Sacrament Talk for
June 9, 2002
Endure to the End
Good afternoon brothers and sisters.
It is always a great privilege to talk to you.
I was excited when I was asked to speak this Sunday.
Since we have already listened to two fabulous youth talks, you
know the theme of the day. So, I’ll
just get started.
The first thing we need to understand is that we are children of God.
He is our Father, and he loves us!
Because we are all children of God we are truly brothers and sisters
and need to love and care for one another.
The second thing we need to understand is that Jesus Christ is the first
born, and only begotten son of our Heavenly Father.
Jesus is our older brother.
He loves us. He loves us so much that
He was willing to fulfill the Father’s plan for our salvation.
Salvation is a big word. It comes
from the word save. Heavenly Father
wants to save us. He wants us to grow
up to be like Him. In order for us
to do this we have to be able to make choices.
When there is choice, there is the possibility, no probability,
that sooner or later we will make a wrong choice.
Heavenly Father is perfect. He cannot
make wrong choices, and anyone who sins, or makes a bad choice, cannot be
with Him. So, since our Father loves
us, He had to find a way for us to learn and grow-up and still be able to
return home and live with Him. In
the words of the song I Lived in Heaven
it says “Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan – all about earth
and eternal salvation for man.”
Here is the plan:
Heavenly Father had His Son Jesus Christ create this world where we live.
He created the day and the night, the earth and the sky, the land
and the water, and the plants and animals.
Then He created Adam and Eve – the first people.
All the plants and animals and Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful
and multiply, so they did, and soon there were many plants and animals and
people in the world.
We come here as little babies, and we don’t remember anything about our Heavenly
Father or our Heavenly home. While
we are here on the earth we need to learn to choose the right and do our
best to return to Heavenly Father.
We cannot do it by ourselves. Adam
and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden and actually spoke to Heavenly Father,
but they made a bad choice. They did
not obey Heavenly Father’s commandment not to eat the fruit from the tree
of knowledge of good and evil.
So they were banished from the garden and could not see Heavenly
Father any more. They could only talk
to him in prayer, like we do.
We cannot do it by ourselves. Heavenly
Father knew this. He still loves us,
even when we make wrong choices, so he asked his Son Jesus Christ to come
to earth to be our Savior. Jesus knew
it would be hard, but He loves us too, so he came.
He came to earth as a little baby just like we do.
But Jesus was different. He didn’t have an earthly father like we do, He
was the son of Heavenly Father and the Virgin Mary.
Jesus learned to make choices as he grew-up, but he always chose
the right. He never did anything wrong.
He didn’t fight with his brothers and sisters,
he was always ready to help his mother, Mary, and her husband Joseph.
Jesus lived a perfect life.
When he was grown, he went to his cousin, John the Baptist, and was baptized.
(Read Scripture)
Jesus showed us all the things we need to do to return to live with
Heavenly Father.
We learn in the 4th article of faith that “The first principles
and ordinances of the Gospel are: First: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Second: repentance, Third: baptism by immersion for the remission of sins,
and Fourth: The laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
That is the plan. First we must believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly believe
that He did come here to earth as a little baby, born to an earthly mother
and having God as his father. That
he did live a perfect life and set the standard for us.
That He died on the cross and suffered in the
Garden
of
Gethsemene
for the sins of the world. That He
was resurrected. He lives. He is alive
again. He lives in Heaven with our
Heavenly Father.
Second we must repent, be truly sorry, for the bad choices we have made.
When we do something that hurts any one of God’s children, or His
creations, that is a bad choice.
To truly repent we must
1)
Know we have made a bad choice
2)
Feel sorry about the choice we made
3)
Confess your mistake to the Bishop, and person you hurt.
4)
Do your best to make the mistake better.
As far as possible make right the wrong you did.
5)
Resolve, that means promise –and mean it—that
you will never make that mistake again.
Third we must be baptized. When we
are baptized we take upon ourselves the name of Christ.
We promise to always remember him and keep his commandments.
When we are baptized all our sins are washed away.
Heavenly Father erases all the mistakes we have ever made, and we
get to start over—all perfect.
Fourth we must receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
I could talk forever about the Holy Ghost, but I’ll keep it short.
The Holy Ghost is a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father.
It is God’s Spirit that he sends to be with us always.
It will teach us, warn us, and help us make right choices.
If you are thinking about doing something you know you shouldn’t,
that funny apprehensive feeling you get somewhere in your middle is the Holy
Ghost saying watch out! Be careful!
Even when we are baptized, and all our sins are washed away we are not going
to become perfect all at once. We
are still going to make mistakes because we forget to listen to the Holy
Ghost. Well, that is why we have the
sacrament, and it is why it is so important for us to take the Sacrament
every week. When we take the Sacrament
we can think about our Savior; we can think about the mistakes we have made;
we can ask Heavenly Father to forgive us, and resolve(
there’s that word again) resolve to make things better and never make those
mistakes again. When we take the Sacrament
with these thoughts in mind, it has the same effect as being baptized all
over again. Our sins are washed away.
Our mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, and we can start over again
--all perfect.
Finally, I come to the topic of the day:
endure to the end.
We read scriptures such as “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved.” But, it isn’t that easy.
We know that believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is only the first step.
It is a very important step.
Without belief in the Savior, salvation is not possible.
However, we must still do our part.
As I said before: When we
are baptized we take upon ourselves the name of Christ.
We promise to always remember him and keep his commandments.
Keeping the commandments is an every day task.
Most of us are probably perfect at some of them.
Most of us are still working on others.
Are we always respectful to our parents?
Are we always honest? Do
we always keep the Sabbath day holy?
None of us is perfect. We are all
still trying. I do
know, that the longer we practice, the better we will get at doing
the will of our Father in Heaven.
One Fast Sunday several months ago Brother Wright bore his testimony.
Brother Wright has been in the
Long Beach
4th ward for a very long time, but it is very hard for him and
his wife to get around now, so we don’t see them often.
I was very impressed with his testimony because I could tell that
this man, after a lifetime of practice, was very close to perfection.
He shared a story about working in his garden one day.
He misplaced his pruning shears.
He looked all over the yard, and finally sat down on a lawn chair
and said, “Heavenly Father, what did I do with my pruning shears?”
Then he knew they had slipped down beside the cushion on his lawn
chair. He reached down and pulled
out the pruning shears.
I know that we can each build a relationship like this with our Heavenly Father.
It will take an effort. Nothing
worthwhile is ever obtained too easily, but a personal, loving relationship
with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is what we must strive for if we
really want to return to live with them in Heaven.
Each day we must take the time to pray.
At every decision we must pause to listen for the Holy Ghost.
Each day we must study the scriptures so we can learn the will of
the Lord.
We can do it. We can endure to the
end and return to be with our Heavenly Father forever.
We cannot do it alone, but our Heavenly Father, who loves us, has
given us all the things we need to succeed.
He sent the Savior, Jesus Christ, to redeem us, and show us how
to live. The Church has been restored
to the Earth. We have a prophet to
guide us, and righteous men who hold His Holy Priesthood to exercise His
power here on Earth. We have a loving
Bishop to guide our ward; we have the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion;
the blessings of the temple are again upon the earth, and of course, at any
time, at any hour, in any place, we can always call upon our Father in prayer,
and know that he will answer us. I
know that he will answer us. He loves
us. We are His children.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen