talkcommitment1 ( ** )

Are we fully invested in the service of the Lord?

I have been asked to speak on commitment to the gospel this afternoon.  Consider the following situation.  The Judgment Day has arrived and you are standing before the Lord.  He asks you if you loved Him and served Him and your fellow men while on earth.  You reply, “Almost always”, feeling a little uneasy as you remember the times you were lazy and complacent in living the gospel.  He asks if you paid a full tithing.  “Almost”, you reply, remembering the seeming important purchases you had to make using money that should have been paid in tithing.  He asks if you lived the Word of Wisdom and other commandments.  “Almost” is your reply once again.  The Lord’s smile fades.  Anxiously you ask the Lord if you qualified for the Celestial Kingdom.  “Almost”, is his painful reply.

Commitment to the Lord’s gospel cannot include the word ‘almost’.  Joshua told his people to “…choose you this day whom ye will serve..”.  We need to make that same choice.  When we were baptized and ordained to the priesthood, we made a covenant to serve the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.  There is no place for laziness, complacency, or half-hearted effort in our service.

Being fully and wholly committed to the gospel required Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his son, it required Esther to risk her life for her people, it required Daniel to be cast into a den of lions, it required Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be cast into a furnace, it cost Peter a martyr’s death, it cost Joseph Smith his life, and it required our Savior to have spikes driven through his hands and wrists and to hang on a cross for our sake.  How does our commitment compare to these wonderful examples of those who gave all to follow the Lord?

Our commitment should be shown by daily scripture study, twice-daily prayer, once-a-month fasting, the payment of a full tithe, being temple-worthy and having a current temple recommend, 100% attendance at all of our meetings, honoring our priesthood by serving others, and standing as a witness of the Savior in all times, in all places, and in all things.

One of our early apostles, Elder Reed Smoot, was offered the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  He was told, however, that the party would only support him if he renounced his religion because the party leaders did not feel that a Mormon could ever be elected to the Presidency.  Elder Smoot refused such a thing, saying, “If I had to choose between being a Deacon in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or being President of the United States, I would choose to be a Deacon!”  Is our commitment to our priesthood and the gospel that strong?

My prayer is that we will each rise up and be men of God, fully and totally committed to the wonderful principles of our priesthood, our religion, and our standards as Latter-day Saints.  I bear my testimony that we are members of the true church of Jesus Christ, that we bear His true priesthood, that we are led by a devoted prophet of the Lord, and that our lives will be blessed by our commitment to the Lord,

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen