The two posts below are my 1st sermon, divided into two parts, and converted by a family member into an article for reading.
Here is Sermon 1 - Part 1
"The work of preparation and the perfection of my Saints go forward slowly, and Zionic conditions are no further away nor any closer than the spiritual condition of my people justifies…" [Doctrine and Covenants 140:5c]
I need to speak to you about Zion and our walk. Where would we be, I wonder, if there was a barometer that gauged our progress or footsteps toward Zion? Would we be on a clear path, lost in the woods, or somewhere in between?
Wouldn't it be great to have a compass that points the way to Zion? Actually, we do have a compass. While praying, I was shown that our compass is two-fold. Our compass is composed of the Word of God (past revelation) and the Holy Ghost (present revelation). Both are required to see clearly.
- If we went by the written word alone, without the Holy Spirit guiding us, we would end up legalistic, our religion would be a dead form, and instead of following the Word of God, we would actually end up following our own interpretation of His word.
- If we only choose to follow the Spirit, treating lightly the written word of God, we may find ourselves listening to other spirits, including the spirit of man, thinking it is the Holy Spirit leading us. This leads to deception.
While walking on this path there is, and has been, a tendency at times to over-complicate the Word of God. I believe the way forward is much less complicated than many of us make it out to be. Yet it seems that people often stumble over the simple things the most.
An example of this is found in 1 Nephi 5:134-135: "He (God) sent fiery-flying serpents among them (the Israelites); and after they were bitten, he prepared a way that they might be healed; And the labor which they had to perform was to look! and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished." [1 Nephi 5:134-135]
God prepared a way for the Israelites to be healed, but because some thought it couldn't be that easy, they didn't look. God has prepared a way for us to be healed too.
In Jacob 3:23, it says that the Jews became blind, and that blindness was the result of looking beyond the mark. What is the "mark" this scripture is talking about? It is Jesus. The Jews over-complicated things, and in the process, they ended up with a dead form of religion. Do we sometimes stumble because of the simpleness of the way? Do we make it more complicated than it really is? Are we sometimes guilty of looking beyond the mark?
A dead religion isn't really so very different from a good one. A good religion or a good church can become a dead form when their religious traditions take the place of a real relationship with God. A dead religion can have ALL of the components of the real thing, except for the Spirit of God and the revelation that flows from a living relationship with God. Even the proper priesthood offices, the proper ordinances, rules, laws, and ways of doing things can all become dead when God is left out of them. In this condition, people will appear to keep the law (being quite legalistic), but violate the heart of it. A relationship with God is paramount! That's what God keeps bringing back to my mind in regards to Zion.
From the Scriptures, we know certain facts about Zion. We know the place where Zion is to be. We know some things about what Zion will be like one day, because of what we know about Enoch. But not many people seem to have a very clear idea of how we get from where we are to where we need to be. This is partly because God isn't going to reveal all things before they are needed. Rather, He will reveal them step by step, directing us as needed.
In Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 50:8d it says, "Behold, ye are little children, and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth."
That's part of the reason why we don't have full understanding of how we're going to get there. There are some things we can't know yet. But there are some things He has given to us, and that is what is important to us now.
As a people, are we moving in a straight line to the goal, or are we weaving back and forth, maybe even going in circles sometimes? Or are we simply stopped and standing on the bank of the Jordan River wondering how to cross? Maybe some of us have a few giants on our mind-things we're not sure how to overcome. Depending on our answer to that question, we may simply need to go back and complete the steps that God has previously required of us, so we can receive further instruction and move forward. God gives to us "line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little." [D&C 110:21d] Therefore, He will not give us step three in the process when we have not yet taken step two.
I have found in my own personal experience that when I find myself going in circles and not getting an answer from the Lord as to how to proceed, it is because the answer to my question is written in the Scriptures. God expects me to return to His word and bend my will to that which He has already shown me to do, before I can move on to the next step. I think it is probably the same with the church. The good news is that what is required of us isn't very complicated. We don't have to be a scholar, hold a doctorate, or be a genius to understand it.
Each time I opened my Scriptures to prepare for this sermon, the Holy Spirit kept bringing me back, again and again, to the gospel of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament and in Christ's ministry to the Nephites, beginning in 3 Nephi. The Holy Spirit kept bringing me back to the simplicity, the un-complicated nature of His gospel. He was drumming into my mind how it is the very heart and basis for all that we do. The message is:
Do this and be blessed;
Come unto Christ with full purpose of heart;
Endure to the end
Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." "[John 15:5]
We need to stay connected or we can do nothing. I cannot overstate the importance of this enough: We must choose to stay connected every day. Staying connected does not happen automatically. In fact, it is the very nature (fallen nature) of man to disconnect-if we aren't consciously and purposely setting our will to maintain our relationship with the Lord at all times.
There are forces at work, all around us, designed to get us to disconnect. If we aren't really careful about our relationship with God, we can even disconnect from Him without being conscious of it. Sometimes, it can go on for day. When this happens, we can continue to live what seems to be good, descent lives (show up to church on Sundays and go through the motions), but somewhere, somehow, we will begin to feel the effects of that disconnect. We no longer feel on fire for the things of God. We find that we haven't been in our Scriptures like we should be. We end up getting really busy doing all kinds of things that are not related to the Kingdom. We begin to realize that when it comes to God and/or our religious beliefs, we are just going through the motions. Also, we aren't producing the fruit required of us, nor are we experiencing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. Have you ever gone through a time when you felt like this? Are you going through it now?
Jesus is life. We must be connected to Him. If we aren't, we should make it priority #1 because it's time to reclaim that which the adversary seeks to steal. God loves you so very much that He is willing to pull out all the stops to get you firmly in His hand-and there's nothing that can wrest you out of His hand, except one thing: your decision, your choice. If you choose God, there's nothing the adversary can do to take you out of God's hand. Choose Him.
