Talk

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting last week. Here it is for those of you who want to read it.

Talk on Preparing for the Sacrament

Good Afternoon brothers and sisters. Today I was asked to speak on preparing for the sacrament. As I was preparing I found a great talk given by Dallin H. Oaks in the October 2008 General Conference entitled, "Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament." The majority of my talk is based on his words.

The sacrament is the most important part of the sabbath day. It is the reason that all of us are here today. The reason we come to church. The reason every member of the ward present meets in one meeting. We come every Sunday to partake of this wonderful ordinance.

Partaking of the Sacrament is a commandment from God. In 3 Nephi 18:11-12 it reads, "11. And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. 12. And I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock.”

We are given a commandment to partake of the sacrament. As we take the sacrament we renew a covenant with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we will always remember Him. That we will take His name upon us and walk in Christ's footsteps everyday of the week. In order to renew this covenant, we must prepare ourselves throughout the week.

The first way that we can prepare for the sacrament is our appearance. When we arrive at church we should be dressed modestly and appropriately for the occasion. Dallin H. Oaks states, “How we dress is an important indicator of our attidude and preparation for any activity in which we will engage. If we are going swimming or hiking or playing on the beach, our clothing, including our footwear, will indicate this. The same should be true of how we dress when we are to participate in the ordinance of the sacrament. It is like going to the temple. Our manner of dress indicates the degree to which we understand and honor the ordinance in which we will participate.” Our dress should reflect our attitude toward the ordinance we are going to be a part of. We would not want to show up at the temple ready to go inside in our street clothes. We should have the same attitude towards partaking of the sacrament. We should be appropriately dressed for covenant we are to renew. When we get ready for church in the morning we should be thinking of the way that we want to be presented to Heavenly Father when we renew that covenant. When we arrive at church we should be prepared for anything. Worthy priesthood holders should be properly dressed to bless and pass the sacrament even if they were not planning on it. Women should be dressed in modest, conservative Sunday dress that expresses how we feel when we come to church.

Another way to prepare for the Sacrament is to listen to the prelude music before Sacrament Meeting. Prelude music is not there for background noise. It is there to invite the spirit and set the mood for the meeting that is about to start. Although I have never played the organ I do play the piano and I can tell you how difficult it is to play for a congregation. We should appreciate the wonderful talent that the organist or pianist or whoever else is offering the prelude music. We should be respect and listen and allow that spirit to enter the room. Elder Oaks states, “We are seated well before the meeting begins, ‘During that quiet interval, prelude music is subdued. This is not a time for conversation or transmission of messages, but a period of prayerful meditation as leaders and members prepare spiritually for the sacrament.” That prelude music sets the tone for the entire meeting and we should be preparing ourselves for the sacrament. Also, the sacrament hymn is there is help us prepare for the sacrament and to once again invite that spirit. In Doctrine and Covenants 25:12 it reads, “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” the Lord rejoices in music. Music is a way another way to worship Him. We sing the sacrament hymn to prepare us for the sacrament. It sets our mind on the subject at hand. It reminds of the reason behind the sacrament and helps us prepare to partake of the sacrament. It helps us reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for each one of us. It sets our mind on the atonement. The sacrament hymn is that last step in preparing our minds for the sacrament.

During the sacrament we should refrain from distracting activities. During the sacrament is a time for prayerful meditation and a time for people to receive personal revelation. It’s a time to feel of the spirit and reflect on the atonement and of Christ. We should concentrate on worshiping our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We should not interfere with others who are trying to feel the spirit. Elder Oaks states, “During the sacrament service we should concentrate on worship and refrain from all other activities, especially from behavior that could interfere with the worship of others. Even a person who slips into quiet slumber does not interfere with others. Sacrament meeting is not a time for reading books or magazines....It is not a time for whispered conversations on cell phones or for texting persons at other locations. When we partake of the sacrament, we make a sacred covenant that we will always remember the Savior. How sad to see persons obviously violating that covenant in the very meeting where they are making it.” I’m going to be honest and say that I am as much at fault of this as anyone else. I often find my mind wandering to things of the world, or things going on in my life, instead of focusing my mind on the Savior. What I can tell you is that when I do focus my mind of the atonement and the Savior I feel the spirit stronger and appreciate the sacrament so much more.

I have found through the years that I and many around me take the sacrament for granted. Those that come to church every Sabbath day partake of the sacrament once a week and it has become such a routine that we don’t think about what would happen if we did not have that opportunity in our lives. I have two personal stories to share with you from my own life pertaining to this matter. The first is a story that my brothers shared with me of an experience they had.
Before my older brother left on his mission, he and my younger brother who was a deacon at the time went to take the sacrament to those that couldn’t make it to church. There was one particular elderly man who they visited every Sunday. This man was immobile and on his death bed. On one of the last Sundays they took the sacrament to this man, the man told them that he knew he was going to die soon and how much he appreciated them coming every Sunday to give him the Sacrament. This man looked forward to seeing them on Sunday and looked forward to partake of the sacrament. This man showed my brothers how appreciative they should be of being able to go to church every Sunday and the opportunity they have to be able to renew the baptism covenants.
The second story is a very personal experience I had pertaining to the sacrament. When I was a Sophomore in high school I in the stage in my life where I was trying to find if the church was true or not. For a while I was really confused about the church and what I wanted to do about. I was in a rebellious stage and all though I didn’t exactly do anything horrible like do drugs or drink or anything like that, I did do things I was not proud of. I fought a lot with my parents and siblings, skipped seminary, and stopped reading my scriptures and praying. Towards the end of this phase I sort of had this secret desire to have never been baptized when I was eight because I did not want to be held accountable for my actions. Also once I had gained a testimony and started to find my way in the church and once I repented I wished that I could’ve been baptized at that time in my lie instead of earlier because I wanted to feel my sins be washed away. I felt that I would have appreciated it a lot more if I was older. It was about this time that we had a keynote speaker at my youth conference we spoke about the atonement and the sacrament. At the end of her talk she challenged everyone to repent on Saturday of all the sins they had committed that week, even if you couldn’t remember all of them, and ask for forgivness. She also challenged us to go into Sacrament Meeting as if it was our baptism day. She made me realize that partaking of the sacrament every week is like getting baptized every week. Although we do not get put into the water we do renew those covenants and our sins are taken away. I did what she said and it was amazing the feeling I got during the sacrament. I truly appreciated that moment. I have looked at the sacrament in a much different light after that experience.

In 3 Nephi 9:20 it reads, “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion. were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.”

When we renew this covenant we are promising to take the Lord’s name upon us and always remember. In return the Lord promises that we will have His spirit to be us everyday of our lives as long as we keep our promise. The ultimate way that we can prepare for the sacrament is to repent of our sins and be prepared for those sins to be taken away.

Dallin H. Oaks closed his talked with these words, “How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices so that we will remain “unspotted from the world” and on the safe path through mortality? We need to qualify for the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We do this by keeping His commandment to come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and in that wonderful weekly meeting partake of the emblem of the sacrament and make the covenants that qualify us for the precious promise that we will always have His spirit to be with us.”

In closing I’d like to add my testimony to his words that I know that if we repent and prepare for sacrament we may have his spirit where every we shall go. I know these things to be true. I know the church is true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.