Current Lesson No. Three

Sabbath Worship Gives Us Power to Keep Unspotted from the World

Keeping the Sabbath day holy is one of the most important commandments– “We have become largely a world of Sabbath breakers…To many Sabbath-breaking is a matter of little moment, but to our Heavenly Father it is disobedience to one of the principal commandments” (Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, January 1978).  Because keeping the Sabbath day holy is so important our leaders continue to emphasis it. 

I love the term “Sabbath worship” and will use it frequently.  To worship on the Sabbath we must attend our meetings, partake of the sacrament, and pay our devotions unto the Most High.  We must make it a day of prayer where we confess our sins before the Lord, a day of fasting, at least once a month, a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving with cheerful hearts and countenances.  (See D&C 59:9-15)   

Mortality is a constant battle between the flesh and the spirit – We have both a body (the flesh) and a spirit.  With the body and spirit together we experience “opposition in all things” (2Nephi 2:11).

Lehi further explained:  “And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:14).  What we need to understand and to remember is that our spirit was created to act and our body was created to be acted upon.

Paraphrasing 2 Nephi 2:16, 27-29:  God gave us moral agency which is the ability to act for ourselves in choosing between good and evil.  To grow spiritually by exercising our agency both good and evil must be enticing to us.  We can “choose eternal life according to the will of his Holy Spirit.”  Or we can “choose eternal death according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring us down to hell, that he may reign over us in his own kingdom.”  In other words the Holy Spirit entices us toward good through our spirit, and the devil entices us toward evil through our mortal body or the flesh.   

The Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit through promptings and by a still small voice that we must be in tune to hear.  The devil rages at us through the appetites and addictions of the flesh.  The key to happiness is for our spirit to act and for our body to be acted upon.  If our spirit dominates and acts consistent with our divine nature then our body becomes a wonderful tool for our continued growth, and we are happy.  If we get it backwards and the flesh dominates our spirit, and therefore our lives, through lust, appetite, and addiction, we give the devil power over us, and we are miserable.

Sabbath worship more fully keeps us unspotted from the world – Sabbath worship loosens our grip on the world.  Our spirit was created in such a way that it is hard wired to Sabbath worship.  Sabbath worship is a unique and wonderful way to strengthen our spirit. 

Sincere Sabbath worship inherently strengthens our spirit so that we can overcome the appetites and addictions of the flesh.  We all have weaknesses that we struggle with.  These struggles may include pride, anger, greed, alcohol, unchastity, both heterosexual and homosexual, drugs, pornography, internet abuse, gambling, etc.  One of the best remedies to deal with our individual challenges is Sabbath worship as it will “more fully keeps us unspotted from the world” (D&C 59:9).  Sincere and devoted Sabbath worship helps keep the appetites of the flesh within bounds acceptable to the Lord.

There is power in keeping the Sabbath day holy – I believe what President Ezra Taft Benson said about the power of the Book of Mormon (see Ensign, January 1992) can be said about Sabbath worship.  I use his quote, but I have replaced references to the Book of Mormon with references to the Sabbath Day: 

“There is power in keeping Sabbath day holy which will begin to flow into our lives the moment we begin to sincerely worship on the Sabbath.  We will find greater power to resist temptation.  We will find power to avoid deception.  We will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.  When we keep the Sabbath day holy we will find life in greater and greater abundance.”