The Atonement and Grace of Jesus Christ -- Brad Wilcox

hi brothers and sisters my name is Brad Wilcox and I've been asked to speak at this New Zealand Education Week the problem is that I can't be in New Zealand to be there personally with you so I guess we're going to be doing it kind of long distance but just because I'm not there with you doesn't mean that I don't love you I moved to New Zealand for six months when I was a young professor here at BYU I directed a study abroad program there I'll never forget the ward that we lived in the bishop that we had the members of the church there that became such dear friends for me in New Zealand that's where my son first started taking seminary and it was so funny because he we got down there and he said I'm not waking up early I said no Dave I said Russell this is what you do in the church he says well no I'll just take it during the day like they do in Utah I said no it's not offered during the day so you're getting up early and I had told him originally that I wouldn't let him drive the car down there because you drive on the left side of the road and he was just getting his his driver's license but I made a deal with him that if he would go to seminary and wake up early I'd let him drive so he actually did better than I did driving on the left side of the road because he wasn't full of all the bad habits that I learned for years driving on the right side of the road but he went to seminary and his seminary teacher was an enthusiastic returned missionary who just filled him with passion for the gospel there were only three or four students in the class which made Russell feel like his opinion mattered it made him feel like his presence mattered it made him feel like if he wasn't there he would be missed so I look back and I see my own son's beginnings of history demony coming from New Zealand I also remember being in New Zealand during 9/11 9/11 that's the year that that happened was when we were down there and I'll never forget the outpouring of love that we felt from the Saints for us for our country for the hurt that we were feeling and for the students from Brigham Young University who were there working in the schools we just felt such an outpouring of love and felt so grateful to be surrounded by that when we were far from home at a time that was very traumatic for some of those kids so yes I have wonderful memories of New Zealand I remember being there when Lord of the Rings first had its premiere in Auckland and now the whole world knows about Lord of the Rings and hobbits and they all associate that with New Zealand but we were there when that was just first coming out I returned to New Zealand many times I returned to speak at time out for women events maybe some of you have met me there I remember going and speaking at the MTC there I remember going and speaking to some of the missions there and being at young single adult conferences and youth conferences now the church is doing fsy not only internationally but throughout North America this is brand new and I remember being a part of some of the very first FS wise even before they were called that we called them t TF wise time for youth we also called them s my C's special multi-state youth conferences but I remember being there in New Zealand with those I remember being at church college and participating in some of those youth conferences that set a pattern and that set a standard for the youth experiences that young people are going to have throughout the entire church so yeah New Zealand has led the way in many many ways but I guess the thing that I love most about New Zealand is hokey-pokey ice cream so sorry that's the one thing I'm not getting I can't be there to get some hokey-pokey ice cream but I sure wish I were because I love it and I love you and I'm grateful that you've decided to gather I'm grateful that you're having an Education Week experience in New Zealand feel my love feel my support and let's talk a little bit about grace and let's talk a little bit about the atonement of Jesus Christ this is a study that was done here at BYU it was done by danja and some of his colleagues Dan Judd is now the Dean of religious education at Brigham Young University and in this study that was published in the American Psychological Association journal they reported a study they did with 635 latter-day Saint University students and they found that those who understood grace how lower levels of depression lower levels of anxiety lower levels of perfectionism lower levels of scrupulosity or feeling like you always have something to confess and lower levels of shame Wow this isn't a drug that we're talking about this is a doctrine elder Boyd Packer said that doctrine understood can change behavior even faster than a study the behavior can change now these are serious issues in our time in the United States the current generation is getting a nickname they're calling them Generation Next ve XE be vexed because they have so many issues with depression so many issues with anxieties so many issues with suicidal thoughts and tendencies now you may not be having the same extent of a problem in New Zealand but I think you probably are having some of the same issues and we have a solution a solution that makes a difference and that is understanding the doctrine of grace grace the power that flows from the atonement of Jesus Christ I was asked to speak to some primary children about Grace and I thought uh how am I gonna do that I mean I used to I'm used to teaching adults on this topic but how do I teach children and finally had a bright idea I thought I'll give them all a handbook and we'll have a little race and we'll see who can find the word grace in the hymn book the quickest well I passed up the hymn books we said one two three go and we got started pretty quickly one of the boys said hey I found it I found it I said wonderful what him is it in he said call to serve to serve Him I said I've sung that him a lot and I don't remember grace being in that him he says bullets right here he holds up the book he fights to the bottom of the page where we all found out that the hymn was written by sister Grace Gordon one of the teachers said that what's the whole new twist on being saved by grace maybe these kids thought that grace Gordon would show up in a superhero costume and save the but I don't think kids that only ones who don't understand that word or that phrase what does grace mean and what does it mean to be saved by grace let's talk about it grace is one of those crazy words in English that has many different meanings it can mean elegance and beauty she is a graceful woman it can mean kindness or courtesy treat your guests with grace it can mean a title like your grace it can be a prayer we're saying grace it can also be a salutation like we read in the New Testament grace be unto you with all those definitions maybe it will help us if we go back to the original Hebrew which was translated as grace and that word means goodwill or favor given with compassion no wonder Christians grab that word to describe God's goodwill God's favor given with God's compassion but latter-day saints understand that grace is not just a description of God's attributes it's also a description of how he engages with us how he invites us to engage with him as we strive to make those attributes our own listen to the definition that was given to us by other lukewarm he says grace is the divine assistance and endowment of strength assistance endowment of strength by which we grow from the flawed and limited beings we are now into exalted beings so grace is the power he gives us to make us strong it's the divine help he gives us to make us divine when I was younger I used to always think that grace was somehow waiting for me like at a finish line I had to crawl on my hands and knees I had to be scraping I had to have my dirt under the fingernails I I mean I had to be right on my last leg and then when I crossed the finish line somehow grace would be there now I understand that grace is the power that surrounds me here and now it's not waiting for me at the finish line it's the power that gets me to the finish line when I was younger I used to think that somehow Jesus's grace supplemented my works or my works somehow supplemented Jesus's grace as if we had to meet some sort of minimum height requirement to get to heaven but now I understand as a loop of TOD that it's not about height it's about growth so instead of speaking so often about his part and my part I speak about his heart I speak about my heart loving each other and being conformed to the same image when we speak of a covenant in the church we sometimes hear the definition a two-way promise that's absolutely correct but when we state it like that too often we look at a covenant as a contract I do my part he does his part but then that can fill us with discouragement because we never feel like we can do our part well all you have to do is keep the commandments oh yeah that's all you have to do just keep the commandments all of them and all you have to do is endure to the end oh yeah that's all you have to do endure to the end keep all the commandments all the time and then when we fall short we think now I've blown it I haven't done my part so now Jesus won't do his part as if he's looking for us to make a mistake so that he doesn't have to deliver that's contract thinking get that thinking out of your mind Truman Madsen once said a covenant is not a cold contract between party a and party B a covenant is a warm relationship between two friends who are on catch the word and think of the temple a first-name basis Wow that gives us a whole new view of covenants have you ever heard somebody say well I'm not getting baptized because if I get baptized then I'm making promises to do stuff and I won't be able to do it and so I'm actually more noble I'm actually being better if I just don't get baptized because then I'm not being a hypocrite maybe you've heard people say that maybe you've heard people say well I'm not gonna go to the temple because then I have to make covenants and if I break those covenants then I'm worse off then if I'd never made the covenants in the first place what's revealed by this kind of thinking contract women tell well I don't want to sign the dotted line because the minute I sign the dotted line then I have to live up to the contract and if I can't live up to the contract then I'm better off not signing because then I'm not liable contract contract since when is anybody worse off by having a relationship with Jesus Christ since when is anybody worse off by having a relationship with God when we think of that covenant as a relationship then suddenly we're not in this contract mentality but rather we're in a relationship where God's help is not outside of our reach where God is willing to help us and lift us and transform us throughout the entire perfecting process he's willing to be there I'm not working for him I'm working with him and that makes a huge difference in the way that I interact with him the way that I move forward that makes a huge difference no um right here I want to read what elder D Todd Christofferson has said we do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help see we don't have to do our part so that he will do his part divine aid can be ours every hour of every day no matter where we are in the path of obedience Wow once I realized that and I know that I'm working together with God together with Christ I can do this it's not all on my shoulders our very nature I know a young man joined the church in Las Vegas Nevada now for those of you don't know much about the United States Las Vegas is called Sin City it's a place that's well known for its gambling well known for its organized crime well known for its prostitution I also has good buffets by the way but we won't go there um it's a pretty sinful place and this young man was growing up in the middle of all of that and he wanted to investigate churches his stepfather was mad at it so what are you going to churches for you're a young man you're supposed to be drinking and smoking pot and sleeping with girls why the heck are you going to churches well he ended up investigating the Church of Jesus Christ and when he ended up joining his dad was so mad at him he kicked him out of the house no you know the drill family in the ward took him in helped him get ready for his mission year after his baptism he ended up getting called to Japan and he was in the MTC and he wrote me a letter that said something like this some general authority just came and told us we're supposed to love our parents that's a hard one for me how am I supposed to love someone that I don't even like how am I supposed to love a man that I don't even respect how am I supposed to love somebody that I hope I never see again and then he wrote this I guess for me right now love is going to have to mean that I feel sorry for him and that I won't give up hope that he can change that's grace when your heart says I can't love and heaven says I'll help you when your heart says I can't forgive and heaven says I'll give you the strength when your heart says I can't break this bad habit and heaven says try one more time that's grace that's when we see this refining process that's when we see this sanctifying process that's when we see this enabling power that changes our very hearts that's grace now we sing a hymn in the church that says I stand all amazed that the love Jesus offers me confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me it's a beautiful hymn when Charles Gabriel wrote the hymn the word confused didn't just mean I don't get it or baffled the word confused could also mean standing in all standing in all of the grace the enabling power that's so fully he proffers me now that's another word we don't use very often we use the word offer I can offer you I can offer you this book that's kind of not bound right now but I can offer this to you but you would have to come get if I proffer it to you then I'm putting the prefix Pro on to offer and I'm making proffer it means I'm Pro actively offering it means man I am giving this to you I'm putting it right in your hands I'm making it almost impossible for you to refuse it that's the difference think of the emblems of the sacrament in many churches the emblems are offered to the congregation people come forward to receive them but not in our church in our church the emblems are proffered to us they are through literally placed in our hands even when we're late and in the foyer then don't ask me how I know that but even then the emblems are proffered to us giving us in such a way that we stand amazed at how freely Christ gives this gift it's an earned it's unmerited it's undeserved it's just a gift but he must stand a little amazed himself that how few people there are in the world who are willing to pick up those numbers and internalize them how few people there are in the world who are willing to receive the gift that he is giving them in the scriptures and Doctrine and Covenants section 88 33 we read for what does it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him and he received not the gift behold he rejoices not in that which is given to him neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift so yes grace is given as a gift but it's a gift we have to receive it's a gift that we have to take advantage of think about gifts you've been given in the past maybe you're thinking about a fruit bread or a fruitcake I think about that my aunt used to always make fruitcakes for us at Christmas time and we'd smile and say thank you and we toss them out because they were so heavy and thick and we just toss them out we didn't receive her gift I remember when my mom used to make some shirts for me and I'd say thank you and then I shove him in the back of my closet because I thought no way I'm not wearing that to high school I mean she put a lot of love in those shirts but they were not the coolest thing to be wearing and I didn't receive the gift we can tell if somebody receives a gift by whether they're using they get it so think about grace like a scholarship it's a gift it's not a student loan doesn't have to be paid back it's a gift but it's a gift that's given with the expectation that you're going to use this gift that you're not going to just let it slide out of your hands you're going to use it to become better to become better educated a scholarship does not guarantee learning and a scholarship does not guarantee graduation and a scholarship certainly doesn't guarantee an education it facilitates it it opens the door it makes it possible if you will but choose to take advantage of the gift and when we choose to receive the gift then he can give us more those who aren't members of the church always say well you latter-day Saints believe more in works than in grace you believe more in works keeping the commandments making covenants you believe more in works than in faith they don't realize that our faith is so strong that the works and the commandment keeping grows out of that faith we don't do it in place of the faith rather it grows from the faith we don't make it keep covenants because we don't believe in grace we make and keep covenants because that's how we receive grace and that's how we use it that's how we acknowledge it and appreciate it and it's how we invite more and more grace into our lives I remember a sister who went through the temple for the first time and when I asked her how she felt about it she said well I'm actually a little disappointed because I really wish it had been more focused on the atonement what it sounded to me like she was saying I just walked through a forest and I wish I'd seen a tree how did she miss it but then I realized hmm maybe she was expecting to see portrayals of Christ's bleeding and Gethsemane suffering on the cross rising from the empty tomb maybe she was thinking of that and instead she saw the story of Adam and Eve elder brucey - and his wife Marie wrote a book called the contrite spirit and in the book they said this the endowment is not to teach us how Christ gave us the atonement it's to teach us how Adam and Eve and all of us receive the atonement and we received the atonement by covenant as we enter into that covenant relationship then we allow Christ's grace to make a difference in our lives and the more grace we receive the more his willing to give us listen to these scriptures Doctrine and Covenants 71 for unto him that receiveth it shall be given more abundantly even power look at 2nd Nephi 28 but from him or from them that shall say we have enough from them shall be taken away even that which they have wow now I used to be confused whenever we talk about power because I thought wow we talked about this light of Christ we talked about the spirit we talked about the power of the spirit we talked about grace as power we talked about the power of the priesthood we talked about being endowed in the temple with power I couldn't figure out where one power ended and where another power started and then I read this verse in Doctrine and Covenants 87 there is no power save power of God so then it hit me that all of these different descriptions of power are not different powers but rather different levels of the same power and as we receive one level then we can receive more and he will give us more and more even from grace to grace until we receive a fullness as it says in Doctrine and Covenants 93 13 so that leads us to Matthew Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents my daughter Whitney she was just in first grade when we'd live lived over in New Zealand she went to school in Auckland had her little school uniform had her little schoolhouse and all those fun things that they do there and in fact the kids used to corner her at recess and maybe she wasn't in first grade I think she might have been a little older than that maybe she was in second grade anyway the corner her at recess and they'd say talk talk and she'd say why and they say because we like your accent we want to hear your accent and she says no you're the one with the accent you're the one who talks with an accent and then just laugh and laugh anyway Whitney a grown woman now a mother of a baby a wife with a husband she says to me one day dad I was reading in Matthew 25 about the parable of the talents and I think it's a parable about grace I said no no honey it's about money I know these things I teach this stuff it's about money the talents were money she says dad read it again so I did and with the lens that she'd given me suddenly I saw where she was coming from and I started looking at talents not so much as money or gifts and abilities but rather as books one of the first things I do when my grandkids are born is I read them a book now everybody thinks it's funny because there I sit in the hospital with the little baby on my lap reading a book they think it's funny because the book is usually bigger than the baby and I know it's not funny I know it's good I know it's right I know it's smart because I want that baby surrounded with books and a language and love right from day one so I tucked that baby in my arm and I read a book well now some of my little grandkids are old enough to read books to me and when they do I give them another book if they read one book I'll give them another book and when they read that book I'll give them another book and I keep giving books to them as they keep reading the books now think of the parable of the talents until one he gave five talents or books unto another for talent or two there was two talents or two books and to another one talent one book now the first to read their books so he said well done because you've been faithful over a few books I will give you more enter into my library the other servant who only had one book he ended up taking the book away why because he's being mean no it's because the servant already discarded it the sermon already cast it aside what good is a book to someone who refuses to read it I think there are some people who are listening to this who know the pain of giving away a copy of the Book of Mormon only to have it rejected that choice says a lot more about the person making it and it does about the book or the missionary even if God loves that servant even if God says gosh you're my child I love you enter into my library even if you didn't read your book enter into my library is a sermon even gonna want to be there if the servant can't handle one book has a certain thing handle the library it's not an issue of whether God wants to bless this servant it's that he can't he can't give him more until he has used what he has given here's one more scripture that I think you'll find interesting it comes from second Nephi 28 I will give unto the children of men line upon line precept upon precept and blessed are those who are condemned to my precepts and lend an ear to my counsel for they shall learn wisdom for unto him that receiveth I will give more line upon line precept upon precept book upon book grace - grace and as we receive then we're inviting more and more grace into our lives so how do you respond when somebody says have you been saved by grace I hope we know that the answer is yes yes absolutely with great gratitude a hundred percent completely no fine print yes yes yes if we're gonna have a discussion with non-members about that phrase perhaps the thing we should be discussing isn't the word grace believe it or not that is common ground maybe the word we should be discussing is salvation have you been saved by grace that's where we're different because for many Christians salvation is just getting to the other side of heaven it's just getting to the other side of the wall I met a lady in the South in the United States and she said I'm gonna slip st. Peter of 20 and slide on through and that was her idea of grace she's gonna get into heaven but we understand so much more for us it's not just about getting to heaven it's about becoming heavenly it's not just about getting back to God it's about becoming more like him we often hear people describe the atonement with great emotion because they say they're so thankful for what Jesus has done for them and they see his suffering as being a favor something he did for them so that they wouldn't have to do it but when latter-day saints speak of the atonement we're not speaking just of a favor Christ did for us we're speaking of an investment that he made in us if the atonement is just about life after death why did we live why did we choose to live in the first place if the atonement is just about getting back to God why did we leave we were with him why did we leave if the atonement is just about forgiveness for sins what gets us to the point where we don't want to keep sinning if the atonement is just to get out of jail free card if it's just an excuse to if it's just permission to procrastinate and an excuse to sin then whatever changes us to the point that we don't want to keep living that way if the atonement is just consolation during trials and support during hard times and why do we have to go through those trials in the first place why do we have to face those hard times all of those aspects of the atonement as beautiful as they are can only come into focus and can only come into true clarity as we recognize an additional aspect of the atonement and that is transformation sherry do says Grace is the power that the atonement makes possible for us it's the power that the atonement opens up in our lives without the atonement we would have no access to this power but because of the atonement we access that power and in that covenant relationship we can become better have you been saved by grace I've been asked that question in a million times and usually I just ask a question in return have you been changed by grace because for us salvation is not this big for us salvation is this big and it includes being transformed from earthly to divine from Mortal to immortal from unholy to holy that's a huge salvation some people say in the church say well we're saved by grace we're exalted by works in other words we're resurrected by grace but we go back to celestial kingdom by our works no no no no both of those salvations we cannot do without the grace of Jesus Christ we are completely dependent on Christ's grace to save us from our fallen state and the consequences of that fall and we are completely dependent on him to change us to make us better to make us holy elder Holland's spoken General Conference wants it he compared us to a big choir I don't know if you remember that talk but he said we're all like a big choir and he mentioned the Sopranos the Altos the baritones and the basses I have a friend who sees tenor in the Tabernacle Choir and he got offended he said he left out the tenors man he says I'm gonna have a sit-in um he in that talk Elder Holland said something that has always stuck in my mind he said come as you are but don't expect to stay that way come as you are but don't expect to stay that way cuz the minute you come the miniature willing to receive Christ is willing to give and the minute you receive that he will give more and more and more and you will Beach changed I went to the Kirtland temple for a young single adult conference in Kirtland and it was great they had a they had a dance and they have their food and they had their workshops and everything but they also got to go to the historic sites and see the missionaries as the missionaries would testify the miracles that happened there and we went to the Kirtland temple on Sunday the last day of the conference and the young single adults had a chance to have a sacrament meeting right in the Kirtland temple Wow that was cool now if you're not aware we don't own the Kirtland temple that belongs to another church called the community of Christ so I don't know who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who could pull strings with somebody to get us permission to have a sacrament service there we did and it was wonderful we sang the Spirit of God like a fire is burning in the very place that it burned right there and we were able to hear talks and I was able to speak right there and I said to the young people look at the woodwork look at the woodwork around the windows look at the woodwork around the pillars look at the woodwork on the pulpits and the letters that were carved I said you can see that these early Saints just gave their whole hearts to this building they gave their whole hearts to God they were trying so hard to build something that was wonderful but they weren't very good at it they weren't very professional builders they had good hearts but they had limited resources and they have limited ability you know who was in charge of building the coming temple Hyrum Smith what did Hyrum Smith know about building a temple building a building that's so they made some mistakes earlier in the conference they had taken me down into the basement of the Kirtland temple and shown me the support beams that related correctly they were laid horizontally instead of vertically now if you're building and you have a 2x4 you're gonna lay it the two way cause that can support more weight then if you lay it the four way that's gonna Bend the easier if they had laid all the support beams incorrectly and they had laid them very far apart from each other because they were stretching their resources they were so far apart from each other that under the heaviest part of the building the pulpit no support beams but seriously no support beams now they have them oh now they've got these steel reinforced things with hydraulic lifts and I mean now it's all set but in its day they're lucky they didn't sing the spirit of God like a whoosh and just fall right through the floor but here's the point I made with those young single adults the flaws did not keep Christ from coming and the flaws did not keep Christ from acknowledging that building as his and where there was weakness he gave strength and he turned that flawed building into a holy temple and that's what he wants to do with us that's what he's trying to do with us we just have to be patient with ourselves patient with our wayward children patient with our relatives and friends patient with other members of the church as we are all going through that change process because it doesn't always happen instantly elder Neal a Maxwell said there's no such thing as an instant Christian it's a process that takes time why because God can't change us in a moment he changed water to wine like that so he can't change us in the same way well I guess he could except water doesn't have free will water doesn't have to want to change and we do your kids do your friends do your spouse's do your other members of the church that you go to church with do that makes it different I guess he could changes in an instant but he knows the change without challenge is not change and he knows that strength too easily one is not strength so time becomes the medium through which the power of the atonement of Christ is made manifest in our lives time becomes the medium through which the power of Christ's atonement is made manifest Our Lives I got a letter from a kid in the MTC and he said where's God where's God when I need him the most why is he abandoned me and I wrote him back and I said what are you talking about you're in the MTC God lives there he just visits everywhere else what do you mean where's God he writes back in he says I have been here for three weeks and I still don't speak Spanish now do you see what he wants he wants change but he wants it now I wrote it back and I said look when you were a little baby you didn't learn English in three weeks it took a lot longer so be patient hang in there keep trying you're gonna be fine God will help you he writes me back and he says don't we believe in the gift of tongues do you see what he wants he wants change he wants pouf he wants Harry Potter style pouf wave a magic wand and shilada burrito taco you speak as y'all that's what he wants I wrote it back and I said yes we believe in the gift of tongues and sometimes in church history that's been instantaneous but usually it's just a gift that takes time it's a change that takes time time is actually necessary for the gift to be part of who we are see God doesn't care whether that missionary can fake it for a few days he doesn't just want that missionary to know how to say where's the bathroom he doesn't want that missionary to look like he knows Spanish to impress everybody he wants him to know it he wants him to know it well enough to teach the gospel he wants him to be able to answer people's most heartfelt questions in Spanish so it takes time and in the same way he changes us from day to day from week to week and from weakness to weakness from grace to grace he changes us and we just have to be patient we just have to hang in there we just have to stay in our covenant we're relationship with him now I'll just end with one last story story that comes from my high school years I joined the debate team and I don't know why because I really wasn't very good at it but I joined well I do know why some girls talking into it sisters you just have no idea the power you have in your lives because these girls said hey Brad why don't you join the debate team so you can hang it up with us and I'm like okay and I joined the debate team and then I'd go to these competitions around the state on Saturday we'd go there and then we get on a school bus and we'd be driving home and and we get bored so we play a little game the game was called Matthew Mark Luke and John I don't know if that rings any bells to you but we clap our hands on our legs clap our hands together and then click our fingers so you get a little rhythm going and then when you click your fingers you're supposed to say somebody else's name Matthew or somebody else's number three and then the person who had that number would then have to say somebody else's name or number I mean I think you get the idea and if somebody makes a mistake then he goes to the back of the line and everybody moves up well we're playing this game our knees are all turned to the center aisle of the boss we're playing this game I'm moving up and I'm thinking whoa I'm gonna win this thing this is awesome man I'm gonna win I'm gonna be right up the front of the bus and then pretty soon somebody calls my name or my number and then my brain freezes and I go and then everybody laughs and then I go to the back of the bus and then I spent about five minutes and this game is stupid and anybody who likes this game is stupid I kind of sang that song for a while and then I'd start moving up again and then I think okay this time this time I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do this thing I didn't do it last time I blew it but this time I'm gonna do it and then I start moving up but sure isn't sure as you're born somebody would say my number my name and I would blow it and I go to the back of the bus now here's what I can see now that I couldn't see then no matter where I was on the bus the bus was still moving me forward even when I got sent to the back of the bus the bus was still taking me home the only way I can really mess myself up is by getting off the bus so what do we do when we say I'll never do it again and then we do it what do you do when you say no I swear I'll never do it again and then you do it what do you do when you say pinky promise I'll never do it again I don't know do you have pinky promise in New Zealand I saw deacon and a beat High fighting the other day / which is stronger pinky-promise or scouts honor I said it doesn't matter because you're going to break both of them so what do you do when you break pinky promise what do you do when you break scouts honor what did do when you struggle with covenants made before God angels and witnesses you stay on the bus and you trust that Christ will get us home you stay on the bus and even when you feel like you're in the very back you stay there and you trust that that covenant relationship is gonna keep moving you forward and keep getting you where you really need to be I bear my testimony that grace is not a prize for the perfect it is not a reward for the righteous it is not a gift for the worthy it is the source of worthiness it is the source of righteousness it is the power that gets us through the whole perfecting process and I testify that Jesus Christ is real he's not a painting he's not a statue he's real and I testify that his grace this power that we're talking about is not a lucky charm it's not self-fulfilling prophecy it's not Milan's lucky cricket it's real and I testified his atonement the suffering that makes that gift of grace possible is real it's not a myth it's not a folktale it's real and it makes a real difference in our lives please feel my love even though I'm not with you in New Zealand even though I'd love to be please know that I am so proud of you for choosing to be part of something like Education Week and please feel my support feel my love feel my friendship and please feel the sincerity with which I bear my testimony to you today and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ amen

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Length: 57min 14sec (3434 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019