Well I'm extremely grateful and humbled to be
with you and have a chance to speak at this last devotional of the semester. This invitation is
especially meaningful to me because I have three members of my own immediate family who are current
students at BYU, a daughter who is a freshman, one who's a sophomore that said
this opening prayer, and the third is my wife Cindy who is graduating in a few weeks
with her Master's degree from the Marriott school. Yeah, thank you, I say give it up for her. I appreciate that, you just earned me some bonus
points. I am so proud of my wife, and I love her with my whole heart and soul, and that's
why affectionately I call her my sweat-heart. When you have the last name Sweat you have to roll
with it. Well, I want to speak with each of you today like you're members of my own family about
a subject of great importance, and I pray the spirit can be with us as as I do so. I'm fortunate
enough that a major part of my work here on campus is that I teach the cornerstone foundations
course called Foundations of the Restoration. I love teaching that class, and I love exploring
the marvelous restored gospel with many of you. At the end of every class I have a little
call and answer tradition that I like to do with my students. As they get ready to leave
I call out to them “The restoration continues" and as I point to them they answer back in
unison, “Let us continue in it" like this. “All right so i'll see you guys next week. The
restoration continues!” “Let us continue in it!” Isn't that fun? But we all know it's easier said
than done to continue in the ongoing restoration, especially in our day. We're living
in a wonderful yet difficult time, one that I think future historians will discuss
is among the most spiritually challenging eras in the history of the restored
church. And it's not just our church, there's evidence, abundant evidence, that faith
in organized religion in general is slipping, particularly in America. A recent study by the
Pew Research Center found that while in 2007 only 16 percent of Americans did not have a
religious affiliation, today it's 30 percent. In fact the fastest growing religious affiliation
in America is no religious affiliation at all, and much of the growth of the non-religious has
come from the rising generations. The Pew Center reported that younger adults are less likely
to identify with religion than older adults particularly in North America and
Europe. Now while people have been leaving faith and returning to faith
in all generations and dispensations, what is notable is the rate at which it seems
to be happening right now, and the amount that we hear about it because of amplified social
channels. Today, losing faith feels fast and loud. So how do we meet the spiritual challenges of
our day and continue in the ongoing restoration? While I don't believe there's any one easy
answer to solve every important and complex issue related to faith challenges.
I do believe there is something that can empower us to successfully navigate and
overcome the current tests that we face if we will better understand it, seek it, and
receive it. You want to know what it is? Well good because I'm going to tell you. To do so,
I want you to go back with me to the year 1835 to Kirtland, Ohio. I want you to close your
eyes and mentally travel down some dirt roads and put on your bonnet and grow your beard-you have
permission to do so momentarily-and I want you to picture yourself in a meeting with the prophet
Joseph Smith where he is teaching the recently formed Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Now unlike
today's quorum, this first group of apostles were relatively young and inexperienced in the
Church. The oldest apostle was only 35 years old and four of the apostles were in their young 20s,
similar in age to many of you students here today. Now you might think that everything was
spiritually great at this time in American history and in the Church the Kirtland temple was almost
completed and converts were flocking to Ohio. It sounds pretty good right? Well think again. In
the recorded remarks of his sermon to the twelve, Joseph noted that “Darkness prevails at this
time the same as it was at the time Jesus Christ was about to be crucified." Does that
sound familiar to us? Joseph then proceeded to instruct them on something that he said was
"calculated to unite our hearts that our faith may be strong so that satan cannot overthrow us
nor have any power over us.” Well what was this? I imagined Joseph giving this next line in a way
that was emphatic and to the point. Expressing what he felt was needed to conquer the spiritual
challenges of their day, the prophet said “You need an endowment in order that you may be
prepared and able to overcome all things." That was the key for them, and I believe it can
be the key for us also. We need an endowment, an endowment of power. Now let's be careful
here so that we don't misunderstand. When you hear the word endowment what comes to
your mind? What do you envision? It's likely that as I asked those questions many of you
pictured a priesthood ceremony in the temple. That's normal because that's how we often use the
word, but if I can, I want to shift our thinking to understand endowment a little differently. When
Joseph Smith said that we needed an endowment to overcome the spiritual challenges that we face.
He wasn't saying we needed a religious ceremony. What he meant was we needed an endowment of
spiritual power or a heavenly gift of divine knowledge, experience, capacity, and ability.
That's how he and the scriptures often describe the word endowment, as a heavenly bestowal
of spiritual power. To say it another way, there is a difference between endowment
and the presentation of the endowment. The endowment is a divine power and
the presentation of the endowment is an authorized religious ceremony that
facilitates that power. If you and I can understand that one concept alone, I believe our
time together today would have been well worth it. Our savior revealed that "in the ordinances of the
priesthood the power of godliness is manifest.” Another word for manifest is to present or to show
something. The ordinances manifest or they present us with the unique covenant opportunities
to access the power that God is offering, but we receive and maintain that power
through righteous living. Sometimes people participate in the endowment ceremony and
they may not really understand it at first, or they don't feel much different after they
leave the temple from before they entered, but we don't get endowed with power in a few hours. If we
understand that endowment is a spiritual capacity, then we need to develop that capacity over time
through faithfully seeking to understand and then diligently live the concepts and covenants that
are presented in the temple endowment ceremony. So if you and I are promised that we can be
endowed with power from on high through the holy temple, what is that power? What does it
look like in everyday life? What new or greater power or capacity can you and I have that we
otherwise wouldn’t? Well as I've prepared for this devotional, I've asked many people these questions
and I've been touched at the profound answers that I've heard from some. But if i'm being
totally honest with you I've also been a little disheartened at the inability of some to even give
a single answer at all. They don't know what power the endowment is giving them and if we don't
know what power is manifest, then how can we focus on it and how can we strive to attain it?
Doctrine & Covenant section 107 verses 18 and 19 gives a great overall summary of some of the
powers that can come to those who are endowed. They have the privilege of receiving the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to have the heavens open unto them, to commune with
the general assembly in church of the firstborn, and to enjoy the communion and presence of God the
Father and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. In simpler words, through receiving and
living temple ordinances and covenants we can have greater power to receive revelation
to call upon the heavens and have them hear us, to have the promised ministering
of angels, to help us, and to truly come to know our Savior Jesus
Christ and God our Father in very personal ways. Yes brothers and sisters we need an endowment.
The concepts and covenants of the temple endowment ceremony lay out a pattern of divine living to
help bring about these and other spiritual powers in our life. The temple is a modern school of
the prophets where we enter into a covenant order of future priests and priestesses. As we
participate in the temple endowment ceremony we experience and reenact a symbolic upward
journey that takes each one of us as a fallen person to being taught about the great plan
of redemption, being empowered by knowledge, and covenants, and ultimately brought
into the presence of God to become an heir of eternal life. The ceremony suggests
growth and progression from glory to glory as we increase enlightened truth and make priesthood
covenants to guide us in living a holy life. Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles explained it this way. That in the temple “we establish patterns of Christlike
living. These include obedience, making sacrifices to keep the commandments, loving one another,
being chaste in thought and action, and giving of ourselves to build the kingdom of God through the
Savior's Atonement and by following these basic patterns of faithfulness, we receive power from
on high to face the challenges of life." We need this divine power today more than ever, or in the
words of President Russell M. Nelson, "as we keep our covenants, God endows us with his power, and
oh how we will need his power in the days ahead." To show how the major temple covenants
can facilitate the spiritual power that we so desperately need, I'm going to describe five
challenges that we might face as we continue in the ongoing restoration and how these
five temple covenants can address them. These five covenants by the way have been publicly
published by the Church in numerous places and Church leaders encourage us to understand them.
So if you will right now come back with me to the present and take off those bonnets and shave
that beard, keep that honor code, and let's look at how these covenants can empower us to meet
some of the challenges that we're facing today. We live in a time that almost worships
individuality, highlighted by the profound modern philosophical slogan of "hey you do you."
We are force-fed night and day across social media mass marketing and political agendas with
well-intended messages like follow your own path, don't let anyone tell you
what to do, be independent, have it your way. These self-affirming but
self-centric messages can be worthwhile in small doses given the situation, but consumed at today's
societal rate we may be overdosing on ourselves. Christian theologian George MacDonald called the
attitude of "being my own king and my own subject, doing whatever I am inclined to do from
whatever quarter may come the inclination one of the principles of hell." Well why?
Because it stands in such stark contrast to Jesus's perfect lifelong submission to God
defined by not my will but thine be done. While a common refrain today might be you to you,
Christ's covenant call to you and I is be like me. There is power in covenanting
that we will obey the laws of God and not merely walk in our own way after the
image of our own God. Yes we need an endowment. We live in a world of fractured
families in declining marriage. America recently hit its lowest marriage rate
since the government began tracking it in 1867. Based on US census data, the estimated length of
marriage in America is just around 20 years. Many young people want to establish eternal marriages
and families, but they feel like the odds are stacked against them. Well what principle can
help give us the power to meet this challenge? In the temple endowment ceremony
we make a covenant of sacrifice. The Church publicly explains this covenant to
mean sacrificing to support the Lord's work and repenting with a broken heart and a contrite
spirit. What a key in my opinion to relationships. I'm grateful that both my wife and I were taught
the importance of repentance and sacrifice. We actually grew up with each other and we went
to the same junior high and high school. When we reconnected after my mission the subject
of love came up on the first night that we talked with each other. Don't ask me how that happened.
I had come to the conclusion independently on my mission that the truest definition of love
was the word sacrifice. In John 15:13 Jesus teaches "greater love hath no man than this;
that a man lay down his life for his friends." In our conversation I asked Cindy what she
thought love was, and she paused and she said something like this. "I think the best way
to describe love is with the word sacrifice." Man I kneeled down and I asked her to marry me
right then and there on the spot. Not really. In reality we took our sweet time by the way, and
we got engaged about a month and a half later. We've now been happily married for almost 25 years and that doesn't mean by the way it
hasn't been without some challenges. All marriages and relationships have them,
but our covenant of sacrifice with God has motivated us to lay down our selfish lives to
build our family life and thus build the kingdom. That's true in any relationship. There is enduring
power in learning that enduring love for God and others is grown in the soil of sacrifice. Yes
we need an endowment. Brothers and sisters we are living an exciting yet challenging time
of important social and political questions. There are compelling voices sometimes heading
in different directions each of whom are equally convinced of the virtue of their own position.
A faith challenge can come when a personal view conflicts with church teachings well how do
we handle this? The issue isn't whether we may think differently. Even Joseph Smith told people
to not just agree with everything that he said saying that he didn't want to be "forever
surrounded by a set of dough heads.” The issue is how we go about handling
the disagreement or the discussion. When there are diverging views, do we unfairly
criticize? Do we judge harshly? Do we level accusations without sufficient information?
Do we speak evil? Do we publicly belittle? If so we will lose spiritual power. Returning
to the 1835 meeting of Joseph Smith with the Quorum of the Twelve, Joseph told them
“do not watch for iniquity in each other. If you do, you will not get an endowment
for God will not bestow it on such." Instead let's counsel in the ways that the Lord
has laid out in righteousness, in holiness, in lowliness of heart, in meekness, and
in long-suffering because the promise is if these things abound in us we shall not
be unfruitful. In the knowledge of the Lord there is power. In living the higher teachings
of Jesus Christ as taught in his marvelous gospel to not judge and to not revile but
instead to love, to pray for, to forgive, to extend mercy, and to make peace. Yes we need
an endowment today. We live in a time of sexual permissiveness. A 2020 Pew Center study reported
that of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 84% said that casual sex is sometimes or
always acceptable between consenting adults. 84 percent! Even among Christians, 54%
reported that they think it's permissible in our day. Pornography is everywhere. It's
easily accessible and it's rationalized by some to be relatively harmless. We need the power
more than ever to resist getting caught up in this tsunami of sexual leniency and the
damage it inevitably leaves in its wake. While some want to remove moral limits from
sexual expression, time and experience show that power without bounds is the foundation of
both corruption and chaos and there's nothing more powerful than the power to create life. Remember
even God himself has boundaries in which he abides and he won't cross or he would cease to
be God as the Book of Mormon teaches us. Could you imagine trying to have faith
in an immoral and an unrestrained God? Well neither can I. When you and I are
here to learn to become more like him we need eyes to see that the covenant of chastity
is about more than sex. It's about learning to develop a character that can be trusted,
exercises restraint, respect boundaries, won't selfishly abuse power, and has the ability
to create and maintain a covenant family. Whether we are single, dating, or married,
young or old, there is divine power in developing a truly moral character. Yes we need
an endowment. We live in a world where there is a lot of pressure to be someone important,
to do something big, to have a platform, and to be successful. That word itself carries the
cultural weight of expectations that are on you. If I say to you, "have you heard about David
lately? Man he's become so successful." What is the definition of success that you and I
have become culturally accustomed to hear? When I say that word, we think that David must be
rich, has become famous, has lots of followers, or has some real position and prestige. He
must be killing it doing summer sales right? Hardly any of us probably thought, “Oh
that's wonderful. David must have become really full of love and of service to God and his
fellow men." The desire to be something in the eyes of everybody else can taint our motives. It
can lead us to rationalize away ethical standards, and it can justify us in stepping on or
overlooking other people in our desperate climb to the top. And it can cause us to miss out on
our true life's mission. Speaking personally and candidly, I almost missed out on my own vocational
career that I felt called by God to pursue, because as a young adult I was understandably
yet overly concerned about living on a teacher's salary. I rationalized to myself that I wanted
wealth and prestige so that I could do good things and provide opportunities for my family,
but if I'm being honest with you, pride and my own desire to be praised by
others were also part of the equation, and they were tainting my heart and my motives.
I'm grateful that God corrected me in many ways. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't about
money and fame and position and prominence. Many great saints have all of those and more,
that's not the issue. The issue is about what we love and where our heart is. The temple teaches
us as its highest pinnacle covenant to consecrate our entire lives to God, dedicating and making
holy our time, talents, and means to do his will and to build up his kingdom. It teaches us to love
and to serve others and to offer of our abundance to help those in need. For all of us who are
here today who may be uncertain about our major, yes, I'm talking to you who have switched it four
times. The temple tells you what to major in; major in consecration, and as you dedicate your
heart to love and serve God and your fellow men you will know what to do with your time, and
talents, and gifts that you've been so abundantly given by God. There is power in consecrating
our life in the service of God and his children that enables us to find our personal path and
our purpose. Yes sisters and brothers, we need an endowment. Now these are just a few examples here
that I've mentioned. There are so many more ways that you and I can be endowed with power
through learning and then diligently living the covenants and concepts that are communicated
through the temple endowment ceremony. After a recent endowment session,
I sat down and I privately wrote 40 spiritual powers that I felt the
endowment could facilitate in my life if I would follow its holy teachings, and that
barely scratches the surface. In my opinion there is so much that an all-powerful God
wants to bestow upon his covenant children. Now we may be tempted to think that this kind
of power only applies to certain people or to other people, but remember that God's power is
very personal and can be received by everyday saints like you and me if we will learn the
patterns and implement the covenant concepts. Let me illustrate for you literally with
an illustration. Some of you may know that I'm an artist and that I paint religious
themes. See this painting of Jesus right here? Well I didn't paint that one. Guess what? A
seven-year-old painted it who has never painted Jesus before in her life. Now how did she do that?
Even more amazing, she painted it in an hour, and it's not because she's a modern day Monet. I don't
know, well maybe she is. Time will only tell. She did it because she followed some basic
patterns of instruction that I laid out for her and for some other primary children in a primary
activity. I created a line-o cut that the kids stamped on some pre-prepared boards that gave them
an outline to start with. Then I taught them some basic principles about highlights mid-tones and
shadows. I gave them one color at a time, starting with the cadmium yellow highlights. I modeled and
showed them where and how to lay the paint down like this. At first they were a little nervous
and even confused at some of my instructions, but they faithfully followed along bit by bit and
brush stroke by brush stroke. Next they received their mid-tone yellow ochre and I showed them how
and where to paint it in the center of the face. Then the same for the burnt sienna
shadow color when they messed up I quoted them some good Bob Ross philosophy like,
“Hey there's no mistakes only happy accidents" and then I helped them get back on track.
Last we filled in the Savior's white shirt, his red robe, and we topped it all off with a
contrasting background color to make it all pop. They started to get so excited to see it all come
together. One boy even said, “Hey it looks like a real life Jesus." Some of their parents couldn't
believe that the kids had done this themselves, but by learning and following the basic patterns
that were shown to them, all of them had the ability to paint Jesus. Similarly by implementing
the holy patterns laid out in the sacred temple endowment ceremony, all of us can develop the
power and capacity to become like Jesus Christ in successive colors of covenants and concepts.
The temple endowment presents him to us and shows us how to follow him. We may be
confused at first but as we are faithful we excitedly begin to see him come together in
every aspect and every covenant of the temple. Who has been more obedient, sacrificed more, lived a holier life, and been more chaste
and consecrated than our Lord Jesus Christ, and as we live those same temple covenant
teachings, we slowly begin to recognize something that looks like the real life Jesus in ourselves.
Yes we need an endowment. Now although these primary kids were able to follow a simple pattern
of instruction to produce an image of Jesus, they will only become great artists if
they continue to learn the concepts of art and repeatedly practice them over time. Power
and capacity doesn't come in a single class. We wish it would, but it simply can’t. We
must consistently put in the work becoming endowed with divine power is a little
bit like a university program or degree. Just because we've been accepted doesn't make
us educated. The education comes slowly even painfully especially when everything is due at the
same week right around finals right? Rarely does learning come dramatically or all at once. Most of
the time it comes almost imperceptibly over time. The tuition of education is paid by
persistence, but because of dedicated diligence those who are getting ready to graduate in a few
weeks have developed more power and capacity in their respective lives and fields than just a few
years ago when they excitedly posted #BYU-bound. In the Lord's school of the prophets, the holy
temple, we similarly grow in power and capacity by degrees. As we learn and then diligently
implement the holy covenants and concepts, over time you and I may fail to understand some
of the assignments. The temple textbook often requires a lot of rereading to grasp its meaning,
but the master teacher's rubric of standards is very clear. This most blessed professor, he
holds open the door, office hours every day, and he is more than happy to revise your
grade as you redo the assignments again and again. As you try to figure things out, he
believes in mastery, learning, and his semester never ends. But for heaven's sake stop skipping
or sleeping through his class, and don't you dare drop out because you think it's too hard
or it's too confusing or it's not for you. Go to his class again and again and let him teach
you. You'll find yourself learning and growing and becoming endowed with more divine power and
capacity as you do. So yes we need an endowment. So my dear friends the restoration continues. Make
the choice today that you will continue in it. You will need an endowment of spiritual power
and capacity to do this. The temple endowment ceremony communicates the concepts and the
covenants to facilitate this greater power. Like the painting of Jesus, worship in the
temple and learn the patterns in the process to become more like Jesus, and when you
leave the temple, be a diligent student and consciously strive to practice those covenants
and concepts in everyday life. Put in the work, practice, start again, realign, increase in
your precision, and don't you ever give up. Don't ever ever give up. God does not
give up on you. Don't you give up on him. As you and I act in faith, God promises us to
truly endow us with his power. Even the power necessary to overcome the spiritual challenges
of our day so that one day we can enter into the presence of God and receive a fullness.
Comprehend that of his exalted blessings. Let us go forth and truly receive our endowment.
Even an endowment of increased spiritual power, are you willing and ready to do so and
thus continue in the ongoing restoration? If you are, remember how I close each
class? Well I want to close this big devotional together in the same way. I'm going
to say "the restoration continues" and when I point to you I want to say "let us continue
in it." You ready? The restoration continues. Awesome. I invite us all to do so
through the temple endowment of power, and in the sacred name of our Lord and
Savior, even Jesus the Christ amen.
