The Lost Sheep, part two.

August 4, 2018

The Lost Sheep

( Part Two....this is the short version of a talk Matthew gave in church last week. See last week's post for the original talk. He ended up just giving the brief version) 

One of my favorite parables of Jesus Christ is that of the lost sheep, and it says the following:

4 Which man among you, having a hundred sheep, and losing one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go not after the lost until he come to find it?

5 And when he had found her, he laid her on his shoulder, full of joy;

6 And when he was come to the house, he called his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.

Who is the lost sheep, and how can we find it?

Jesus Christ also gave the greater law when he taught:

37 ... Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second, like this, is: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

We do not have a better way of living the law than helping one another. It is essential that as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we follow the example of the good shepherd, seeking to love our neighbor through support and love.

When we hear the parable of the lost sheep, we often think of people who do not know the gospel, but the lost sheep can also be the one we associate with day to day, members of our ward who have problems going to church, day over us.

So what are we doing to look for the lost sheep?

The Answer: We Must Be a "Testimony of Christ"

To achieve this, my invitation today is to do three things:

1. Pray

When we pray to the heavenly Father for opportunities to help our neighbor, he will give us opportunities to serve. Each day as a missionary we need to pray to meet people. We know that if we pray to be instruments in the hands of God, it will not hold us, but it will reveal to us who, when, and how we can help our neighbor.

2. Search

Then we pray, we can not be happy, The lost sheep will not knock on our door and say "I'm here! You can help me now! "We need to demonstrate to our heavenly father that we are willing to do everything to look for it. They offer service, talk to someone you know is having difficulties. Let's search with "All of our hearts."

3. Love

When we pray and seek, the result will be what we will find. When we find, we will "put the sheep upon our shoulders" through service, love, and support. The part of loving people is putting their needs above our needs.

Praying, Searching. Loving.

7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Ask, and you will be given to you: Pray

Seek, and ye shall find: Search

Knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Love

It is my testimony that if we follow this simple pattern, we will not only find the lost sheep, but we will be able to bring it back into the fold.

In doing so, we will be disciples of Christ. Christ said:

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.

That we can be witnesses and disciples of Christ through our love for one another is my prayer and testimony. In the name of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ, amen

Here's some photos i took this week: I tried extra hard this week to take photos

 Personal Study this morning

 Stake Soccer tournament happening as i write this, President is downstairs watching as his kids are playing. Exactly like Church basketball but Soccer. Today is the tournament day so its the biggest day of the season

 Elder Sanchez from Florida

 Our family that we are currently teaching

The classic Pizza photo this week with the "Pitanga" missionaries sleeping at our house (they live 8 hours away by bus)