Enduring

Sermon Topic Saturday 6/8/13, am
10 am service opened by Priest Bruce Haines, introductory remarks by Elder Aaron Heath
Mark 9:14-29 … Jesus returns from the Transfiguration experience … this kind of spirit only comes out by much prayer and fasting
John 4:24 God is Spirit, they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.
The service went into a season of prayer, followed by administrations.
Closed by Bruce with #344 and prayer.
11 am service opened by Elder Dennis Trudgen, message by Bishop Brandon Tarbell
Brandon recounted an experience he had had, of taking a cruise with his wife and meeting the oldest man in North America to have climbed the highest mountains on each of the world’s continents. He showed pictures of Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain on Earth at 29,029 feet; and a graph of the ~200 people who had died trying to summit Everest, and how they perished. When asked how he had accomplished the goal of summiting Everest, his reply was that “it’s easy … once the airline tickets are bought, and the enormous fee for entering the National Park is paid and the expedition booked, there is no turning back … the consequences are too great to turn back.”
Everyone … all of us … has our Everest to climb; our challenge of spiritually enduring to the end.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (also Moroni 8:3 msl)
Even those with physical handicaps have climbed and summited Everest.

3 Nephi 7:10-11 and 1 Nephi 7:69 … Enduring in obedience to His commandments. The commandments are our guide to success … if we don’t prepare ourselves for life’s struggles, we won’t endure. We must read the Scriptures, pray, and keep our tongues in check.
3 Nephi 11:11-13 … quoting Malachi chapter 3. Don’t rob God, give Him what is due Him. (also, 2 Corinthians 9:7, with a cheerful attitude msl)
Alma 5:36 … Enduring in resistance to temptation to sin. The enemy is a “one-hit wonder” … he knows what works on each one of us.
1 John 1:8-9 We all have sinned … it’s a constant battle til the day we die.
Ezekiel 7:19 … lay your treasures up in Heaven, not on Earth; none of us can take it with us. We fall into the same trap as others – gain gain gain
Mosiah 11:23-24; Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:6-11 … the chastening of each of us by the Lord. Do not despise His chastening; it makes us stronger, more resilient, and ready for the future.
Alma 17:3 … those who trust in God shall be supported thru trials.
When we exercise for weight loss, our muscles are torn down … and then built back up.
Hebrews 12:2 … He ENDURED. He could have called legions of angels to fight for Him, but how would Scripture be fulfilled? And look what He endured, for us.
2 Nephi 13:19-30 … there is no guessing needed, on how to endure.
Alma 16:228-231 … we endure by improving. Football players have to maneuver sideways sometimes in order to go forward. If you are associated with wrongdoers – sidestep them to move forward.
Alma 9:41 … this life is the time to prepare. Don’t be stagnant. Take one step at a time, with eye on the goal. Our mountain climber learned to endure the unexpected, and go one step at a time.
Psalm 31 … TRUST IN GOD. Our prayer is that we all summit our Everest.