I Never Do It Again Brad Wilcox

Sound and Video Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Apologetic Data and Research, Inc. Any reproduction or transcription of this material without prior express written permission is prohibited.

Brad Wilcox
August 2018

Well, what a joy to exist with you. I got hither right at the end of Sarah's presentation, simply she merely promised me that when she gets that written up into a paper, I'm going to go a copy of information technology. So I'chiliad grateful for that. I beloved the comparing she was making and I'g honored to be able to exist on a program with her. She says, "Gosh, I heard you lot speak when I was 14."

I said, "How come you've grown up and I haven't?"  Ha, ha, ha.  I as well am excited for the presentation that Steve and Garrett are going to be giving afterward as they talk most the application of grace and the departure that that doctrine actually makes in people's lives. They're going to be referring to some research that's been washed by members of the church and by nonmembers of the church among LDS populations and amongst not-LDS populations that show that as people come to an understanding of grace, that it does make a difference in levels of depression, in levels of anxiety, in levels of perfectionism and scrupulosity, (that feeling that you continually have something to confess) and levels of shame, and so I think you'll exist fascinated to mind to some of the inquiry that is backing up the doctrine. Not that doctrine needs research to dorsum information technology upwardly, only information technology is fascinating to run into the difference that's being made in people's lives as they larn and internalize the doctrine of grace.

Steve, raise your manus. Is Garrett still in here? There'due south Garrett. Steve and Garrett are going to exist the adjacent presenters and I'm just very excited almost what they accept to share. Well, as we get started, I was asked once by a primary president to come up and talk to her primary about grace. I idea, 'Whoa, that'southward going to be a niggling tricky.' And then I thought, 'How am I going to do this?' And then finally I passed out hymn books to all the kids and I said, "We're going to have a fiddling race and I'thousand going to say 1, ii, three, get and then you lot start looking through the hymn book and let's come across who tin can find the word grace in the hymn book the quickest." Well, we started the little race and they were all pawing through the books and finally i kid pretty chop-chop raised his hand and said, "I found information technology! I constitute it!" I said, "Oh, wonderful. Which hymn is it in?"

He said, "Called To Serve."

I said, "You know, I've, I've sung that hymn a lot and I don't call up grace beingness in that hymn."

He says, "Well, information technology's right here," and he points to the bottom of the page where we all constitute out that the hymn was written by Sis Grace Gordon.   So you can imagine these footling kids, you know, thinking Grace Gordon is going to show upwardly in a superhero costume and save the day, 'cause i of the teachers says, "Well, that puts a whole new twist on existence saved past grace."

But I don't recollect little kids are the just ones who don't quite understand that phrase, who don't quite understand what it means or what we mean when nosotros say, "Have you been saved past grace?" or "Yes, we have been saved by grace."

And so today permit's talk for just a little bit about what that can hateful to us as Latter-day Saints.

Grace, similar many English words has multiple meanings. It can mean elegance and beauty. It tin can mean kindness and courtesy. It tin can be a title, 'Your Grace.' It can be a salutation, "Grace be unto you," similar nosotros read in the in the New Testament, and it tin can also be a prayer–we're saying grace. With and then many unlike meanings, no wonder in that location's confusion. If we become dorsum to the Hebrew word that was translated equally grace, and then the give-and-take ways favor or goodwill given with pity. No wonder Christians grabbed that word to depict God'southward favor, God's goodwill given with God's compassion. Only Latter-twenty-four hours Saints empathise that grace is not just a description of God's attributes. It is how he engages with us as nosotros strive to achieve those very attributes. Listen to what President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has said:

He says, "Grace is the divine assistance and endowment of strength by which we abound from the flawed and limited beings we are now into Exalted Beings."

And so grace is the strength He gives u.s. to brand united states strong. It is the divine help He gives united states of america to make us divine. When I was younger, I always thought that grace was somehow waiting for me at a finish line; that I had to do everything I possibly could to go to the finish line. I had to exist downwards on my hands and knees. I had to be scraping with dirt nether my fingernails and so somehow grace would come. But at present I understand that grace is not waiting at the finish line. It'south the ability that gets me to the finish line. It's not a low-cal waiting at the finish of the tunnel. Rather, it's the light that surrounds me hither and now and moves me to the end of the tunnel.

When I was younger, I kind of felt like grace somehow supplemented my works or that my works somehow supplemented Jesus's grace every bit if we had to meet some sort of minimum peak requirement to go into heaven. But now I understand that information technology's non well-nigh height. It'south nearly growth. So instead of seeing grace equally something that supplements or works equally something that supplements, I realized we get to heaven, not by supplementing but by covenanting. And the covenant is a warm human relationship, a human relationship that is greater than the sum of its parts. So instead of speaking most God'due south part and my part, at present I speak more virtually God'due south heart and my heart, loving each other and being conformed to the same image.

Heed to what Elder D. Todd Christofferson has said: "We do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God volition help. Divine assistance can be ours, every 60 minutes of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience."

Now, that said, we have to be a picayune careful that we don't let grace become a catchall word for every divine interaction which has happened in a lot of mainstream Christianity. A grace kind of defines everything that God does, everything that He is, every interaction He has in our lives. Just nosotros need to continue grace as a word in its identify because there'south a whole umbrella that covers the many ways that God interacts with his children. We have answers to prayer. We have tender mercies.

But grace is a little different than that. The reason it's important to point that out is because we tin can and then recognize grace in our lives even when we don't see answers to prayer; fifty-fifty when nosotros don't see tender mercies.

When my son Russell was xvi, he always lost the keys to the car. Well, his mom got smart and she made an extra prepare. So Russell would come up home and say, "I lost the keys to the car," and I'd say, "Mom has an extra gear up," and we got through merely fine until the twenty-four hours he said, "I lost the keys." I said, "Mom'south got an actress set." He said, "Those are the ones I only lost." And then I said, "Go over hither, we're going to pray." So we said a prayer and Russell was led to detect the keys in a place he'd already looked several times and our family recognized an respond to prayer. Now that kid grew up and became a nurse anesthetist. Information technology's a lilliputian scary if you think most it. "Hey, I know at that place's a body around here somewhere. Where did that body go? Oh, mom's got an extra." Uh, I hateful, information technology'due south a little scary.

He called me when he offset graduated and said, "Dad, at present we have something in mutual."

I said, "What'south that?"

He said, "Nosotros both put people to sleep." I didn't know how I felt virtually that one. But when Russell was grooming, he was assigned to go to a hospital for a rotation that was virtually five hours from his home in Sacramento and that had them nervous considering my piddling daughter-in-law had two toddlers and a brand new baby. She idea, 'How am I going to handle this with him gone for days and days at a fourth dimension?' The infant wasn't sleeping well, the baby wasn't eating well and she thought, 'I just tin't keep up with this.' Well, the minute that his rotation started, the infant started sleeping through the night. The minute his rotation started, the infant started eating improve and holding downwards the food and our family recognized a tender mercy. We couldn't call it an answer to prayer because nosotros weren't even smart plenty to pray for it. God only saw a need and He stepped in and met that need and we recognized a tender mercy.

At present grace is a little unlike from those blessings because grace or the interactions from heaven that change us; that change us.

It'southward the Holy Ghost, interim as the minister of grace, the messenger of grace, who sanctifies united states of america and that's when nosotros can encounter God shaping united states of america and transforming u.s.. I know a fellow who joined the church in Las Vegas. He was a young teenager when he first started getting interested in religion and he started going from church building to church and attention church with a lot of his friends from loftier school. His stepdad was only furious at him. He said, "You're young. This is when you lot're supposed to exist smoking pot and sleeping with girls and drinking." He says, "Expert grief. Why are you going to churches?" But when the child ended up joining the Mormon Church then his stepdad kicked him out of the business firm.

A family in the ward took him and helped him become ready for his mission and he was in the MTC preparing to get to Japan. When he wrote me this letter, he was a catechumen of merely a year. He says, 'Some General Authorization just came and told us that nosotros're supposed to love our parents.' He says, 'That'southward a hard ane for me. How am I supposed to honey a man I don't fifty-fifty like? How am I supposed to dear a man that I don't respect information technology all? How am I supposed to love a homo that I hope I never fifty-fifty see again?'

And then he wrote this, 'I approximate for me right now, love is going to accept to mean that I feel sorry for him and that I won't requite upwards hope that one mean solar day maybe he can modify.'

That'southward grace, when God just reaches into our very hearts and helps us begin to forgive when we call back nosotros tin can't, helps united states of america begin to open a door to honey when we think that door has been slammed close, when God reaches into our hearts and helps us effort once more to break a bad habit that we've tried so many times to break before without success. In those moments, we come across grace in our lives.

Now, President Nelson has cautioned us to exist conscientious as we utilize the word atonement considering many members of the church building say, "Oh, the atonement helped me." "The atonement comforted me." "The atonement inverse me." "The atonement blessed me." And President Nelson reminds us that it'southward not the atonement that does that. Information technology's Christ who does that – through his atonement.

When he cautioned us, his talk was called Accessing the Power of Jesus Christ. We have a proper name for that power. The proper name is grace. That is the ability of Jesus Christ–that, every bit Sheri Dew says, "…flows from the amende." So the amende was something that people await forward to and now it'southward something we look back on. Jesus's suffering was real, but it was an effect. The matter that allows that upshot to have continuous force both before and after it happened, is the grace that flows from that atonement, the grace that the atonement makes possible in our lives, and that's why nosotros call the power, the power of the atonement, an enabling power. If you're ever reading the scriptures and you come to the discussion grace, attempt replacing the give-and-take with ability and run into if the scripture makes a lilliputian more sense to you. Now we sing a song in the church. Nosotros sing a hymn that says, 'I stand all amazed at the dearest Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.' When Charles Gabriel wrote that hymn, dislocated didn't but mean 'baffled' or 'bewildered', or 'I don't become it'. Confused too could mean 'continuing in awe, continuing in reverent awe of the grace, the enabling power, that so fully he proffers me.' There's another word we don't use very often. Nosotros use the discussion 'offering'. I tin can 'offer' you this clip, simply he would take to come forwards to go it. If I 'proffer' it to him, I'm putting the prefix 'pro' onto 'offering', making 'proposition', significant I'1000 pro-actively offering him the gift. That ways I'thousand going to come down. I'm going to literally put it right in his hand. Encounter, I'grand going to make it almost impossible for him to reject it. That's proffer.

Well, yes, we stand amazed at the grace Jesus proffers us. Think about the emblems of the sacrament. In many churches, those are offered to the congregation. People come up forward to receive them, but non in our church. In our church, those are proffered to u.s.. They are literally placed in our hands fifty-fifty when we're late and in the foyer, and don't ask me how I know that, just even then, those emblems are proffered to u.s.. They're placed correct before u.s.. It's a gift that nosotros almost can't reject, and yet, just as we stand amazed at Christ'due south souvenir and how freely he proffers information technology, He must stand a fiddling amazed at how few people at that place are in this world who are willing to receive the souvenir, who are willing to option up those emblems and internalize them.

In Doctrine and Covenants 88, we read: 'For what does it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him and he receive not the gift. Behold he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him, who is the giver of the souvenir.' In my class the other mean solar day, I'm pedagogy the 2nd half of the New Testament. So we're talking about grace and I said, "How many of you have ever received a Christmas gift from an aunt or a grandmother, a mother, a father, a cousin, something that you lot've said, 'Oh, thank you. This is wonderful.' And and so you lot've thrown it out, given it to DI or put it in your closet, never to run into the light of 24-hour interval again?" Every paw went upwards. They all know how it feels to get a souvenir and then not value it because they don't employ it.

So the way they value the gift is demonstrated past how well they receive and use the gift. In the same style Christ knows who values his grace, non who'south given his grace, considering he gives that and then freely, just he sees who values his grace by looking to run across who receives it, who receives that grace and who receives it and utilizes it.

I know a sister who went to the temple for the start time and she came out and I said, "How did it go?"

And she said, "Well, I was kinda disappointed that it wasn't more than focused on the atonement."

I mean, it sounded to me like she merely said, 'I simply walked through a forest and I wish I'd seen a tree.' I hateful, how did she miss the atonement in the endowment? Just then I realized, 'Oh, she was expecting to see portrayals of Christ in Gethsemane; portrayals of Christ on the cantankerous; portrayals of Christ rising from the empty tomb. Instead she saw the story of Adam and Eve.' That's when I explained to her something that'south been taught past Sister Marie Hafen and her married man, Elder Bruce C. Hafen in their volume, 'The Consecrated Eye', and they teach that in the temple, nosotros don't learn how Christ gives us the atonement, we acquire how Adam and Eve and all of us receive the atonement. And how do we receive this gift? The aforementioned way they did – past covenant, by entering into a covenant relationship with Christ that allows us more than and more and more than access to His grace.

Grace is not a onetime souvenir. Rather it's a souvenir that we're given more than and more than of equally we employ what nosotros've been given. When I think about that, I remember almost reading books to my grandkids. When my little grandkids were born, the first thing I practise is read a book to him. Now everybody in the hospital laughs because I'thousand holding the baby and I'm holding the book and the volume is bigger than the baby, but I read that volume to those babies and I don't care how many people express mirth. I know I'1000 being smart because I desire that kid surrounded by language and love and books correct from 24-hour interval 1, so I read books to them. Now some of those kids are quondam enough that they can read little books to me and the minute they do, I requite them another volume. Run across if they read one book, so I give them more books, and that lilliputian exchange helps me understand how Christ gives us grace.

Heed to what we read in ii Nephi 28  'I will requite unto the children of men, line upon line, axiom upon axiom, and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts and lend an ear to my council for they shall acquire wisdom and for unto him that receiveth, I will requite more than.'

My daughter Whitney chosen me one day and she said, "Dad, I merely read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and I retrieve it's about grace."

I said, "No, no honey, that'southward well-nigh money considering talents were money, then it'southward talking almost money."

She says, "Dad, read it once again."

And then I read it again, and with this lens that my daughter had provided, of a sudden I started seeing it a little differently. Unto one servant, he gave five talents, or, we could say, 5 books. Unto another servant, he gave 2 books, and unto some other servant, he gave one volume. Well, the first ii read their books. So the Lord said, "Well washed. Yous have been true-blue over a few books. I will give you many books. Enter into my library." Now to the other retainer, he takes the book away. Why? Considering he'south punishing the very servant who needs information technology the most? No, information technology's because the servant already cast it aside.

What skillful is a book to someone who refuses to read it? Nosotros all know the pain of giving away a re-create of the Volume of Mormon and then having the person reject information technology. That choice doesn't say as much about the missionary and the volume equally it does about the person who has been given a gift that hasn't been valued, given a souvenir that hasn't been utilized. And then even if the Lord said, "Well, gosh, third servant, I beloved y'all anyway, and and then come up on, y'all can go into my library." Is the servant even going to want to exist there? I mean, until she learns to value what she's been given, until she learns to love what her male parent in sky loves, then more books would be brunt rather than approval. And then, even though initially it may seem unfair that those who got more go even more, when nosotros consider how the gift is utilized, how the gift was used, so nosotros see the fairness in having the book taken away from the very ane who rejected it. And we can see that this gift of grace must exist used. Sometimes, when I teach immature people, I compare grace to a scholarship. I say getting grace is like getting a scholarship. It's not a student loan. You're non expected to pay information technology back. It's non money you've earned in a chore and saved upward. It'southward a souvenir.

The ane giving the gift doesn't want to get paid back. The one giving the gift wants to encounter the gift utilized. Because simply getting a scholarship does not guarantee learning and getting a scholarship does not guarantee graduation. It facilitates it, and in that covenant relationship with Christ, and so His grace facilitates our growth and our alter and our transformation. Making covenants is not a declaration that we need works more than grace. Making covenants is our way of acknowledging God'southward grace, accepting God's grace, affectionate God's grace and showing him that we are set up for more. So a child comes into the church at age eight and gets the souvenir of the Holy Ghost. As he makes more covenants, as he renews that covenant in sacrament meeting at the sacrament table, so he receives more. Then he enters the temple and he makes more covenants and he receives more grace. So our works are not in place of faith. Rather, our works grow out of and are an inevitable consequence of our faith.

And then for us, the question, 'Have y'all been saved by grace?' is tricky to respond, just non because of the word grace. When someone says, "Have you been saved by grace?", Latter-day Saints should answer, "Yes, absolutely. Completely. With total gratitude. Yes, yeah, aye, yes." If we have a word with nonmember friends, the word to discuss is not grace. That's something nosotros take in common. The give-and-take to discuss is 'saved'. That's where we're different. What does salvation mean to them versus what does salvation hateful to united states of america? Our complete dependence on Jesus Christ is an absolute either way, but what is salvation? For many, Christian salvation is just getting to the other side of the wall of heaven. I know a lady in the South who told me, "I'chiliad going to skid Saint Peter a twenty and slide on through."

That's her idea of grace. That'southward her idea of being saved. That's what it is – just getting into heaven. But for Latter-day Saints, that'southward a little teeny piece of a salvation that is massive – a salvation that doesn't but include getting to heaven, but becoming heavenly, not just going dorsum to God, but becoming like him. Our salvation is huge and Jesus's grace is a large enough gift to be able to help us reach salvation in its fullness. So the question to consider is non just 'Have nosotros been saved past grace?' but 'Accept we been changed by grace?' Non but 'Are we going to exist resurrected? Are we going to become back to God's presence or Christ presence for the judgment?' Those things are already answered. The question to consider is, 'How comfortable will we be on that occasion?'

How comfortable will nosotros be when we are expected to live equally Christ lives and love every bit He loves and create as He creates and be equally He is? For u.s.a., grace is not merely about salvation at a bones form, but it's virtually salvation that is large plenty to include exaltation. For usa, grace is non simply well-nigh justification at a basic level, just it's about sanctification. Practice you remember when Elderberry Holland spoke in general briefing and he talked nearly how we're all like a big choir? Do yous call up that talk? And he mentioned the sopranos, the altos, the baritones and the basses. And I have a friend who's a tenor in the discussion choir, and he said, "All the tenors said they were going to resign. They were all going to quit and accept a protest because they were offended that Elderberry Holland did not mention the tenors." Well, we recall that talk and a phrase from that talk that has always stuck in my mind is this, 'Come every bit you are, simply don't expect to stay that way.' That'southward grace. Come as you are, but don't expect to stay that way. For us, grace is non a become out of jail gratis carte du jour. It'due south non permission to procrastinate and sin. Rather grace is how we tin begin to emulate our Savior and not only do as He did, merely go as he is. Now for Latter-twenty-four hours Saints, we have to remember that that's a transition that takes time. We all desire it to happen quickly. We want it to happen and then fast. We desire it to happen Harry Potter style – alchemy – phssht. I think I merely killed you. I don't know. It'southward been a while since I read the books, but I recall I just used the wrong spell. We want the change to happen quickly and it doesn't always happen quickly.

A young man wrote me from the MTC and he said, 'Where's God? Where's God when I need him the most? Why has he abandoned me?' I wrote him dorsum and I went, 'What the heck? You are in the MTC! God lives there. He has a room right down the hall from you lot.' I said, 'What are yous talking about?'

'Where's God?' he says. 'I take been here for three weeks and I still don't speak Spanish.'

At present, do you see what he wants? Poof, you speak Español. Poof. Taco, burrito, enchilada, and poof. You know he wants it to happen quickly. I wrote him back and I said, 'Look, you didn't learn English language in three weeks when you were a baby, so requite yourself a picayune fourth dimension and keep working at it. You'll be fine.' He writes me back and he says, 'Don't nosotros believe in the gift of tongues?' Practice you meet what he wants? Poof. Souvenir of tongues. Poof. Instant. I wrote him back and I said, 'Aye, we believe in the souvenir of tongues and sometimes in church history that gift has been instantaneous, but usually non. Usually it'south a souvenir that's bestowed over time.'

Grace is a gift that is bestowed over time. Fourth dimension becomes the medium through which the power of Christ's atonement is fabricated manifest in our lives. Fourth dimension becomes the medium through which the ability of the amende is fabricated manifest in our lives.

At present, why? Because God can't change him instantly. Can't teach him Spanish overnight. Well, I guess God could, but nosotros accept to consider what God's purposes are. He doesn't just want that kid to expect like he knows Spanish. He doesn't want him to imitation it for a few days. He doesn't want him to be able to get through the airport and go order food in a restaurant. He wants him to teach the gospel in Spanish. He wants him to testify in Spanish. He wants it to be part of him, and and so he chooses to modify us over time.

Yeah, but Christ changed water to wine in an instant. Merely h2o doesn't have freewill. Water doesn't accept to cull to be changed. Water doesn't have to want to be inverse – but nosotros do. So the alter typically happens over time and slowly but surely, calendar week after week and weakness after weakness, we are transformed.

Have yous ever gone to a family reunion or come up home from a mission and of a sudden you see that everybody'south changed? Have you always seen that? Accept yous always seen a blood brother get home from a mission and become, "Oh, my gosh, my younger brothers have shot up."

And niggling kids say, "No, I'chiliad the same as I was yesterday. I haven't changed."  Because they have seen themselves in the mirror everyday so they don't observe the change, but when you lot're away from it, when yous step back, suddenly you encounter the transformation. There are too many Latter-day Saints who feel like, 'Gosh, I'm not changing. The change that's happening to me isn't happening. When is this change going to happen?' Only if we'll step dorsum and and then we'll realize 'I'm doing a little better than I was 20 years agone. I'yard doing a little better than I was ten years agone. I'thou certainly doing a niggling better than I was five years ago. At least. At present I don't attempt to pretend similar it'due south not fast Sunday. I may not like it, but at least I'm washed with playing the game of eating my breakfast really quick and then saying, 'Oh, I forgot information technology was fast Sun.' I mean, at least I'm over that, so I may not be where I want to be, but look how far I've come up through the grace of Jesus Christ. Look how far I've come.'

I spoke at a immature single adult conference 1 time in Kirtland, Ohio, and what an experience that was. The young people had their workshops and their food and their dances, only they too got to become to the historic sites. They got to hear these wonderful missionaries testify and teach in these celebrated sites. It was cracking. The concluding 24-hour interval we had a sacrament service right in the Kirtland temple. Now we don't own that building, so I don't know who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody, only we ended upward with permission to have a sacrament service. There we sang, "The spirit of God like a burn down is burning" in the very place that it burned. I hateful, nosotros renewed our covenant with Christ past taking the sacrament in the very place where he renewed his covenant with us in this dispensation. I mean, it was merely thrilling and when I stood up to speak, I said, "Notice the woodwork. Notice the woodwork around the windows. Notice the woodwork on the pillars. Notice the woodwork on the pulpits. See how intricate and how advisedly, how cute it is, and how carefully information technology was washed." Well, then I pointed out that these early saints, they were very careful. They gave it their all, simply they were volunteers. They weren't professional craftsman, they weren't professional builders and they were poor. They were stretching their resources.

Now, the reason I pointed that out is because earlier in the mean solar day they had taken me downward into the basement of the temple and I got to run into the original support beams underneath the Kirtland Temple. They were laid incorrectly. Not only were they laid horizontally rather than vertically – see a vertical beam can back up more a horizontally placed axle. Not only was that a problem, but they had stretched their resources and then sparse that they had placed the support beams too far apart from each other and under the heaviest office of the building where the pulpits were-no back up beams, none. Now they accept them. At present they've got steel reinforced things and all this stuff, but not dorsum then. At that place were no back up beams. They're lucky they didn't sing, 'The Spirit of God like a'- whoosh -and but fall right through the floor. Call back of how many people crammed into that building during the dedication, not to mention the angels that were on the roof. That building should have collapsed, simply the flaws did not keep Jesus from coming and the flaws did non continue Jesus from accepting that building every bit His. And where at that place was weakness, He gave strength and He turned that flawed building into a holy temple and that'south what He is doing with us. Nosotros simply have to be patient. Nosotros just take to be patient with ourselves. Nosotros just have to be patient with each other as nosotros go through this transformation process that takes a lifetime and more. Nosotros just demand to exist patient.

Brethren, how many of y'all have ever blessed the sacrament? How many have you ever blown it, said the incorrect words? Yeah, girls. You just take no idea how hard information technology is to read a paragraph. I mean, you only take no thought. So what happens when the niggling sixteen year former is approval the sacrament? He blows information technology. He's blessing the water. It should exist the breadstuff. What happens in a moment similar that?

He turns to the bishop. Bishop nods his head and the bishop says, "Become one more than fourth dimension." Well, now he's really nervous because no one always listens to the sacrament prayers always until the priest blows it, and then everybody's similar, 'Whoa, I didn't even know there was a trouble,' and so and so suddenly everybody's listening. Well then the nervous little priest blows it again. Well, what happens and so? Does the bishop have a trap door? I mean, can he push a button, open up the trap door and suck illiterate priests into the basement of the church? No, there is no trap door. The bishop tin can raise and lower the podium. That is the extent of his ability. There's no trap door. The bishop just nods. The child starts one more time. Well, what if he blows information technology again? I mean past now all the teachers are like, 'Gosh, you're taking my whole lesson time.' I don't know – if he blows it once again, he starts again. The bishop cannot alibi the mistake. The bishop can't pretend information technology didn't happen. The bishop has to verify that those words are spoken perfectly. Did you catch that? Perfectly. 'Oh, the Mormons have such high expectations. They expect perfection.'

Yes, but not immediately–eventually—and not solitary, but with the help, the grace of Jesus Christ. So the bishop nods, the priest starts once more and this is the point when he finally gets it right, it'southward counted as perfect for him and for the entire congregation. Let's remember that lesson and when nosotros slip up, when those we love sideslip up, when a young child comes home early from a mission, let'due south recollect that lesson because we have many, many opportunities to turn to the bishop and to start one more time and ane more time after that and ane more time after that. When I was in high schoolhouse, I was on the debate team and it wasn't because I was any skillful. Debbie Peterson knows, she was one of my teachers when I was in high school and she knows dang well. She was a student teacher, but she knows dang well I wasn't very good at contend, merely some girls talked me into joining. Yous know sisters, you lot have no idea the power that you lot take in your lives. Some girls say, "Hey, we want y'all to join the contend team and come up be with u.s.," and I'm like, "Okay," and I joined the debate squad.

And then nosotros'd get around the state and nosotros'd practise these fence competitions and so at the end of the competition nosotros'd drive back here to Provo, which was my home, on a school motorcoach, simply we'd get bored so we'd play a picayune game. The game was called Matthew, Marking, Luke and John. Some of you lot might recollect this game. Y'all clap your hands on your legs, y'all clap your hands, you click your fingers and yous go a little rhythm going, and then when yous click your fingers, you're supposed to say somebody else's name or somebody else's number. How many know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I tried to explain this to some BYU students the other day and some daughter says, "Oh, that's Big Booty."

I said, "We called it Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Nosotros are evidently more than righteous than you." Simply whatever you call the game, I think you know how it's played and when you make a mistake then y'all had to go to the back of the autobus. The goal was to become up to the front. Well, I'd exist moving forth and people would make mistakes, then I'd first moving upwards and I recollect, 'Wow, this is great. I'm going to win this thing. I'm going to be right upward there at the forepart. I'm going to win this thing.' And and then somebody would call my proper noun or my number and and then my brain would freeze. Now information technology'south not that difficult. I mean all you lot take to practice is say three or five or seven. I hateful, that's all you lot accept to do, simply my brain would freeze. So everybody would laugh and they'd send me to the back of the bus and then I'd spend about five minutes saying, "This game is stupid and anybody who likes this game is stupid."

I'd sing that song for a while and and so I'd start moving up again and I'd call back, 'Okay, this time. Last time I blew it, but this fourth dimension I'm going to practice this thing.' And we'd get all excited and I'd get moving upwards and then somebody chosen me once more and I'd stop upwards blowing it and being sent to the back of the bus. Now, what I realize now that I didn't realize then is that wherever I sat on that omnibus, the bus was withal taking me abode. Even when I blew it. Fifty-fifty when I got sent to the back of the bus, the jitney was still moving me forrard. And then when you say, "I'll never do information technology once again," and then you practise it and then yous say, "No, I swear I'll never exercise information technology again," and then you'd do it, we don't accept to await down in shame and we don't have to expect sideways for excuses. "Well, I read on the Net that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet. Well, I read on the Internet that the church isn't even true and so I don't have to intermission my bad habits." Nosotros've got plenty of people playing that game.

We don't have to await downwardly or sideways. "Well, he does information technology too. Well, she does information technology as well. The church is wrong to have such loftier expectations." Nosotros don't have to play that game. Instead we can wait up, we tin can look up for the aid that Christ is and so willing to proffer united states. We can look up for his grace and nosotros can be inverse. When we say, "I'll never practise it again," and we intermission that promise, even a pinky hope. (you know, I saw a deacon and a beehive fighting the other day and they were fighting over which is stronger – pinky promise or lookout's honour, and I said, "It doesn't thing because y'all're going to intermission both of them,") so when you break pinky promise and when yous pause scout'southward honour, and when we struggle with promises fabricated before God, angels and witnesses, nosotros stay on the bus. We don't become off the autobus; we stay on the bus; we stay in the church; we stay in our covenant relationship with Christ and he volition get us domicile. He will become us at that place.

Grace is not a prize for the perfect. It is the power to assistance us through the perfecting process. Grace is not a reward for the righteous. It is the source of righteousness. Grace is non a prize, a trophy for the worthy. It is the source of worthiness and information technology's existent.  It'southward a real force and that makes a real difference. Information technology's not Mulan's lucky cricket, it's not self-fulfilled prophecy. Information technology'due south non wishful thinking. It's not luck or coincidence. It's a real force. I've seen information technology change so many and I come across information technology irresolute me. I bear testimony of the reality of Christ'due south being, the reality of his atonement and the reality of His grace, and I thank all of you for caring in a earth that's giving up religion, in a earth of Latter-twenty-four hours Saints that are caving in to any argument that flits across the computer screen. I'm grateful for those who are working to present Mormonism fairly, to nowadays our organized religion fairly, for we do not simply believe because nosotros are mindless sheep. We believe because we are making an intelligent choice. Nosotros don't believe we're earning our style to heaven with our works. We believe that we're learning to exist heavenly with the help of Christ'southward grace.

And, as we stay in that covenant relationship, nosotros don't depend on his part and our part. It's not a ratio. Information technology'due south a human relationship and within that loving relationship, we are tutored, nosotros are educated, we are blessed, and we are given grace to be changed. Thank heaven, literally, for the atonement that allows usa, instead of being condemned by our mistakes, to be educated and uplifted and made improve because of our mistakes. I bear this testimony and all of my gratitude for those who work toward this end in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Q&A

Q1.  Exercise yous call up in that location's a conflict in the New Testament between the Savior's teachings that we must practise things such as helping the less fortunate per Matthew 25 (sheep and goats) and Paul's teachings, Romans 10:9-10, that if we can only come up to Christ?

A1.  I think at that place'southward a conflict if you're thinking about earning heaven, ticking off things on a list, merely there'southward absolutely no conflict when yous think nearly becoming, when you think virtually what we are to become, and so there'south no earning. Not what we know, non what we do, but what we tin can become through the grace of Christ. I call back then at that place's no conflict. Nosotros don't have to apologize for Paul. We don't take to hide Paul. Paul taught grace within the context of the plan of salvation and temple ordinances. Christians don't have either of those contexts, so mainstream Christians oftentimes misinterpret grace, but nosotros take a fullness of understanding that gives u.s. a fullness of understanding of grace and Paul'due south teachings that they don't have.

Q2.  Since we're talking virtually misinterpreting, do we misinterpret 2 Nephi 25:23? Is it possible to do all that we can do?

A2.  Again, if you look at the context in which we read that scripture, you're talking about grace. We're talking a few verses afterwards well-nigh buying milk and honey without money, without price. So when I recall of 'subsequently all we tin practise', I don't emphasize the words 'later on' or 'all' or 'can' or 'do'. I emphasize the word 'we' – after all 'we' can do, not 'nosotros' equally in you and me, simply 'we' as in Christ and me working together in a covenant human relationship which is described in the context around that poesy that's then often quoted.

Q3.  What do I say to my Baptist friend who says, "Mormons accept to earn their way in heaven."?

A3.  Say, I'd like to invite y'all over for a barbecue. No, say, "Mormons aren't earning heaven. We are learning heaven." And in that context then nosotros start seeing globe every bit a schoolhouse, which is what is meant to be, not as a perpetual garden of Eden, where we were meant to run around naked, frolicking with animals–although some of my students kind of wish that were all the same happening.  I recollect if we can understand that earth life was meant to exist a school, and then we can understand that the atonement and the grace that flows from the amende is non merely almost getting us dwelling house when the schoolhouse bong rings. Information technology'south about helping us learn our lessons. It'southward most helping us during trials. See, without an understanding of what earth life is for then why exercise nosotros need to go through the trials? Merely once we understand that that school is to help u.s.a. become better and that the atonement is at that place to assist united states of america become improve, then we realize that's why we left.

Gosh, if the atonement is just about getting us back to God, why did nosotros leave? We were already with God. The signal that we weren't like God, and so the atonement isn't only about getting united states home, earning our manner into heaven, but it's nearly getting us dwelling house improve than we were when we came.

Q4.  Can you repeat for us the three phrases you said?  Grace is the ability to go usa through that. You said it near the end of your talk.

A4.  Oh, heavens. I don't even retrieve what I said, but I think I was saying grace is not a reward for the righteous; information technology's the source of righteousness. And grace isn't a trophy for the worthy; information technology'south the source of worthiness. And it'south non a prize for the perfect; it's the help for those who are willing to exist perfected.

Q5.  Good, this is the terminal one. I'1000 pitiful if I didn't get to all of them, but this 1 is a whole other talk, I recollect. Some people reject the possibility of grace and tender mercies because of the suffering that exists in the globe and mock those that testify of pocket-sized miracles like finding lost car keys and prayers. How do we all-time help them understand that tender mercies and grace can abound in spite of the tragedies and disasters that will occur?

A5. Once again, I recollect as we enjoy the broader perspective that we enjoy every bit Latter-mean solar day saints (and aren't we grateful for it?) then we can bargain with the tragedies and the expiry and we tin can see Christ's grace, his answers to prayer even amongst those tragedies. I hateful, my prayers changed for my dad, when he had his stroke that left him unable to speak or eat or motility. My prayers inverse that quick. The whole way to the hospital, I was praying, "Please, please help him. Please save him. Delight take intendance of him. Please heal him." Then, immediately my prayers changed to "Please take him. Please take him." And then I think if we tin can see tender mercies and answers to prayer, not as fiddling merit badges that God is giving out to his obedient children; instead, if we can see that it'southward the help and blessings that He'southward giving us equally we go through this earth life that is meant to be hard. Christ didn't suffer for us and so that we wouldn't have to suffer. He suffered for us so that He could be with u.s. in our suffering. How can we expect to become like him if we ask him to have away from us anything that makes us suffer or be uncomfortable? The atonement is non about existence comfortable. The atonement is about being comforted amid the very lessons that we need to larn. Thank yous. It'south been not bad. Thank you. Love being with yous. Love beingness with yous.

stricklandhourson.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference/august-2018/have-you-been-saved-by-grace

Share this post