Monday 12/9/13 Mary Gets The Word

Dear Father in Heaven:  I really appreciate You and all You do for us.  Thanks for the nice day and thanks for the great evening on Sunday evening.  Please, Lord, forgive me of my sins this day and help me with the message.  Thanks for watching over family and friends, and I pray You will keep watching over our families and friends and all those on the line.  Please be with Dan Stoner and heal him from cancer and watch over his family.  Please be with Tom Sansoni, and Lord, please put a special friend in his life for him.  Please be with Leslie and help her get settled in.  Watch over our ministry team, dear Lord, and help us get ready for our Christmas sing-along for Tuesday.  Help me get the car loaded in the morning.  Lord, I need You in all I do, and I just want to walk with You and talk with You.  I love You very, very much.  In the Name of Jesus, I pray today.  Now please help me with the message and then help me dispatch it.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.  Oh, and Lord, please be with our Presidents, past and present, as they fly to Africa for a funeral service.  Thank You, Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters.  It was a great day yesterday.  Last evening we went to a Gospel Sing where things were, well, done off the cuff, so to speak.  The Original Couriers were there, plus the Brotherhood were back together for a few numbers.  Larry Ford was also singing which put the WORLD'S TWO BEST TENOR SINGERS SIDE BY SIDE.  Now all of you know I think my dear Christian brother Duane Nicholson is the best of the best in Gospel music tenors, and Larry Ford maybe a close second.  Last night they sang together.  Bass/baritone singer, Pastor Timothy Beitzel, was singing with bass singer Dave Kyllonen, both former Couriers.  Then there was Neil Enloe and Doug Boyer and TK singing lead, and the night just went on and on.  There were no practices, they just went and sang for the Lord.  It was great.  It is time to get to the message and time to get working on the Christmas Story, the real Christmas Story.  Let's get started today with the day "Mary Gets The Word."

Monday, December, 9, 2013, "Mary Gets the Word!"

Luke 1:26 - In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you."  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, in these few short verses of scripture, we see three names mentioned, three very trusted people who are highly favored by our Lord.  Let's take a look at them and talk about them for a few minutes.  Let's look at them one at a time.

Gabriel:
An Angel of The Lord:  How would you like to be a trusted messenger of the Lord?  Well, The Angel Gabriel was and is such a messenger.  He was sent to Mary to bring that good news that she would become a mother.  Yes, I am saying that is GOOD NEWS.  But what about being a messenger for The Lord?  We are called on each and every day to be a Messenger for our Lord Jesus.  Yes, that is what you might call us who take THE WORD OF THE LORD into the fields of Harvest for Jesus.  And yes, our Lord wants all of us to be a messenger for Him.  So if you are not a messenger, then you are missing the call of the Lord on that one.  If you are one who sits by saying, I am "Born Again," but I just cannot talk to others, so I will let that up to someone else, well, what might have happened if old Gabe, the angel of the Lord, would have just listened to what God had told him to tell Mary but then never went to deliver that message?  Think about it, brothers and sisters.  What if Gabriel had not delivered that word to Mary?  Who would have picked up the ball?  John The Baptist was not born yet, he was in the womb, but not born, so John would not get the word out.  Maybe call Moses to get the job done?  The Lord said this job is important, Mary needs to get the message.  Well, brothers and sisters, if you are told to take the good news to the masses because the harvest is ripe and you decide not to go, maybe, just maybe, someone might not hear the word and be saved.  Please think about it, for we indeed are "MESSENGERS FOR OUR LORD."  We are the Gabriels of today!

Joseph:
The earthly father of our Lord Jesus. j Joseph had to be really trusted by God to do this very, very important job, and that is to raise Jesus in His tender years.  Joseph had to be trusted knowing that he would be helping Mary take care of Jesus.  He would be called upon to "change the pants" of Jesus when He was a baby.  He would be called upon to "pace the floor" if Jesus would cry during the night.  Think about it, folks, and think, you men, about your days when your child was a baby.  Think about it.  Also, Joseph had to go and work to raise money to keep his family in food and supplies.  Joseph was a carpenter and made his money that way.  And yes, Joseph, we will find out, got his chance to sign up and pay taxes.  We men should be able to relate to Joseph, for we all have jobs assigned to us by God to get done, and if we indeed have families then our job does not end when a child reaches a certain age.  Once a parent, always a parent!!  So, men, as we travel this story this year, and as I write it, please try and put your feet into those sandals of Joseph.

Mary:
Most often called The Blessed Virgin Mary, she had one of the most important jobs of any woman from the days of Eve, to today, the days of ladies like "First Lady Michelle Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."  Ladies who have led our country.  In our area we also have Senator Patricia Vance.  I want you to think about it, brothers and sisters.  We have had many powerful ladies in our lives today, and we also  had others like "Mother Teresa," but no one had that job of being the mother of Jesus, except "The Blessed Virgin Mary," and this job had to be done right.  Ladies, what if you had been called on for that job, would you have taken the job or turned it away?  Well, ladies, as we go through the Christmas story this year, I would like you to put your feet into the sandals of this young mother-to-be.  I want you also to think about this, each of you has an assignment from our Lord that you should be doing.  You need to pray about it,  talk to God about it, and know that even though you will not be the mother of Jesus, you do have jobs to do for Him.

Tomorrow we are going to take a look at what Mary said to Gabriel  as she got the word about being selected by God The Father to carry Jesus in her womb to full term.  Praise God Mary was "PRO-LIFE."  For all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, what is your assignment for God, and are you taking care of that?  Are you ready to change if God changes what He wants you to do?  Will you make the change or complain about it?  You might want to be the preacher at your church, but for now, God wants you to clean the floors and restrooms, will you do the job Jesus wants you to do?  Will you accept the assignment from God like Mary did, and Joseph did?  Will you?  Or maybe my question should be, are you doing the job?

Dear Father in Heaven, today we started the Christmas Story, please, Lord, help me "bring it to life."  Help me bring it out so all can understand it.  I trust that this is what You want me to do.  So please, Lord, help me with it and then each day dispatch it for me.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings and doing the work that God wants you to do.  Love ya.  Please pass on that love.  Pastor Dan.

P.S.  Whenever I mention our President or his wife, I send a copy of the message to him.  Pray, warriors, that it gets to his attention either by it being placed before him to read or placed in his heart by God!