As a preamble please, PLEASE understand that with any sermons/talks given in conference (or from the local pulpit), the principles shared are for us to strive to learn and grow in. So many are given in Elder McConkie’s talk here, that we might feel to ‘throw in the towel’ / give up. Some, because of talents or built in inclinations have mastered areas of Christlike service that others have a vague hope to have someday. Yet those with that ‘vague hope’ have (or can) embrace other talents/disciplines to master them. As we do so, each has an equal opportunity to progress and draw closer to God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. Under inspiration of the Holy Ghost and in keeping with revealed doctrine is the will of the Lord. When we dismiss it as not relevant, we hurt ourselves and those we love or who love us. k
Elder McConkie said in 1971 “How to Worship’ “There is no salvation in worshiping a false god. It does not matter one particle how sincerely someone may believe that God is a golden calf, or that he is an immaterial, uncreated power that is in all things; the worship of such a being or concept has no saving power. Men may believe with all their souls that images or powers or laws are God, but no amount of devotion to these concepts will ever give the power that leads to immortality and eternal life. If a man worships a cow or a crocodile, he can gain any reward that cows and crocodiles happen to be passing out this season. If he worships the laws of the universe or the forces of nature, no doubt the earth will continue to spin, the sun to shine, and the rains to fall on the just and on the unjust. But if he worships the true and living God, in spirit and in truth, then God Almighty will pour out his Spirit upon him, and he will have power to raise the dead, move mountains, entertain angels, and walk in celestial streets.
In other words, true and perfect worship consists in following in the steps of the Son of God; it consists in keeping the commandments and obeying the will of the Father to that degree that we advance from grace to grace until we are glorified in Christ as he is in his Father. It is far more than prayer and sermon and song. It is living and doing and obeying. It is emulating the life of the great Exemplar.
With this principle before us, may I now illustrate some of the specifics of that divine worship which is pleasing to him whose we are?
To worship the Lord is to follow after him, to seek his face, to believe his doctrine, and to think his thoughts. It is to walk in his paths, to be baptized as Christ was, to preach that gospel of the kingdom which fell from his lips, and to heal the sick and raise the dead as he did. To worship the Lord is to put first in our lives the things of his kingdom, to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, to center our whole hearts upon Christ and that salvation which comes because of him. It is to walk in the light as he is in the light, to do the things that he wants done, to do what he would do under similar circumstances, to be as he is.
To worship the Lord is to walk in the Spirit, to rise above carnal things, to bridle our passions, and to overcome the world. It is to pay our tithes and offerings, to act as wise stewards in caring for those things which have been entrusted to our care, and to use our talents and means for the spreading of truth and the building up of his kingdom.
To worship the Lord is to be married in the temple, to have children, to teach them the gospel, and to bring them up in light and truth. It is to perfect the family unit, to honor our father and our mother; it is for a man to love his wife with all his heart and to cleave unto her and none else.
To worship the Lord is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. It is to work on a welfare project, to administer to the sick, to go on a mission, to go home teaching, and to hold family home evening.
To worship the Lord is to study the gospel, to treasure up light and truth, to ponder in our hearts the things of his kingdom, and to make them part of our lives. It is to pray with all the energy of our souls, to preach by the power of the Spirit, to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.
To worship is to work, to be actively engaged in a good cause, to be about our Father’s business, to love and serve our fellowmen. It is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to comfort those that mourn, and to hold up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees.
To worship the Lord is to stand valiantly in the cause of truth and righteousness, to let our influence for good be felt in civic, cultural, educational, and governmental fields, and to support those laws and principles which further the Lord’s interests on earth. To worship the Lord is to be of good cheer, to be courageous, to be valiant, to have the courage of our God-given convictions, and to keep the faith.
It is ten thousand times ten thousand things. It is keeping the commandments of God. It is living the whole law of the whole gospel. To worship the Lord is to be like Christ until we receive from him the blessed assurance: “Ye shall be even as I am.”
These are sound principles. As we ponder them in our hearts, I am sure we shall know increasingly of their verity.True and perfect worship is in fact the supreme labor and purpose of man. God grant that we may write in our souls with a pen of fire the command of the Lord Jesus: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8); and may we in fact and with living reality worship the Father in spirit and in truth, thereby gaining peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave this talk in October of 1971. ‘How to Worship’ (audio available)
Another thought: Anything spoken by men and women under the influence of the Spirit, from the pulpit in conference (or from a local pulpit) has the power to change us for the better. There have been thousands of sermons given from that same forum from which Elder McConkie spoke. All such talks are timeless in their message, just as timeless as words from the Bible or other scripture. k
