Sam's Sacrament Meeting Talk 1-25-15

Embark

I would like to begin by bearing my testimony. I know that I am a Child of God. I know that my Father in Heaven loves me. I know it because I feel His love when I see the sunset. I feel His love when I listen to the Hymns and Primary songs. I feel His love when I look at the family that He has blessed me with. I feel His love when I listen to our Prophet. I feel His love when I walk on the temple grounds with my children. I feel His love when I am among the members of this Branch Family.

I know that the gospel brings true, fulfilling, pure happiness to our lives. I know this because in my own life I have been the happiest when I am keeping the commandments and when the spirit is present in my life. I know that the commandments bring us freedom and happiness. Sin brings bondage and heartache.

I testify that serving others is one of the greatest ways to bring happiness to our lives and also bring us closer to God. It is through serving others that we find meaning, purpose and direction. I know this from personal experience.

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Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 states, “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” This is the theme for the Young Men and Young Women this year.

The work embark is a verb. It’s an action word. It means to start a venture. It’s the beginning of a journey. When you are embarking in the service of our God, you’re joining the greatest journey ever! You’re helping God hasten His work. And it’s a joyful and enriching experience. Serving and building the kingdom of God is truly a marvelous work. And it’s a sacred privilege to serve our Father in Heaven.

So how do we embark in the service of our God? And when is it the right time to do so? Now is the time to serve God “with all your heart, might, mind and strength.” To serve with all your heart means that your service is motivated by your love for God and His children. Ezra Taft Benson said, “Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.” By keeping the commandments we show our love for the Lord. We also demonstrate our love of the Lord by serving in our homes and by strengthening our families, by reaching out to those in need, and by serving the best that we can in our callings and church responsibilities. We also show our love to the Lord by taking family names to the temple.

We are asked to serve will all our might. Diligent effort and physical labor are required. Missionary work requires stamina and endurance. By attending to the needs of others, you are serving with your might. In Mosiah 4:26, we are instructed to help others in many ways, “such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally.”

We are also to serve with all our mind. Your thoughts must be pure and clean and centered on the Savior. When we are baptized and when we take the Sacrament each week, we covenant to always remember Him. Through scripture study and prayer, you seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost. As you align your thoughts, words and actions with the mind and will of God, you become aware of the needs of others and are worthy and ready to serve.

Finally, we serve God with all our strength. One way we can receive strength is by exercising faith in the Savior’s Atonement. You repent and sanctify yourself through obedience to His commandments. You feel the Savior’s enabling power and witness miracles as you serve in the strength of the Lord.

As you serve God with your whole soul, He promises that you will be cleansed from sin and prepared to stand before Him and receive His eternal glory.

Service is an essential part of our growth here on earth and our eternal progression.

In the October 2009 General Conference, President Monson counseled: “Fill your minds with truth. Fill your hearts with love. Fill your lives with service.” We must reach outward. As we look heavenward, we inevitably learn of our responsibility to reach outward. President Monson counseled that to find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves. No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man.

“Love thy neighbor” is more than a divine truth. It is a pattern for perfection. This truth inspires the familiar charge, “Go forth and serve.” We cannot escape the influence our lives have upon the lives of others. Matthew 25:40 reads, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” There is no road to the heart of God that does not lead through the heart of man.

In this month’s issue of The Friend, President Uchtdorf shares of story of a city in World War Two when a large statue of the Savior was severely damaged during a bombing. The townspeople mourned because the statue had been a symbol of their faith and of God’s presences in their lives. Experts were able to repair most of the statue, but the hands had been broken so badly that they could not be fixed. So at the base of the statue, the people added a sign that said, “You are my hands.”

There is a profound lesson in this story. When we picture the Savior, He is frequently standing with outstretched hands. He is reaching out to comfort, heal, bless and love. He always talked with people and never down to them. He loved the meek and humble and walked among them, ministering to them and offering hope.

That is what He did during his mortal life and that is what He would still be doing if He was here today. And that is what we should be doing as His disciples. We are the Savior’s hands. We are His hands as we emulate His perfect example. Our eyes become His eyes. Our hearts can become His heart.

At the beginning of the year, we had a Family Home Evening lesson where we discussed the idea of being the Savior’s hands. Now every week at Family Home Evening, we all share what we have done that week to be the Savior’s hands. We trace our hands on a piece of paper and write down our services on them and put them up on our living room wall to display. We are getting quite the collection of hands. It’s a wonderful reminder that we are embarking on a great journey. We are privileged to be numbered among the Saints in the service of God.

As disciples of God, love should be the motivating force behind our service. David O. McKay said, “True Christianity is love in action.” As a mother, it’s my job to teach my children; to teach my children about life and the gospel. I’m regularly teaching and re-teaching my girls to show compassion and kindness, especially to each other. George W. Young said, “The greatness of a man can nearly always be measured by his willingness to be kind.”

It is true that when we lose ourselves in the service of others that we find ourselves. The Savior taught his disciples, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” The Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish- and in effect save their lives.

“When you help someone up a hill, you are a little nearer the top yourself.” Service in the gospel brings happiness. L. Tom Perry said, “The greatest satisfaction in life comes from what we do for others.” I’m a stay-at-home mom; all I do all day is serve my children. I feed them, dress them, play with them, chauffer them, clean up after them, and comfort them. It is in continually serving them that I grow to love them more and more. The same is true in all relationship. We love those at we serve.

President Monson reminded us in the October 2009 General Conference that “the needs of others are ever present, and each of us can do something to help.” We are all capable of uplifting and loving another.

In the April 1990 General Conference; Derek A. Cuthbert counsel on the spiritually of service. Service changes people. It refines, purifies, gives a finer perspective, and brings out the best in each one of us. Righteous service is the expression of true charity, such as the Savior showed. Service will increase our own spirituality. Brother Cuthbert suggests 10 ways that service will increase our spirituality.

1.      Service helps us establish true values and priorities by distinguishing between the worth of material things that pass, and those things of lasting, even eternal, value.

2.      Service helps us establish a righteous tradition. This is so necessary, especially among young people.

3.      Service helps us overcome selfishness and sin. Have you ever realized that all sin is selfish? Sin is for one’s own end, not another’s. Service, on the other hand, is unselfish.

4.      Not only does service overcome selfishness and sin, but it helps to recompense for sin.

5.      Service helps us generate love and appreciation.

6.      Service is the principal way of showing gratitude to the Savior.

7.      Service channels our desires and energies into righteous activity.

8.      Service helps us cleanse ourselves and become purified and sanctified.

9.      Charitable service helps us do as the Savior did.

10.   Service helps us to grow to get to know the Savior. Mosiah 5:13 states for “how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served?” As we immerse ourselves in the service of others, we find our spiritual selves and come unto Him.

In all these ways, righteous service brings us nearer to Christ. Doctrine and Covenants 58:26 and 27 states, “ Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.” The wonderful thing about service is there is no end to it.

            Ezra Taft Benson said, “Therefore, let us serve one another with brotherly love, never tiring of the demands upon us, being patient and preserving and generous.” I have seen members of our branch serve willingly and happily time and time again. How grateful I am for your examples, love and service on my behalf.

It is my prayer that each of us can follow the Savior’s selfless example of love and service as we embark on this journey we call life. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.