Transcription
One of my favorite things in general conference is when the talks align themselves in such a way that there is a distinct sequence, and we had that in the very first session of this last conference. I'm going to talk about these two talks because when you read their titles in order, we have come home, all who have endured valiantly.
"Come Home" was given by Elder Clark G. Gilbert and is an amazing invitation to return and come back into the fold of Christ, come back into activity, followed by an incredible talk that we're going to explore deeply by David Elder Bednar, who dove into what does it truly mean to endure to the end. And when we look at what it means to endure to the end, all of us immediately can begin to have hope and have joy in what is happening there.
Welcome everyone to Return to Honor. My name is Brett Jud, and I appreciate all of you that are here. I haven't posted in a while. My schedule's been crazy. Work has increased. Um, and it's been difficult to kind of come in and to put these together. Those of you who haven't ever done this, and I'm not trying to make an excuse, but uh, one of my friends and a gentleman in my stake who is on the high council, he's like, "Putting one of these together is is a lot like putting together a high council Sunday talk every time you do one of these." And he's absolutely right. If we want to put something that is meaningful and has value, there's a lot of effort that goes into it. And I, I want to really dive in and bring something of value.
So in this discussion today, I want to look deeply at what Elder Bednar brought to us. When I was watching conference and this talk uh came on, I was just absolutely blown away. I had never looked at what it means to endure to the end in the context that he brought it up. But immediately for me, it made so much sense, and I thought about it in terms of uh individuals who I work with who struggle uh, and I could see where this has absolute an amazing context for them.
So, let's take a look at this and dive in because I really want to explore it with you and just to show how does this apply to those of us who are trying to repent, who are trying to do our best, who are trying to endure to the end and make it to that great finish line where we can say, "I've done all I can."
Looking at Elder Bednar's talk, "All Who Have Endured Valiantly," he opens with, and I don't want to do just a play-by-play, paragraph-by-paragraph recap, because I want you to go, I'll put the link in the description. I always do so you can go look at these yourself. But he starts with how he's always been a runner all of his life, and how running has a love-hate relationship, and there is that endurance that you just have to persevere, grit through it and drive. And I agree with him in that I think that there are a lot of individuals who have somehow gotten the notion that the religious expectation and admonition to endure to the end is really that idea of we are running a marathon. The last mile is going to be grueling, and you just have to grit your way through, and that's exhausting just thinking about it. And when you add in then the cares of the world, our weaknesses, our frailties, uh, the things that we're personally afflicted with, it almost becomes absolutely undaunting, as if it's never even going to happen. And in this talk, Elder Bednar really dives into that and and looks at that.
So here in in this paragraph, the scriptures highlight instructive uses of the word "endure." And this is the piece that he's going to look at, and I think is so important. What does it really mean to endure? What, how do we endure? And there are a lot of things that we use the word "endure" for in our daily life that really don't fit when we start looking at it in a religious construct. So, for example, the Lord declared to the Nephites, "Look unto me and endure to the end, and ye shall live. For unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." And the Savior revealed through the prophet Joseph Smith that "if you keep my commandments and endure to the end, you shall have eternal life."
Now, this one for me was really instructive, and for me, it jumped out a lot because I've never taken those two and separated them apart. But here, Joseph is saying, "If you keep my commandments," this is what the Lord had said to him. "Keep my commandments" is one thought, and it's a separate thing, and "endure to the end." Now, I'd never separated the two apart. That keeping commandments was one thing, enduring to the end was another. And so, when that pulls apart, the question really is, what does it mean then to endure to the end? If it isn't "keep my commandments," or if those are in fact separate ideas, and that is really where we jump in then with the next part of this, and Elder Bednar explains it in just such a beautiful way in the next section.
"Becoming New Creatures in Christ." The Savior's restored gospel invites us to be spiritually transformed, not merely improve our behavior. Keeping the commandments improves our behavior. That's a behavioral thing. But what does this mean then to be spiritually transformed? Because that's where the real question is. And if we're looking for a transformation, then how do I do that?
As we align our character, and I love patterns. I absolutely love patterns. And they are all over throughout the scriptures. In fact, I have one tag uh or grouping in uh the Gospel Library when I'm doing my research that is "Patterns and Promises" because when you read the scriptures, many times you're going to come across patterns and promises associated with those: "Do these things, receive these blessings," or "If you want to receive this, here is the pattern and what you should follow." And here Elder Bednar gives us just that. As we align our character, align our desires, and align our actions, and align what we truly love more closely with God's will. So that's the pattern. We are to align our character, desire, actions, and what we truly love with God's will. Then here's the promise: "The Savior can bring about a comprehensive and complete change in us." Now, those two words are huge. Comprehensive, that pretty much, if something is comprehensive, it has left nothing out, and complete means that there's nothing unfinished. So, comprehensive, it's bringing in everything, and complete, from beginning to end, all things are done. And the change in us is going to be both comprehensive and complete if we align our character, our desires, our actions, and what we truly love more closely with God's will. That is an amazing pattern, and that is the pattern that all of us, I know, are striving for, and we struggle with. I get that we all struggle with that.
So, the next paragraph, and and this whole thing, I'm I'm going to have to be really careful not to just go through, but there is so much in this. I love it. As we strive to put off the natural man, Elder Bednar says, and become saints through the Savior's Atonement. And I think it would be really important sometime, maybe to go in and and in your own study, what does it mean to become saints? If this is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, well, what does that mean then to be a saint? Because here we strive to put off the natural man and become saints. Saints clearly is something different than our natural mortal self. So, putting off the natural man and becoming saints through the Savior's Atonement, we are to come unto Him, be born again. That would be transformation, and bind ourselves to the Father and the Son through sacred covenants and ordinances. So again, we see a pattern that to become saints through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to be born again, what we're doing is we are binding ourselves to the Father through sacred covenants and ordinances. We pledge our willingness to take upon us the Savior's name. We do that every Sunday when we partake of the sacrament, and would receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost. Experience a mighty change again, transformation, as we see here in the upper paragraph. A change of heart, and we serve the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. We are to become new creatures in Christ.
So how is it that we become new creatures in Christ? How is it that we become saints, overcoming the natural man? The pattern and the the way is given to us right here in this paragraph. And so at no time should we ever say, "I'm not sure how to do this." It is clear how we do this. It's not easy, and it is progressive. And that is one of the things that when when Elder Bednar says where he goes in this, it was just so exciting as he talks about how step by step, grace by grace, we learn and we grow, just as the Savior did. It isn't an instantaneous, it isn't a miraculous wake up one day, everything is better. But we have to be working on it, and we have to be truly trying to make that transformation. If we're not, and we're just waiting for it to happen to us, then we're missing a major piece of of this pattern and promise.
So this mighty spiritual change is possible only through the merits, mercies, and grace of the Holy Messiah. As mortal beings, we are in absolute and never-ending need of Heavenly Father and the Savior's help to realize our eternal destiny. For me, this is critical, and and I think that this is one of the key fundamental principles that we have got to get under, you know, understood. The spiritual change does not happen by anything that we personally are doing, other than we are keeping the commandments. It only comes through our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement, through the merits, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ. It reminds me, and I often go back to this because it is so absolutely um instructive, the people in the Anti-Nephi-Lehis who, when they converted, they had that mighty change of heart, they transformed, and they said, "After all we can do, which is to repent." So they were acknowledging that it is through the grace of Jesus Christ and through that accessing Him through repentance that they were able to be saved, "after all they could do, which is to repent fully." Then were they able to receive forgiveness of their sins. We can do nothing except repent and except follow the commandments in order then to be to to show ourselves truly worthy, if you will, although all are worthy of receiving the blessings of the Atonement in our life because that is there for everyone, and it is only through that that we can have this transformation.
And it is because of the merits of Jesus Christ and all that He did that we are able to experience the potential transformation that comes. In this next section, I just scroll down, and this is where he begins to dive in and really break down what does it mean to endure to the end, and how can we reframe this idea in our mind and see how it truly means to become like Jesus Christ.
Now, in this next section, he says, "The spiritual gift of charity and enduring to the end." Mormon testified that charity is the pure love of Christ and the greatest of all spiritual gifts. Spiritually or significantly, the word "endure" is used in the scriptures to define and describe charity. So this idea of "endure to the end" now all of a sudden pairs with this idea of charity and the gift of charity, that spiritual gift of charity. And this should be one of those "aha" moments, or at least it was for me, when it's like, "Oh, wait a minute. Charity endureth all things, and it is there forever." And and I'll read it. I'm slaughtering it right now. For me, this was one of those kind of "aha" moments when I was like, "Oh my goodness, that makes total sense." The spiritual gift of charity that endures and goes on and is always present. Maybe that's what he's talking about when he says "endure to the end." Have charity always. And that's exactly where we're going to go in and look at this because when we do that, and and one of the things I think is really important, not only is charity something that we need to have for other people, we need to exercise charity for ourselves. If there's one thing that I end up with my clients talking about repeatedly, it is that idea of having compassion and charity for themselves and giving themselves a little grace and allowing for the opportunity for the Atonement of Jesus Christ to have effect in their life. And I think that so many times, well, I don't even think I, I know that so many times we are more damning to our own progression than any type of restrictive commandment or expectation within the idea of forgiveness. We are the ones who truly are putting the barriers in place because of imposed limitations uh that we have.
So let's let's look at this talking about that idea of endurance and charity. "Charity endureth all things, suffereth long, seeketh not her own, and beareth all things, endureth all things, and charity never faileth." Mormon also taught that "who so is found possessed of the spiritual gift of charity at the last day, it shall be well with him." Now, that should be a clue. That's one of those, "Oh, wait a minute. Maybe I need to make sure that I pick that up and put it in my, you know, my my bag of tools." "Who so is found possessed of charity at the last day, it shall be well with him." So one of the things that is essential then that we do is we seek after, learn how to have charity, have it be part of who we are, and transform ourselves into a charitable individual. That is that mighty change of heart. That is that transformation. And when we do that, we start to then emulate everything about our Savior.
Here, Elder Bednar begins again with another of these um patterns. What do we have to do for disciples of the Savior? Charity encompasses both what we do and what we become, as this spiritual gift ultimately possesses us. At a fundamental level, charity certainly includes acts of compassion, kindness, and generosity directed toward others. But at a higher and even holier level, charity is the very essence of the end towards which we are enduring, becoming new creatures in Christ. And so this "endure to the end" is the development of true and complete charity, so that we're becoming like Jesus Christ across the days of our life.
So Elder Bednar continues. And he says, "The Savior's divine nature and sublime character were the wellsprings of perfect compassion, which is charity." During His mortal ministry, the Redeemer of the world turned outward in love and service and faced spiritual adversity and physical pain. In contrast to the natural man in each of us that turns inward in self-interest, self-centeredness, and selfishness. As we live as He invites us to live, and with His help, our nature and character over time increases, increasingly become more like His.
One of the things that I love about this section right here is that again, he's he's reiterating that over time, that as we work in that transformation, this isn't an instantaneous, it isn't an immediate, it isn't a um wake up one day and ha, here I am. But Jesus Christ also, as He put His love and service and His focus outward, He faced adversity. He faced physical pain. He was rejected. He was ridiculed. And yet He continued to put it outward. The natural man, the thing that we're putting off so that we can become saints, turns it inward. Our own self-interest, our own self-centeredness, our own selfishness. And so part of that pattern then, how do we become saints? What does it mean? It is that putting off of self-interest, self-centeredness, and selfishness, and outwardly then exhibiting that charity. Our focus then, he goes on, becomes less about our desires and our interests, and more about understanding and addressing the needs of others. Truly, the very essence of ministering, and how it is then that we emulate the Savior in our life. And also, when we get out of our own self, it's easier then to overcome our afflictions, as well as our addictions. Because I'm not self-serving anymore. I'm not trying to pacify and meet my needs, but I'm now working to serve and meet the needs of others around me. And I put off myself to that needs of others. And it's amazing what then begins to happen.
Now, here we go into another pattern. And there's so many cues and clues in this that if we really want to know how do we endure to the end? How do we become like Christ? How can I know that I am doing all that I can, and that the grace of Jesus Christ can fully be experienced in my life? All we have to do is continue in this talk.
So, "grace for grace." And I'd heard this phrase all my life. You know, when we think about it about Jesus Christ and the way He was brought up. And Elder Bednar says here, "The prospect of being blessed in mortality with even a small portion of the character and attributes of Jesus may seem utterly impossible to us. And yet, it's not. That's the very promise." He goes on, "The pattern of spiritual development evidenced in the Savior's mortal life also applies to each of us. He came and dwelt in the flesh. So have we. He received not of the fullness at first, but received and continued grace to grace until He received a fullness." So what does that mean? We, as premortal spirits, came to earth, and we received a body, and so we came and dwelt in the flesh. And it says that He didn't receive a fullness at first, but He grew and continually grew grace to grace. That really is the exact same pattern. And what we see is that Jesus Christ received the fullness of the gospel a little bit by little bit throughout His life until He had that fullness. So do we. We, we are born, we grow, we go to Primary, and we learn small little tidbits, and then we go into Sunday School. We start to expand our knowledge. We do our own study, and grace to grace, we grow in our knowledge and understanding of the fullness until we have a full and complete knowledge. At one point in our progression, we follow the exact same pattern as Jesus Christ in our own life, as He did, as He grew to have a fullness of the of of our Heavenly Father's knowledge and understanding in Him.
Now, here is where Elder Bednar really made the shift that I think is important for all of us. If we can grab on to this, we're going to know and understand things so much differently. And you can read the scriptures so much differently. Inserting the phrase where it says "endure to the end," he's going to say, is possessed with the pure love of Christ. And in many ways, I think we could simplify it to "have become like Christ." The Savior taught His ancient apostles, "He that endureth to the end, or is possessed by the pure love of Christ, shall be saved." Nephi testified, "I heard a voice from the Father saying, 'Yea, the words of my beloved are true and faithful. He that endures to the end, or is possessed by the pure love of Christ.'" So, let's reread that. "He that is possessed of the pure love of Christ, or charity, the same shall be saved." And Alma, "He that findeth mercy and is possessed by the pure love of Christ, the same shall be saved." Enduring to the end is linked inextricably to the spiritual gift of charity. Enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth, hold on to the limits of our physical strength or mental capacity, push through challenges and adversities. Enduring to the end is the joyous quest of a lifetime, pressing forward with faith in Jesus Christ in a gradual process of trusting Him, receiving help from our Savior to become more like Him.
This "endure to the end" reframe, and looking at it as doing exactly what Jesus Christ did: coming to earth, receiving a mortal body, enduring adversity, growing and learning grace by to grace, lesson after lesson, stumble after stumble, until we finally eventually one day fully become like Him and receive that fullness. That is what it means to endure to the end. It doesn't mean that you somehow miraculously became perfect, and then you grit yourself to that. You cling to the iron rod and you never slip once in your life. Slowly, iteratively, process by process, change by change, we move forward until we have become like Jesus Christ. So enduring to the end truly and simply means that we have become like our Savior Jesus Christ over time, repeatedly, as we learn to act and be like Him, to embody charity as an action as well as an attribute.
As we do that, and I will repeat, as we do that to ourselves, we must give charity to ourselves. We cannot be found to possess charity if we are beating ourselves up for our failures. If we are constantly reminding ourselves of our weakest moment, and we fail to allow ourselves to grow and expand and recognize that I'm not who I was yesterday. I've learned. I've grown. I've changed. And so I let go of who I was yesterday. As we do that, that is when we begin to then have that power to day after day, and in the the addiction world language, one day at a time, right? We transform ourselves completely and comprehensively. And that transformation then changes us from who we were into who it is that we're becoming. And it is only because of the merits of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that that's even possible. Because none of us, no matter how perfect we are in our endurance, are going to be able to do it on our own.
And so if you are struggling, if you are one who is maybe in this progress and you're like, "Oh, I'm doing it so slow." Doesn't matter. There is no timeline. It's just, are you doing it? Are you making those grace-to-grace changes and learning and growing and understanding? If you fail, do you look back, reflect on, grow from that experience so that you can then say, "What will I do next time as I make this transformation?" If that is what you're doing, that is the very essence of enduring to the end. And then we share that grace, and we share that charity to others and help them as they move on. And as you do that, I absolutely know this, that that is when you begin to have more strength, more power, and more hope. And the the the weight and the heaviness lifts, and you give yourself forgiveness, and you start stepping forward into that new self. That truly is the essence of what it means to say, "I have returned to honor."