Brother Jacobs asked Jack and me to speak in Sacrament Meeting on February 22 - two days after our "farewell party." Who knew we wouldn't be leaving until the 15th of April? :o) Anyway, here it is, recorded for posterity...
A few months ago, two Sister Missionaries were teaching a
couple who seemed interested in the Gospel and were progressing very well, or
so the Sisters thought. One day they
announced that they were no longer interested in learning about the Church or being
baptized. They told the Sisters, “We
just don’t want to jump through your hoops.”
I have thought a lot about that statement. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, I don’t feel like I am compelled to jump through hoops. I assume that the couple was talking about
the commandments members are asked to keep before and after they are
baptized. I wondered how many
commandments are required for membership in this church. According to Preach My Gospel, there are
about a dozen commandments the Lord requires us to keep for membership in His
church. Some of them are specific and
some are very general and may be many faceted.
Here’s the list..
We are asked to be obedient,
to pray often,
to study the scriptures,
to keep the Sabbath Day holy,
to be baptized and confirmed.
to follow the prophet,
to keep the 10 Commandments,
to live the Law of Chastity,
to obey the Word of Wisdom,
to keep the Law of Tithing,
to observe the Law of the Fast,
to obey and honor the laws of the land.
Obedience is the first law of heaven. We are given commandments because our
Heavenly Father loves us. He knows what
we need and what we need to do to be happy.
He gives us commandments so we can choose to obey. If we obey, He will bless us. He has told us, “I, the Lord, am bound when
ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. (D&C 82:10)
I was intrigued by the Visiting Teaching message for the
month of January. Elder D. Todd
Christofferson said, “As we walk in obedience to the principles and
commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we enjoy a continual flow of
blessings promised by God in His covenant with us. Those blessings provide the resources we need
to act rather than simply be acted upon as we go through life…Obedience gives
us greater control over our lives…” If
we keep the commandments, the Lord is bound to bless us. It is amazing to me that He has given us the
power to control our lives.
Prayer doesn’t seem like a requirement to me. Prayer is a great privilege! Because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can
pray to Almighty God and He will hear and answer our prayers! As it says in the Primary theme, we can pray
to Heavenly Father, anytime and anywhere!
It is comforting to know that He is always there for us. He will comfort us, help us, strengthen us
and guide us. He will forgive us and
teach us. He is our Father. He loves it when we pray to him, and
hopefully we don’t only pray to Him when we are in need. We have so much to be grateful for. We should be thanking Him every day – many
times every day!
We’ve been asked to study the scriptures! How blessed we are to have the Word of God at
our fingertips! We’ve not only got the Bible, but we have a second witness of
Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon - also the Pearl of Great Price and the
Doctrine and Covenants. These scriptures are written records of God’s
dealings with His children as recorded by prophets under the influence of the
Holy Ghost. We are also blessed to have
the words of latter-day apostles and prophets who teach us over the pulpit
every 6 months during General Conference.
As we study the scriptures, the door is opened to personal revelation
that will guide us in our lives and strengthen our testimonies and knowledge of
our Savior, Jesus Christ. I loved Sister
Smith telling us that when she read the Book of Mormon in French, she saw
things that she had never seen before.
Every time we read the Book of Mormon, we learn something new that is
pertinent to our lives at that moment!
Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is a commandment that, when
kept, sets us apart from most of the world.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, “The matter of Sabbath observance
remains…as one of the great tests which divides the righteous from the worldly
and wicked.” Great blessings are promised when we keep the Sabbath Day
holy! In Leviticus we are told, “Ye
shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. If ye walk in my statutes and keep my
commandments and do them, then I will give you rain in due season and the land
shall yield her increase. And ye shall
eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give you peace in the land…For I
will have respect unto you and make you fruitful and establish my covenant with
you. And I will set my tabernacle (that
is my temple) among you and I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye
shall be my people.” On the Sabbath Day we enjoy a rest from our labors. We strengthen one another when we attend
church services. We partake of the
sacrament to remember the sacrifice and atonement of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. We renew our covenants and show
that we are willing to repent of our sins.
As we keep the Sabbath Day holy our lives will be filled with joy and
peace.
Most of us, if we are over the age of eight, have been
baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. By doing so, we entered into a
covenant with the Lord that we will always remember Him and keep His
commandments. We have also promised to
stand as witnesses of God at all times and promised to help bear one another’s
burdens. In return, God promises us that
we are forgiven of our sins and blesses us with the constant companionship of
the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful for the
Gift of the Holy Ghost. I testify that
He comforts us, He warns us of impending dangers, He testifies to us of the
truth, He teaches us and He guides and directs us in everything we do IF we
keep the commandments and are worthy of His influence.
We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints are asked to follow the prophet.
The Lord has told us, “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I
excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall
not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the
voice of my servants, it is the same.”
D&C 1:38 God has always sent prophets to reveal His truths to His
children. He raised up Joseph Smith to
restore His gospel to the earth in this final dispensation. President Thomas S. Monson guides and directs
the Church today. He is God’s
spokesperson. He will not lead us
astray! Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke
to a group of Seminary and Institute teachers this month at the Tabernacle in
SLC. He said, “We know for certain that
if or when everything else in the latter days is down or dying: if governments,
economics, industries and institutions crumble; if societies and cultures
become a quagmire of chaos and insecurity, nevertheless through it all the
gospel of Jesus Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that
bears the gospel to the world will stand undefiled in God’s hand until the very
Son of God Himself comes to rule and reign as Lord of lords and King of
kings. Nothing is more certain in this
world. Nothing is more sure. Nothing could be more of an antidote to
anxiety. I testify that we are safe in
following the Lord’s chosen prophet!
We are asked to keep the Ten Commandments so that we will
know what to do and what to avoid in order to receive the blessings God wants
to give us. If we keep the Ten
Commandments, He will give us joy, peace of conscience, and lasting
happiness. 1 – Thou shalt have no other
gods before me. 2 – Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image. 3 – Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain. 4 – Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it
holy. 5 – Honour thy father and thy
mother. 6 – Thou shalt not kill. 7 – Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8 – Thou shalt not steal. 9 – Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor. 10 – Thou shalt not
covet. These commandments are still
valid today. They teach us how to
worship, show reverence for God and how to treat one another.
Living the law of chastity requires faithfulness in thought
and action. We must keep our thoughts
clean and be modest in our dress, speech and actions. We must avoid pornography in any form. We should treat the God-given procreative
power and our bodies as sacred. Those who keep the law of chastity enjoy the
strength that comes from self-control.
They enjoy confidence and trust in their family relationships. They can enjoy more fully the influence of
the Holy Ghost in their lives.
Another requirement of membership in the Lord’s Church is
the Word of Wisdom. Living the Word of
Wisdom makes us free! While some may
consider this law of health as restrictive, those who live it realize the great
blessing of being free from addictive substances such as alcohol, drugs,
coffee, tea and tobacco. The Lord
promises blessings of health, strength, and protection against evil when we
live the Word of Wisdom. People who obey
this law are also more receptive to spiritual truths.
Tithing is an ancient, divine law. The prophet Abraham paid tithes of all he
possessed. It is our privilege, as
members of the Lord’s church, to contribute to the growth of the Kingdom of
God. I love paying tithing! I think it is one of the easiest commandments
to keep. When we pay our tithing, the
Lord promises to "...open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there
shall not be room enough to receive it!
(Malachi 3:10) At only one other
time in the scriptures did the Lord open the windows of heaven – and that was
during the great flood when Noah was prophet.
The blessings the Lord pours out may be temporal or spiritual, but they
will come, and come in great abundance to those who pay an honest tithing. We can feel confident that our tithing contribution is
wisely put to use. It builds and
maintains temples and meeting houses, provides resources for teaching in
churches, institutes and seminaries, pays the expenses of spreading the gospel
throughout the world. Elder Arrington pays
the bills for the mission here in SC and we have seen, first hand, how much it
costs to run a mission. A friend once said
to me, “I wish I had the luxury of paying tithing. I just can’t afford it.” Personally, I don’t understand how one could
afford NOT to pay tithing! It may take
some faith to get started, but I know from experience that God keeps His
promises!
Great blessings are available to those who obey God’s
commandment to fast. We have the
opportunity to observe this law on the first Sunday of each month when we go
without food and drink for two consecutive meals and contribute what we would
pay for those meals to our bishop or branch president. That money is then used for the care of the
poor and the needy. This contribution
really costs us nothing, although we are encouraged to be as generous as our
means allow. As we care for the poor, we
help fulfill our baptismal covenants to bear one another’s burdens.
The final requirement of church membership is that we obey
and honor the laws of the country in which we live. We are counseled to be good citizens, to
participate in government and the political process and to give community
service.
Keeping the commandments brings an overflowing measure of joy into our
lives. Heavenly Father loves us and
wants us to become like Him. He wants us
to return to live with Him someday, when our time on this earth is
finished. He wants us to be happy now,
and has given us these commandments to insure our happiness in this life and in
the world to come. In D&C 130:20-21 it says, “There is a law, irrevocably
decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings
are predicated – and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience
to that law upon which it is predicated.” I know that the Lord has given us commandments because He
loves us. If we keep His commandments,
he is bound to bless us. If we don’t
keep His commandments, we have no promise.
When people say they don’t want to jump through our hoops, I
wonder what they do want. I’m reminded
of Elder Holland’s conference talk of April 2014. He said, “It is a characteristic of our age
that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not
demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but
don’t even row it…”
Like earthly parents who love and care about their children,
Heavenly Father sets boundaries and rules for His children – for their
protection and for their happiness. If
we want His blessings in our lives, we will keep His commandments. In Mosiah 2:22, 24, King Benjamin tells us,
“And Behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he
has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in
the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye
do keep his commandments, he doth bless you and prosper you. He doth require that ye should do as he hath
commanded you, for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore
he hath paid you. And ye are still
indebted unto him, and are, and will be forever and ever.” It is our choice. We can, in many ways, control our destiny. The Lord has said, “If ye love me, keep my
commandments.” I pray that we might all choose
to do this, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
