#16 “Thou Shalt…offer up Thy Sacraments Upon My Holy Day”

D&C 59; BD p764-765 “Sabbath”

This revelation came after Joseph Smith heard of the true dedication of one of the Lord’s valiant servants, Polly Knight, she was the mother of Newel Knight and was determined to go to the Land of Zion with the other members. Her health had been failing for some time, according to a statement made by her son, Newel. She was very ill during her journey from Kirtland to Missouri. ‘Yet,’ says her son, ‘she would not consent to stop traveling; her only, or her greatest desire was to set her feet upon the land of Zion, and to have her body interred in that land. I went on shore and bought lumber to make a coffin in case she should die before we arrived at our place of destination-so fast did she fail. But the Lord gave her the desire of her heart, and she lived to stand upon that land.
Joseph recorded: “On the 7th I attended the funeral of sister Polly Knight, the wife of Joseph Knight Sen. This was the first death in the church in this land, and I can say a worthy member sleeps in Jesus till the resurrection. “I also received the following revelation; known as D&C 59 (History of the Church 1:199)

The first 2 versus refer to the dedication of Polly when it says she had come up to the land with “an eye single to God”. How many of us can say that even when we feel on our very death bed such as this woman did that we are as valiant in our worship as she was.
The remainder of the section the Lord tells Joseph what we as members can do to stay valiant and “unspotted from the world” in 59:9.
When we follow the footnote to unspotted it says abstinent from the world of self-mastery-meaning how can we master or take control of the natural man? The answer is also found in v. 9 go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my Holy Day.
‘Sacraments’ means assembly for worship (62:4 & 4b) This means attend church meetings and worship.
Why for what purpose? How can just attending sacrament meeting keep us mastering the natural man and keep us unspotted from the world?
Well let’s talk about purpose for just a second-what is the purpose of sacrament meeting? It is found in the BD under “Sabbath” 1- eternal principle 2-need for spiritual sustenance 3-our duty before God and 4-to serve as a witness to the world that revealed religion does exist and it is wonderful, it builds us and strengthens us.
The final reason 59:10 to rest from our labors and pay devotions unto the most High.
We know the obvious, that resting from labors doesn’t mean kicking back to enjoy the show, nor does paying devotion mean showing up inside the building just to say you were there. On the contrary Sunday should be our busiest day, the most important work we do is performed on this day, because we do it as worship for the Lord.

We are going to focus on the Sabbath being a spiritual sustenance to us and that we are to pay our devotions to the Lord.

President Hinckley tells us what this means to us “every sacrament meeting ought to be a spiritual feast” and “a time of spiritual refreshment” (teaching of Pres. Hinckley 1997)
How many of us leave church wondering why we came, what were we supposed to get out of church, perhaps more often than not you don’t feel uplifted or refreshed and you are wondering where you went wrong.
Pres. Spencer W. Kimball might give us a hint with this quote, he tells us what sacrament shouldn’t be, but we so desperately want it to be “We do not go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual responsibility, and regardless of what is said from the pulpit, if one wishes to worship the Lord in spirit and truth, he may do so by attending his meeting, partaking of the sacrament, and contemplating the beauties of the gospel. If the service is a failure to you, you have failed. No one can worship for you” (The Sabbath-a delight Ensign, Jan 1978, 4-5)

So how do we change that? We are going to learn some small simple ways to change our attitudes and our experiences at church from being negative and life draining to that spiritual feast and refreshment Pres. Hinckley talks about.

To do this we are going to go through our program and discuss some things we can do to change the experience.

1- 59:14 Our meeting should be full of Rejoicing! The best way to start this off is with an opening Hymn. Let me tell you about something that happened at Women’s Conference. We were there for the morning session and they had Sister Merilee Webb, who writes and composes music for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on occasion, speak and demonstrate how music can uplift our souls to great rejoicing. She asked us to sing a song and she helped us to see how our one voice can make a difference in our whole experience of singing hymns. Even Rachael, who hates to sing in public exclaimed with tears in her eyes, “I can’t believe it, she actually makes me want to sing!”
So that you can get the effect of what she did for me I would like to attempt at reenacting what she did for us. Hymn 2 Now Let us Rejoice.
Our opening hymn should be fun! It should get us excited to be there, it should get us to the point that “wow! Something exciting is about to take place. I am here to be uplifted and refreshed! I am ready, bring it on!” So let’s sing this with excitement! Remember, you are singing this to the Lord not to your neighbor.

2- 59:14 Rejoicing 1st then prayer. Now that we are pumped up we then have prayer. How do we pray? 59:15 with thankfulness, cheerful hearts, and countenances, glad heart, the first thing that will show not only our Father in Heaven but us that we truly are grateful and cheerful is let’s SMILE! I like that sayin, “if you truly are happy could you tell your face!” When we are ready to pray whether you are the one saying it or the one listening let’s just smile!
I liked one of the questions in the lesson concerning this, “how can we participate meaningfully in congregational prayers in Sunday meetings?” Besides smiling what can we do to make this prayer awesome. Some ideas I came up with is while the person is praying and something comes to our minds that we could pray-pray it in you mind add that to the prayer. If you need personal blessings add them into the prayer, if you notice someone is missing, pray for them by name in your mind, if you see who is on the program and you have a tough time listening to them, pray that your heart will be closed to judgment, but open to the spirit. I know this goes without saying but keep your head bowed and your eyes closed, not one eye open peeking at your children and your neighbors picture what is being said, or picture our Father in Heaven standing there listening to us. And lastly say audibly “AMEN” we already know that saying amen means that you agree with the prayer that was just said on your behalf and the spirit with which it is given. Say it like you mean it! I did Love that prayer, it was awesome! It uplifted my heart! Etc.

3- 59:23 sustaining- Listen for the names and where they are going serve. Think in your mind all the positive qualities that person will bring to that calling-that makes it easier to raise your hand to support them and then you will be more likely to participate if it pertains to you. This brings us together as a ward. They are after all seeking to be righteous as they accept and do a calling.
4- Sacrament Hymn-Now let’s open to hymn_______________________. Would we sing this hymn with the same vigor and rejoicing as the opening Hymn? No-this hymn is meant to put us in a mood of Reverence, Respect and appreciation as well as love for the Savior and what He’s done for us. Let’s just read the words together and feel what the composer wants us to feel from this hymn. Should we still sing out though? Yes- fervently and with deep feeling, but with more of a feeling of reverence and Love.
5- This brings us to the Sacrament, the whole reason we are there. I gave a lesson on these emblems just a bit ago about how we give up or sacrifice something as we partake of the bread and then ask for a certain gift or power to be given to us through Christ’s atoning blood to help us give up what we are trying to do. Along with this though, what can we do to keep the Savior on our minds-put a bookmark in scriptures, read more sacrament hymns, pray, etc. There are many ways to be edified.
6- Next the speakers. We just had wonderful speakers. You can tell they prepared and asked for the spirit to help them, because the spirit was there in abundance. But let’s say that there comes a time when you have a hard time following the speaker-what can you do to make that time a spiritual feast? Count all the times the speaker mentions Christ or His name. Have a contest on the row to see if you all come up with the same #. Bruce R. McConkie had a method-whenever he was having a hard time with a speaker he would take the same topic and give a sermon to himself in his mind complete with scriptures, quotes and his personal experiences. This is ambitious perhaps but think if you took a notebook and wrote stuff down- you’d have your own talk written on the topic just in case and you’d definitely take home a stronger testimony on the topic.
7- Closing Hymn- This is the hymn we should again rejoice-for the spirit and learning we just enjoyed we should sing it like the 1st hymn, happy, with volume, we are grateful to our savior for yet another chance to repent!
8- Then closing prayer- again with a smile, we should be happy with the spiritual enlightenment! Gratitude then we are ready to go to our classes and do what 59:12 offer our oblations. In the footnote 12b it says that oblations are when we offer our time, talents, or means in service of God and fellowman, whether you’re the teacher or the class member we should all be willing to uplift, encourage, and teach each other. Bruce R. McConkie defined it this way “an oblation in the highest sense is “giving full devotion to the Lord, of offering him a broken heart and a contrite spirit. In a lesser and more temporal sense, an oblation is the offering of sacrifices, or of fast offering, or of any charitable contribution to the church.” (through time, talents, comments etc)
9- Now it comes time to go home, is worship time done? Wrong-President Kimball said (p90-91) “The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things. Abstinence from work and recreation is important, but insufficient. The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts, and if one merely lounges about doing nothing on the Sabbath, he is breaking it. To observe it, one will be on his knees in prayer, preparing lessons, studying the gospel, meditating, visiting the ill and distressed, writing letters to missionaries, taking a nap, reading wholesome material and attending all the meetings of that day at which he is expected” (Ensign Jan. 1978, p4)

So the way we determine what is appropriate to do on Sunday? Everyone’s idea is different, but there is one question we can ask ourselves; Do my or are my activites honoring God and are they spiritually uplifting, nuture faith, strengthen my family, help or bless others? In other words are they something Jesus would be doing?

We do need to change our Sabbath day. It does need to be different from every other day, we need to stand up and show the world we are different- we aren’t afraid to rejoice and Love the Lord and show the world that this religion is a great thing to be involved in! It can uplift and refresh us for a new week if we go about it the right way! I know as I have changed my activities I have been blessed, uplifted and strengthened to make it through another week. We all love the Lord let’s show him by changing our attitudes and the way we worship. Start by changing small things- try it you might like it! In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.