HUMILITY

Humility is key to obedience in God’s commandments.

When Jesus was on earth, all that he ever did was to fulfill his Father commandments. He has shown us how to be humble and obedient to God’s commandments. Some of those commandments made him uncomfortable and even caused him to suffer and die. But he got the picture of why he has to do those things. Those things are for us. He is indeed our perfect example.

Now for us, following orders, rules and other commandments are naturally hard for us. Especially when we already know the loop holes to some of the rules we naturally bend it. And we say it is not something bad. Slowly we break some of those rules. Some consequences aren’t that bad at all at the present time but as it builds overtime we detour from God’s intended plan for us to reach our potential. These verses in 2 Nephy 9:28–29 clearly states…

O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.

Beware of Pride

Now when we tend to know more and get comfortable we tend to rebel even when we know we are rebelling to God’s commandments. Sometimes obedience to our local leaders are hard for us to follow.

Our willingness to obey God comes from the strength and knowledge we have of the Savior of the World. As we grow here in the Church and our testimony grows obeying shouldn’t be hard. But sometimes instead of moving forward and obeying we tend to go backward. Humility can help us overcome this. In Preach My Gospel Manual it clearly defines what is humility.

Humility is willingness to submit to the will of the Lord and to give the Lord the honor for what is accomplished. It includes gratitude for His blessings and acknowledgment of your constant need for His divine help. Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength. When you humbly trust Him and acknowledge His power and mercy, you can have the assurance that His commandments are for your good. You are confident that you can do whatever the Lord requires of you if you rely on Him. You are also willing to trust His chosen servants and follow their counsel. Humility will help you as you strive to be obedient, to work hard, and serve selflessly.

Therefore, to be humble and to obey God is our personal choice and no one can take it from us.

The opposite of humility is pride, which is condemned in the scriptures. To be prideful means to put greater trust in oneself than in God or in His servants. It also means to put the things of the world above the things of God. Prideful people take honor to themselves rather than giving God the glory. Pride is competitive; those who are prideful seek to have more and presume they are better than other people. Pride usually results in feelings of anger and hatred, and it is a great stumbling block.

We should be careful about pride. There are a lot of talks in general conference about pride. If some of us aren’t willing to obey some rules we are being prideful and tend to go over to what God has planned and intended.

A House of Order

It has come to the attention of the Stake Presidency that some members that are now in different Ward area still attend Church at their old Wards. Some of these members have callings and are current Temple Recommend Holder. So from our last High Council Meeting they had us prepare a message with the help of the Holy Ghost to encourage members to obey this certain rule and that is if you are already in a different ward jurisdiction it is encourage that you also have to move to that ward. These commandments are not ours but of God. We are here to reemphasize that to you.

The house of God is a house of order. Change is sometimes very uncomfortable to all of us. It is part of our human nature that when we are comfortable we tend to stay and if possible stay there as long as we can. It is home for us. We don't want to adjust and make some new friends because we've already got a lot them here. I know it's hard because I've been there, done that. I'm telling you that it is okay to feel uncomfortable for a few weeks but I promise you that you're just gonna turn out fine. It is an opportunity for you to know someone new.

It is also testifies that you are willing to obey God. I also promise you that where you are going to move is the same Church — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It teaches the same doctrine and principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It teaches the same program as it have with you’re previous ward. Though people may be different from the old one they are still like us — a child of God.

My message for you today is to encourage you to obey God’s commandments. I would like to tell you as plainly as possible that Wards are part of God’s plan wherein we can learn, progress and gain our eternal life. God through his prophets organizes Stake, Districts, Wards and Branches to help us fulfill that potential. The House of God is a house of order. It is design to develop our very character. Those characters or attributes are Christlike attributes. Some of those attributes are the one that I just mention, humility, obedience, charity, faith and patience.

Comfort is an enemy to change. And we all know that change is the only constant that happen in our lifetime. Without change we cannot expect progress. That will be hilarious if you think that way and expect progress without changing.

Wards Purpose

From the talk of Virginia H. Pearce she explains about Wards purpose. Learning in groups is so important that Heavenly Father planned for us to be born into a group — the most basic, most hallowed, and most powerful group on earth: the family. We have heard good counsel about the family in these past two days. I would like to build on that by talking about the ward or branch family — the basic ecclesiastical unit to which we all belong as members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Wards are not designed to replace the family unit, but to support the family and its righteous teachings. A ward is another place where there is enough commitment and energy to form a sort of “safety net” family for each of us when our families cannot or do not provide all of the teaching and growing experiences we need to return to Heavenly Father.

Wards are created for our progress in learning more about our Creator and how he works in mysterious ways. It teaches us to be self-reliant and be confident with the knowledge what we are divine. Moving to a different Ward can be a little bit eerie but I promise you if you do that move the Lord God will bless you and he have blessed you here. The very reason you move from your previous place was that you will have a purpose in building God’s kingdom. In so doing it will build your character as a person and it will develop you to something more. That should be exciting!