throughthem all, I'm just going to
share a couple with you just toencourage us in what the Lord is
calling us to do.
One of them is and notice thesescriptures.
They have an admonition to prayand but there's always
(12:34):
thanksgiving thrown in there.
And every time I approach theLord, I think every time I say
thank you, thank you, lord,thank you, thank you God.
My brother, mike Morgan, saysLord, I thank you, I thank you
Lord, I thank you.
It's thanksgiving.
We enter his courts withthanksgiving.
(12:55):
You know and praise it'sThanksgiving.
We enter His courts withThanksgiving.
You know and praise it'sThanksgiving because that thanks
part is a recognition of who heis.
He says Paul says in Colossians4, he says continue steadfastly
in prayer, being watchful in it, with thanksgiving.
(13:18):
So continue with prayer.
This idea of praying andsteadfastly, kind of like not
being moved, being determined.
I mean, if the Spirit moves youaway from a prayer, that's fine
.
But you know, one thing we haveto do when we pray I've found
to be successful in prayer is tobe intentional.
(13:47):
So don't go into prayer withyour cell phone.
There's two reasons actuallyfor that.
The first is the distractionsthat are going to come.
You're going to get peopletexting you, calling you yeah,
pastor, what do you mean?
No, what are you talking about?
I pray at four o'clock in themorning.
There's that guy again.
I pray at four o'clock in themorning.
Yeah, okay, you might pray atfour o'clock in the morning, but
if you bring your phone inthere with you, you better put
(14:07):
it on airplane mode because outof nowhere, you're going to
start getting alerts and stuffcoming across, news flashes and
all these stuff, and somebodymight just text you.
You never know.
You might get something fromone of your YouTube
subscriptions.
Can I get an amen?
Somebody out there?
I'm the only guy that's got abazillion YouTube subscriptions
and out of nowhere I'll just getthe boom.
(14:30):
If I'm going to pray, all of asudden I'll see a video that I
would really like to see pray.
All of a sudden I'll see avideo that I would really like
to see Now.
My prayer is all subdivided anddistracted.
Don't bring your phone with youif you're going to pray.
Be intentional.
I tell you what if you weremeeting with whoever the
(14:56):
president of the United Statesis?
Just don't get wrapped up inpolitics.
That's the last thing I want todo.
The president of the UnitedStates If you meet with the
president of the United States,you're not trying to be
distracted.
First of all, it's rude.
You're sitting there talking tohim, he's talking to you and
all of a sudden you get a textand you start looking down at
your phone.
Let me tell you something.
(15:16):
I had this dude, this guy thatI worked with.
He was my manager many yearsago.
He was my manager.
I went in to talk to him and,as I'm talking to him, he's
typing every single time.
I went to talk to the guy and Ididn't talk to him a lot, but
when I needed to talk to the guyand get him up to speed, he's
sitting there typing to the guyand get him up to speed.
He's sitting there typing likean email to somebody else.
(15:40):
He's reading emails as he'stalking to me and I'm like yo
man.
You realize that, uh,multitasking makes you stupid.
First of all, newsflash it does.
It makes you stupid.
Multitasking is, it's not,smart.
We are not, um, we have notbeen built by Intel.
(16:01):
Okay, don't multitask, it makesyou stupid.
This guy it was.
It was so put it this way.
It was so disheartening it wasso put it this way it was so
disheartening that I actuallystopped.
I stopped going to the dude'soffice.
I was like I'm not even goingthere, man, what's the point?
He's going to be on his email.
(16:22):
He's going to be reading anemail while I'm trying to
explain something to him.
Do we do that with God?
I hope not.
I don't want to be that guy,but I have.
I brought my phone in a coupletimes to pray and next thing,
you know, blip, here comes atext from somebody and I end up
(16:46):
looking at the text while I'mright in the middle of a
conversation with God.
Don't do that to him.
We need to recognize who thisis.
We are in front of Somebody waymore important than the
President of the United States.
He's way more important thanthe most important person on the
planet.
So it says well.
(17:09):
Let me tell you the other reason?
The first reason is that it's adistraction.
The second reason now I'm goingto put on my tinfoil hat, the
conspiracy guy kicks in.
You guys know I love a goodconspiracy.
Now, hey, why is it that if Ihave my phone with me and just
(17:31):
randomly I say you know, I'dlike to visit Iceland I say that
to my wife just in passing andconversation why is it?
The next time I go on theInternet I'm getting
advertisements for trips toIceland, tours and cruises to
(17:51):
Iceland and discount travelagents.
I'm like wait, what the heck manwho's listening to me here?
Hey, it's not even like I askedAlexa or Siri anything.
I didn't ask them, but they'redefinitely listening.
So you know, hey, if you'repraying and really praying and
(18:17):
interceding for folks, you knowit's bad enough.
The enemy is listening.
Okay, bad enough.
The opposite team is listening.
I pray out.
See, the thing is, I pray outloud.
I pray out loud.
I speak things into this worldwhen I speak.
Not that words are magical inany kind of way, but I pray and
(18:41):
I go on record with the Lord andI would encourage you to pray,
speak out loud.
Yes, he knows your heart aswell.
You could sit there and praycompletely with your lips closed
, silent, and the Lord willunderstand your heart.
But, lord, that you would breakthe teeth of the enemy what
(19:15):
he's doing in any of their livesand make all of his schemes
completely fall apart right now.
In the name of Jesus, hey, amen, I'm on record right.
That's a prayer that's on theLord's desk right now, and it's
not only in the Lord's desks.
The enemy is scrambling rightnow.
(19:35):
You know why?
Because the plans of the enemywere just attacked.
That's offensive prayer.
We can pray on defense andthat's fine.
You know, basketball is thesame way, football, soccer.
You have offense and defense.
(19:55):
Unfortunately, many Christiansspend all their time on defense.
Oh Lord, please help me.
Oh Lord, I'm sick, thisperson's sick, we need your help
.
Okay, that's fine, I'm notknocking that.
That's important, don't neglectthat.
But what about the offense?
What about taking it to theenemy?
Praying over your neighbors,praying over your school,
(20:18):
praying over your co-workers,calling out their name to the
King of creation?
It's going on record,interceding for them If they're
not saved, that the Lord wouldengineer circumstances in their
life so that they would come toknow Him, that the Lord would
send people to Him.
(20:40):
If it's not you yourself.
You can be involved in it.
You can pray and ask the Lordto bring someone to share the
gospel.
Have them by accident somehowturn on Christian radio.
Have them turn on Christian.
Well, I was going to sayChristian TV, but a good
Christian TV program.
So much bad stuff on TV.
Now you're on offense, you'reon offense.
(21:07):
Defense Prayer is important.
You're on offense, prayer isimportant, and offense and
defense is important for theChristian.
In Thessalonians, paul says youknow, he says chapter 5, 16
through 18, he says rejoicealways.
These are like some of theshortest verses in the Bible
together Rejoice always,together Rejoice always.
(21:37):
Verse 17 is pray withoutceasing, meaning being tethered
to him in a continual state ofprayer, don't hang up the phone.
And verse 18 says give thanksthere it is again in all
circumstances.
For this is the will of God inChrist Jesus for you.
Look at that, check that outright there.
(21:57):
The will of God is that yourejoice always, you pray without
ceasing and give thanks in allcircumstances.
For this is the will of God inChrist Jesus for you.
Now I kind of extended it alittle bit.
Some people might just say well, it's just his will is that you
give thanks in allcircumstances.
I would submit.
He also wants you to praywithout ceasing, and his will is
(22:19):
that you would rejoice always.
Can I get an amen, amen.
So pray without ceasing, don'thang up the phone Now.
There are some stories in theScripture that I love and I
(22:40):
probably don't have time to gointo it right now, but we'll
just touch on them.
I love the story about the bookof Acts, in chapter 12, where
Peter he is.
Well, let me back up a littlebit.
Herod puts James, the brotherof John.
(23:04):
He puts him to death with thesword, and he found out that the
Jewish folks that were opposedto the Christians, they were
down with that.
They loved it.
They were like, wow, all right,herod, yay, they were grateful.
So he was like hey, and so hehad Peter arrested.
All this is going to be in thesecond play that we're doing,
(23:26):
which is about the second halfof Peter's life, basically the
book of Acts, and that's calledRepeat.
I hear the groans and moans.
Let me continue.
So, yeah, repeat that play.
I don't know when we're goingto launch that tour or the play,
(23:48):
but yeah, this is part of it.
And so they had him in jail.
Now let me just read from verse6.
This is chapter 12 of the bookof Acts.
It says now, when Herod wasabout to bring Peter out, on
that very night, peter wassleeping between two soldiers
bound with two chains, andcenturies before the door, herod
had him guarded by like four.
Let me just make sure, let melook at it Four, let's see Four
(24:16):
squads of soldiers to guard him.
Yep, in verse four it says it Iknew I was right Four squads of
soldiers were guarding Peter.
This is not like two guards man, this is four squads.
And it says back in verse sixcenturies before the door were
guarding the prison verse seven.
And behold, an centuries beforethe door regarding the prison
verse 7,.
And behold, an angel of theLord stood next to him and a
(24:37):
light shone in his cell.
He struck Peter on the side andwoke him, saying get up quickly
.
And the chains fell off hiswrists verse 8,.
And the angel said to him dressyourself, put on your sandals.
And he did so.
And he said to him wrap yourcloak around you and follow me
(25:00):
Verse 9,.
And he went out and followedhim.
He didn't know that what wasbeing done by the angel was real
, but thought he was seeing avision Verse 10.
When they passed the first andsecond guard, they came to the
iron gate leading into the city.
It opened for them of its ownaccord.
(25:24):
Are you following me on this?
Is this not some kind of crazymovie?
This is amazing.
It opened for them on its ownaccord and they went out and
went along the street andimmediately the angel left him.
Verse 11,.
When Peter came to himself, hesaid now I'm sure that the Lord
has sent his angel and rescuedme from the hand of Herod and
(25:46):
from all that the Jewish peoplewere expecting.
Like that's when he came to therealization that he didn't just
eat some funny food and he'shaving a weird dream Verse 12.
Then he realized.
Then he realized this and wentto the house of Mary, the mother
of John, whose other name wasMark, where many Whoop.
(26:09):
This is the key.
This is the key.
Verse 12 is key.
He went to the house of Mary,the mother of John, whose other
name was Mark, where many weregathered together and were what
they were praying Verse 13.
(26:34):
I'm going to come back to thatin a second verse 13.
When he knocked on the door ofthe gateway, a servant girl
named rhoda came to answer verse14.
Recognizing peter's voice.
In her joy, she didn't open thegate but ran and reported that
peter was standing at the gate.
Verse 15.
They said to her you're out ofyour mind.
But she kept insisting that itwas so and they kept saying it's
(26:59):
his angel Verse 16, but Petercontinued knocking and when they
opened they saw him and wereamazed.
Verse 17,.
But motioning to them with hishand to be quiet, be silent, he
described to them how the Lordhad brought him out of the
prison and he said tell thesethings to James and to the
brothers.
Then he departed and went toanother place.
(27:23):
Now let's go back to verse 12for a second.
Many were gathered part B, thesecond half.
Many were gathered together andwere praying While those things
were happening to Peter and hedidn't even realize what was
(27:45):
going on.
While it was happening, theywere praying and interceding.
Do not miss that man.
Don't miss that, oh, pastor.
(28:05):
Is prayer really that important?
Yes, it is that important,absolutely.
The prayers of the righteousare extremely valuable and the
Lord, for whatever reason,allows us to participate in His
work.
Could he do it without prayer?
(28:26):
Absolutely.
But the fact that he mentionsthem here and points it out that
they were in prayer while thesethings were happening, and some
of them, they couldn't evenbelieve it.
Let's pray with a belief thatGod's going to answer us in
(28:47):
Jesus name.
Oh, help me, holy ghost, I'mgoing to keep going.
I'm out of time.
The Lord bless you and keep youto make us.
Lord make his face shine uponyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Now y'all pray for us .
Come on now.
This program was made possibleby the Plays on Word family of
supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Thank you.
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