Another Talk on Ministering -given 11/18/18
MINISTERING TALK 11/18/18
I was raised
on a large 1,500-acre ranch in Southeast Idaho, high up in the Rocky
Mountains. It sat at about 6,000 feet
elevation. It was tough to grow anything
there. The snows came early and left
late which meant there was a very short growing season. As such, my father experimented with a lot of
different crops and farm animals over the years to see which ones would produce
the best in that climate.
One year,
when I was about ten or eleven years old, we had sheep. One day, while my father was in town to get
parts for the broken-down tractor, a neighbor stopped by to tell us that our
sheep were out and were on the road. My
mom immediately told me and my brother, who was just a year younger than me, to
go out on the road and bring them in.
So, we went out there and started trying to herd them like we did
cattle. We had herded cattle many times
before. You essentially get behind them,
wave your arms, make a bunch of noise, and the cows start moving. One of them takes the lead and leads the
entire herd back into the gate with very little problem usually.
Sheep are
not like cattle. As we made noise and
waved our arms, they scattered in all directions! We tried and tried and tried, but could not
get them to head towards the open gate!
To make it worse, several times cars came up the road which made the
sheep scatter even more!
Finally, my
father came up the road in the farm truck, also scattering the sheep.
Picture two
very young frustrated boys whooping and hollering, almost in tears, just
wanting to make their dad proud, but not having any success at all in moving
the sheep in the right direction.
After a bit,
we saw our father walking down the road.
He had a bucket of rolled oats and was shaking it. The sheep began to look up when they heard
the bucket of rolled oats and started to trot towards my father. He turned and walked towards the open
gate. The sheep, blatting all the way,
followed him magically into their pen.
We brought
up the rear, and my father hollered various instructions to us. One of those instructions was to “watch for
wanderers.” He was right. The sheep would easily become very
distracted. They would spot a huge clump
of grass and run down into the barrow pit to feast on it. Or when we crossed over the creek, they suddenly
decided they were thirsty and bolted down the embankment to get a fresh
drink. They were a very curious
flock! My brother and I would gently
nudge them, and they would notice that they were being left behind and would
quickly trot back onto the road and catch up with the herd.
There was
one old ewe my dad was always especially concerned about. She had been around forever. She was lame, probably due to an encounter
with a coyote, and moved slow. We
watched for her and made sure she kept up.
My father had attached a bell to her neck so he could tell where she was
always.
My dad knew
each sheep individually. He kept a small
notebook in his breast pocket which listed each sheep, their ear tag number,
and notes on them personally. When they
were born, the weight of the lambs they gave birth to, if they got out a lot,
health issues, etc.
The herd of
sheep would follow my father anywhere.
Because he was the one that fed them, and they knew it. Rolled oats.
They loved rolled oats.
My brother
and I loved watching my father feed the sheep.
The sheep were kind of crazy about food.
If you just carried a bale of hay into their pen, they would nearly
trample you to death trying to get a bite of it. So, my father would lead them, using a bucket
of rolled oats, into the next pen and lock them in there. He would then go to the main pen and scatter
hay into the feed troughs and sprinkle rolled oats on top. They loved that stuff! And they couldn’t wait! They would bleat loudly and push hard against
each other and the locked gate.
Finally,
when all was ready, my dad would fling open the gate and the entire herd would
run full force to the feed troughs! We
loved watching that part!
Christ used
sheep a lot in His parables and symbolism as he taught during his ministry. Perhaps you can see the parallels from the
story I just told.
There are
tons of scriptures about sheep. Here are
just a few:
·
New Testament
To him the porter openeth; and
the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by
name, and leadeth them out.
·
New Testament
And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him: for they know his voice.
·
Old Testament
As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out
of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
·
New Testament
He saith unto him, Feed
my sheep.
·
New Testament
What man of you, having an
hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find
it?
·
New Testament
And when he cometh home, he
calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me;
for I have found my sheep which was lost.
In this past
April’s General Conference, President Nelson called each one of us over the age
of 13 to be ministers, which is the same as being a shepherd.
As Sister
Stewart-Longhurst and I have traveled and been in the mission field, we have
visited half a dozen or so wards since that time and almost all of them were
celebrating the demise of Home teaching.
They were excited that they no longer had to do monthly visits, prepare
lessons, or report their work.
We were
taken back by that. If I understand
things correctly, ministering actually requires much more of us than home
teaching ever did.
Remember
that question that always got asked? Is
your home teaching done? “I got my home
teaching done.” My home teaching’s done,
now I don’t have to worry until next month!”
Remember that? Well, MINISTERING
IS NEVER DONE! We should be praying for
our families and thinking about what we can do to meet their needs every single
day.
Messages are
still a part of ministering and are important.
The First Presidency is no longer going to give us a message in The
Ensign to share with our families, who have already read the message
anyway! We need to come up with our own
messages as prompted by the Holy Spirit and deliver them as often as
needed. Some may need a visit and a
message weekly, especially if they are down and ill. Others may need one only occasionally.
My
experience, as we have worked to bring people back into activity in this ward,
is that if someone had contacted these families when they first stopped coming
to church, if someone had watched out for the wanderers, then they would not
have left like they did.
Jean B
Bingham, the General Relief Society President, in April General Conference,
described beautifully and perfectly what ministering should look like:
“It looks like going for a walk, getting together for a game
night, offering service, or even serving together. It looks like visiting in
person or talking on the phone or chatting online or texting. It looks like
delivering a birthday card and cheering at a soccer game. It looks like sharing
a scripture or quote from a conference talk that would be meaningful to that
individual. It looks like discussing a gospel question and sharing testimony to
bring clarity and peace. It looks like becoming part of someone’s life and
caring about him or her.
Ministering becomes one coordinated effort to fulfill the
priesthood duty to “visit the house of each member” and to “watch over the
church always, and be with and strengthen them,”
I am a
product of ministering. So you
understand my family’s background, I will give you a short history of the
Stewart’s.
My
great-grandmother Amy Wilkinson, who I met while a young boy, has the pioneer
stock in the family. Her grandparents
were converted to the gospel by John Taylor while on his famous mission to
England. They spent 13 years coming up
with enough money to sail across the Atlantic Ocean and then, with help from
the perpetual immigration fund, purchased an ox cart and came across the
plains. A slow, dusty ox cart. They came to Salt Lake for two reasons. The first was obedience to John Taylor, who
had asked them to do so. And second, so
they could receive their endowments and be an eternal family. The only place those ordinances were
performed back then was in Salt Lake City.
Only days after arriving, the family went to the Endowment house on
Temple Square and received their endowments and were sealed together as a
family for time and all eternity.
So, we can
see the Wilkinson’s were strong in the church.
Their faith was sure, and they were willing to make huge sacrifices for
what they believed to be right.
The Stewart
clan wasn’t quite as righteous. Fable
has it that they were thrown out of Scotland for attempting to overthrow the
kingdom. They ended up being farmers in
Indiana, but soon bored of that. And,
according to my father, they came west looking for women and meat. They happened upon Salt Lake City and found
both! They loved the beautiful
Latter-day Saint women. And that is
where my great-grandfather, Art Stewart, met Amy Wilkinson.
They married
and then went off to Southeast Idaho where they homestead a 40-acre plot of
land. And they were too far away from a
church building to keep going to church. So they did not go. Even Amy, with her strong faith and roots in
the gospel, quit attending church.
So how did
they go from 40 acres to the 1,500 acre ranch my family now has? Times were tough and the homesteaders would
default on their property taxes. The
county would then auction off the land and my family bought it. Where did they get the money to do so you
ask? They sold boot leg whiskey and
poached elk steak! Their whiskey had a
such a great flavor and reputation, that many of the more prominent businessmen
in Pocatello did business with them regularly!
So was the
sorry state of the Stewart family. At
the age of 16, my father had not even been baptized yet! They considered themselves active members of
the church; they just couldn’t come to church.
Cars were
finally invented and people in the community started purchasing them, including
the Stewart’s. But they still didn’t
come to church. It is really hard to
come back to church on your own.
That is when
a brother by the name of Andy King drove 20 miles to the Stewart Ranch to pay
the Stewart’s a visit. He was not asked
to do this. Home teaching hadn’t even
been invented yet. He just knew there
were people there that needed to be gathered in. He invited my family to church and returned
weekly, bringing messages. They started
to come to church and my father and all the other unbaptized Stewarts in the
family were baptized.
And they
buried the still! My father still knows
there the still is to this day, but isn’t talking. He probably is scared that the authorities
will come for him, even after all these years!
To give you
an idea of the impact that Andy King had, I did some accounting on some
statistics for my father. Here is what I
came up with:
10 Eagle
Scouts
15 Temple
Marriages or sealings
16
Missionaries.
Instead of
being known for their awesome bootleg whiskey and poached elk steak, the
Stewart’s are now known for spreading the gospel throughout the world. Missions have been served in Idaho, Chile,
the State of Washington, Washington DC, Italy, Florida, Ohio, Germany, Utah,
San Diego, Washington DC again, but this time Spanish speaking, Scotland the
homeland (yes, they allowed us back in) and……………..Clearlake, California!
I am so
thankful for Andy King! If it were not
for him and his ministering to my family, I’m pretty sure I would not be
standing at this pulpit right now.
The words to
one of our hymns really states well what we are supposed to do in
ministering/shepherding. Dear to the
Heart of the Shepherd:
“Dear
are the sheep that have wandered
Out
in the desert to pine.
Hark!
he is earnestly calling,
Tenderly
pleading today:
"Will
you not seek for my lost ones,
Off
from my shelter astray?"
Lord,
we will answer thee gladly,
"Yes,
blessed Master, we will!
Make
us thy true under-shepherds;
Give
us a love that is deep.
Send
us out into the desert,
Seeking
thy wandering sheep."
I
invite you to watch for the wanderers.
Watch for those who become distracted.
Nudge them gently so they come back to the fold. I promise you that as you do so, you will
feel the power of the spirit of the Lord strongly and this ward will continue
to grow mightily!
In
the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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