3 Nephi 18:1-14

18:1-14 - We are now taken to the Jesus instituting the sacrament, it doesn’t say if it’s the next day or if Jesus actually does leave after blessing the children, so I’m guessing that it’s probably not significant. The sacrament is an interesting concept and because we do it every week sometimes we lose the perspective of the importance of taking the sacrament. I think I’ve talked about it here before that I like to reflect on how I’ve done the previous week during the sacrament, think about things I could improve on and things I did well, kind of my “game plan” for the next week. Sometimes when the water comes I like to ask myself if the amount of water in the little cup is similar to the amount of blood Jesus shed for my sins for that week. Kind of abstract I know, but one week it was a significantly profound experience because I had had a pretty bad week and the little cup was filled to the top and to me it signified that my actions and thoughts that previous week were particularly grievous to be borne by the Savior. That was a difficult little cup of water to swallow. I’ve always felt that that was an ok way to spend the sacrament, honestly for the majority of my life the sacrament hasn’t been really important to me. It’s not until recently that I’ve learned that it’s a commandment and that it was actually important, and now I make an effort to be there for the sacrament, in fact I rarely miss it, it just happens that I missed it this last weekend because I was looking at stuff online with my mom and left too late to make it to the church on time. Really, should I be rushing and yelling at my kids “hurry up! If I miss the sacrament I’m going to be mad!” No, I don’t think that that was the Lord’s intention for that, the Lord’s intention was for us to be prepared and ready and use the ordinance of the sacrament to become closer to Him. I think that like most other aspects of the gospel, there is the potential there for the sacrament to be incredibly powerful but we miss out on that experience because we don’t take it seriously. In fact, the IM quotes Elder Dallin H. Oaks as teachings, “These ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood are also vital to the ministering of angels… Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind… Most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen… In general, the blessings of spiritual companionship and communication are available only to those who are clean… Through the Aaronic Priesthood ordinances of baptism and the sacrament, we are cleansed of our sins and promised that if we keep our covenants we will always have His Spirit to be with us. I believe that promise not only refers to the Holy Ghost but also to the ministering of angels, for ‘angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ.’ So it is that those who hold the Aaronic Priesthood open the door for all Church members who worthily partake of the sacrament to enjoy the companionship of the Spirit of the Lord and the ministering of angels.” There is power in the sacrament that goes untapped because, like always, our agency works both ways, Heavenly Father will not force knowledge on us when we aren't ready or aren't interested, we have to want it and we have to show him that we want it. We don't show him the spiritual growth through sacramental observance is important by showing up late or irritated or checking our email while they are passing it to us and others. In an April 2010 general conference address entitled "We Follow Jesus Christ" Elder Quentin L. Cook taught "If we are to be His disciples and to be committed members of His Church, we must remember and reverence the sacrament. It allows each of us to express with broken hearts and contrite spirits our willingness to follow the Savior, to repent, and to become a Saint through the Atonement of Christ. The sacrament allows us to witness to God that we will remember His Son and keep His commandments as we renew our baptismal covenant. This increases our love and appreciation for both the Father and the Son." The sacrament is serious to the Lord so it needs to be taken seriously by us if we are to be true disciples, I'm going to have to work harder on this. The IM teaches, "The Savior taught that the principal purpose for taking the sacrament is to remember Him. We have an opportunity to concentrate on the Son of God during the sacrament ordinance; we should not allow our thoughts to wander or be distracted. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles described several appropriate ways to remember the Lord while renewing our covenants through the sacrament: 'We could remember the Savior's premortal life and all that we know Him to have done... We could remember the simple grandeur of His mortal birth to just a young woman... We could remember Christ's miracles and His teachings, His healings and His help... We could remember that Jesus found special joy and happiness in children and said all of us should be more like them... We should remember that Christ called His disciples friends... We could- and should- remember the wonderful things that have come to us in our lives and that 'all things which are good cometh of Christ...' On some days we will have cause to remember the unkind treatment He received, the rejection He experiences, and the injustice... He endured... We can remember that Jesus had to descend below all things before He could ascend above them, and that He suffered pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind that He might be filled with mercy and know how to succor His people in their infirmities.'" Some excellent examples of practical ways in which we can use the time during the sacrament to remember the Savior. I think this coming week I'm going to focus on remembering "the wonderful things that have come to us in our lives." Interestingly, it occurred to me that there is a correlation between remembering Jesus and having His Spirit with us. When we remember, and I'm going to include in that, long term reflective remembering like pondering, and short term remembering like guidance or inspiration, we can spend most of our waking time doing that, either reflecting and contemplating the Savior or using our short term recall to help us make decisions, such as asking ourselves "what would Jesus do?" Most of our time can be spent in those pursuits, I'm not saying mine is because it's not and I'm not even saying that that's what we should be doing, we do have other things to think about sometimes, but by pondering the Savior and the gospel we should Heavenly Father that we are interested and anxious for his insights because we are expending our precious time and energy in the pursuit of divine knowledge. I know that I've said this before, but you are what you think about, so if we spend much of our time "remembering" Jesus and thinking about Him, we invite the Holy Ghost to be with us by creating a welcoming and rich environment. Because we have the Holy Ghost with us while we are thinking about the Savior, we are more likely to make good decisions in the short term because we will already be in that higher spiritual place when the time comes. We will be more prepared to ask "what would Jesus do?" And more prepared to not only answer honestly, but to also follow through with what our guidance is. I was thinking about going through the baptismal covenants, but that picture at the beginning I thought was good enough for now, and really it is pretty simple. I think that for me, I over complicate things so I think that by digging deeper and deeper into the sacramental prayers or the baptismal covenants that I will discover some hidden secret that there is there or something but in the end, it really is quite simple, that's the intention and that's what Jesus expects us to do. Jesus gives the sacrament to the apostles and they in turn give it to the people, HN has an interesting take on this, saying, "Notice, the apostles minister. They're deacons; they pass the sacrament. They're ministering to the people. They're the waiters; they're waiting on them. He wants to make this clear. It's not that they're superior because they have the privilege of doing that, but they're the ones who are obliging the people by passing the sacrament." Interesting point there, takes me back to when Jesus said that the greatest of all would be their servant, and we're taken back to the concept of servant leadership. Very interesting. The last point that I want to make tonight is when Jesus says that by administering and taking the sacrament after the manner that he described "are built upon my rock. But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them." Pretty intense there, and I don't think that the point here is super clear, so I'm going to cast some speculation on it. The sacrament is a pretty straightforward ordinance, very simple yet meaningful, so if someone were to take the sacramental ordinance and make it "less" or change it to make it less than what it is supposed to be, that perhaps is indicative of not taking the sacrament or Jesus's sacrifice seriously, and that's not ok with Him, by blowing off the significance of the sacrament, we are basically waiting at the gates of hell. One modern day example of this is regular churches who do not participate in the sacramental ordinance, not that this is because of their indifference but whoever took the sacrament away from the people initially showed my contempt for the Lord. To make the sacrament MORE than what Jesus had instituted is perhaps a way in which people can elevate themselves or be caught up in pride, saying "this is too simple, we must make it more elaborate." Anyone who does this is not interested in the will of the Lord nor are they interested in the well being of their fellow men, it's about them, it's about their ideas, their grandeur, their religious prominence and power and influence, it's not really about the atonement of Jesus Christ at all. One example of this modernly is Catholic Communion, again I'm not saying that those who participate in communion is bad or evil, not at all, but what I'm saying is that whoever came up with the elaborate ceremony to begin with, also had self instead of God in mind. I don't usually talk about other religions on here, and please know that I love every body and am not trying to be offensive, it's just an observation that I've made.