Today the bishopric of our married student ward spoke in sacrament meeting. I was a special meeting because the first counselor was released and a new counselor was sustained. It is hard to see these couples graduate and move on but that is the purpose of student wards. Serving as a bishop of a married student wards has many rewards and blessings but it is still hard to say goodbye when students leave the ward. I wanted to share the talk that I gave in our sacrament meeting today.

Becoming Followers of Righteousness

While Abraham was living in his father’s house he saw how his father had turned from following God’s commandments and began worshiping idols and making human sacrifices. At one time his father tried to offer Abraham as a sacrifice. Abraham said that “it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence”. I guess if my father tried to offer me as a sacrifice to idols I would want to move out on my own too. Abraham said:

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. (Abraham 1:2)

If we, like Abraham, want to be a greater followers of righteousness what do we need to do? We live in a time of false Gods, where many are sacrificing all they have to worldly idols. If we and our families are to be in the world but not of the world, we need to be better followers of righteousness. I believe there are at least four things that we need to do:

1.     Receive and keep temple covenants

2.     Live the law of consecration

3.     Love God and our fellow men

4.     Understand and follow The Family – A Proclamation to the World

First receive and keep temple covenants. One of the most important steps in our eternal progression is to go to the temple and receive the sacred ordinances that are offered there. Without the sealing ordinances of the temple there is no progression beyond this life. Just as a damn holds back the waters of a reservoir so to without the ordinances that can only be obtained in the temple we have no hope of living as families after this life. However, going to the temple one time to receive the ordinances and not returning or not keeping the covenants made in the temple would be worse than not going at all. We learn in the temple that those who make covenants with the Lord and don’t keep them will face eternal consequences because God will not be mocked.

Once we make temple covenants we need to return as often as we can so that we can provide the same covenants for those who have died without the opportunity of going for themselves. We should be doing family history research and searching out members of our family who have not had the blessing of living at the time the gospel was on the earth. While I was preparing for this talk I went to family search.org and clicked on the temple menu and looked at the opportunities for my wife and I and there were six individuals that have not had any of their temple ordinances performed. Because my wife is a convert I know that there are unlimited opportunities for us to search out our ancestors and go to the temple for them.

Going to the temple often will help keep the covenants we make fresh in our minds and it will give us the strength to resist temptations when they come.

Second – live the law of consecration. One of the covenants that we make in the temple is the law of consecration. While we are not required to live the full law of consecration as the saints in the New Testament or the Saint of the early church in this dispensation. We covenant that we give all of our time, talents and everything that the Lord has given us to the Church. It does not mean that we will serve only if we like the calling, or if we have time, or when we don’t go home to visit our families. It does not mean that we do our home or visiting teaching if our families happen to be home the last day of the month, but we start early in the month and don’t stop until we have visited 100% of our family each and every month. The law of consecration is not something we try to do it is a way of life, it is a covenant that is binding on every member that has made temple covenants. We willingly pay 10% of our income to the Lord as well as a generous fast offering. We also have the opportunity to contribute to other things such as missionary funds, humanitarian funds and as well as other worthy non-profit organizations. It also means that we attend our sacrament and other meetings in the ward we live in and not always going home or to friend’s wards. The law of consecration is the law of the celestial kingdom. How can we expect to qualify to live in the celestial kingdom if we cannot live the law of consecration here in mortality? Speaking of the quality of life among the Nephites after the Savior’s visit to the Americas, Elder Victor L. Brown said:

Wouldn’t it be a glorious experience to live in such a society? In actual fact, this is the society to which those will belong who are prepared to live the law of consecration when the Lord sees fit to ask it of us. Some would say that this is fantasy, considering that human beings are what they are. Perhaps this is true. Nevertheless, it is also a fact that, when we reach the point of self-mastery and become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ sufficiently to keep all of his commandments, we will reach a plane of human happiness and peace which does not exist in the world today. (“The Law of Consecration”, BYU Devotional, November 1976)

The third principle is an extension of living the law of consecration. We are to love God with all our hearts, might mind and strength and then to love our fellow men as ourselves. How can we live the law of consecration if we do not love God and have a respect for all of Heavenly Father’s children? Christ said that all of the rest of the commandments rested on these two principles.

To love God, we need to have a testimony of him, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We need to have a testimony of and take advantage of the atonement of Jesus Christ. We cannot truly love God if we do not have a testimony of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. This testimony also means that we sustain President Thomas S. Monson as the Lord’s prophet today along with all the Apostles, the other general authorities and the local authorities of the Church. The Lord has chosen all of these brothers and sisters to lead his church and if we don’t sustain them we are not showing that we love God as we should be.

The fourth principle we need to do if we are to be better followers of righteousness is to understand and live the teachings found in “The Family – A Proclamation to the World”. To do that I suggest that you attend the Institute Class that is held every Wednesday in this chapel. I know there are many from our ward that are attending. But I invite all of our members to make the sacrifice if you can to attend. I promise that your marriages and quality of life will be better by coming to this class and living the principles you learn there. This past week Bro. Hunsaker taught that the Proclamation on the Family should not be something that we frame and hang on our wall, we need to do that, but we also need to as the scriptures say “have it written on the fleshy tables of our hearts” (1 Cor. 3:3). In other words, we must study it, gain a testimony of it, live it, and teach it to our children. Bro. Hunsaker also said that you are the first generation to raise your children under the teachings of that proclamation. When our children were young we did not have that inspired document to guide us as we tried to raise our children in the gospel.

We live in a time of great opportunity because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we also live in a time where wickedness is spreading and our freedom of religious worship is being threatened. Both Mormon and Moroni warned that they had seen our day and know of our doing. They put the things in the Book of Mormon that we need to help us know what we need to do to be worthy of having the Holy Ghost with us. They warned us not to fall into the traps of pride and wickedness that the people of their day did. They warned us that if we did we would be destroyed just as the Nephites and the Jaradites were destroyed.

One other principle Bro. Hunsaker taught was that if we did not have a testimony of the principles that I have been teaching today, then certainly our children won’t have a testimony of them either. It seemed in the Book of Mormon, that it was the rising generation that rejected their father’s teachings and became stumbling blocks to the church. We do not want our children, who are the rising generation today, to be stumbling blocks to the progress of the gospel. We want them to be greater followers of righteousness than we are. The ones that live the law of consecration more fully, love God and others unselfishly, believe in and live the teachings found in The Family – A Proclamation to the world. And finally we want them to go to the temple to make and keep the covenants that bind us to them and them to their children.

I wish to leave you a blessing and a warning. I bless you that if you will take these teachings and discuss them with your spouse and decide to do your best to be followers of righteousness then you will have the blessings of the fathers as your blessings. You will finish your degrees and find that job you dream of. I bless you that if you will server in whatever calling you are given faithfully, then you will find joy in your fellowship with the saints. I bless you that if you repent and take full advantage of the atonement of Jesus Christ that you will be found spotless at the last day. I promise you that if you will teach these principles to your children by your examples, they will follow you as saints in Zion and they will be a blessed people.

I warn you that if you do not make these principles a priority in your life though you may find wealth and short term happiness, you will not obtain a fullness of joy as eternal families in this world nor in the eternities.

I testify that God and Christ live, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ today. I testify that the Church and Priesthood of God have been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and that Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s Prophet to the world today. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. I testify of the blessings of the temple and that the principles found in the “The Family – A Proclamation to the World” are true.

I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Today was the last Sunday many of the members of the student ward that i serve as Bishop will be in our meetings. This next week is graduation and over the next couple of months about half our ward will be moving and going on to graduate school, getting jobs and beginning their lives all around the world. I spoke in sacrament meeting and would like to share the talk I gave. I hope you can learn from it as well. I invite your comments and questions.

Preparing for the Final Final

About half of our ward will be moving from the ward during the next month or more. Many of you are graduating and now will be looking for employment and an opportunity to really begin your lives together somewhere in the world. This is something you have been looking forward to for you entire lives and it is finally here. Next week are your finals all of the cramming for those exams is about done. If you have been diligent in attending your classes, taking notes and fulfilling all the class requirements you will do well because you are prepared. The Lord said: “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). There maybe some test that you do not feel prepared for and you do fear; however, in almost every case you will be ok. You will complete your classes and graduate. You will eventually, be accepted to the graduate program or find the job that you want and will be able to provide for your families.

Our mortal lives are similar to your time here at USU. You know what your goal is and what you need to do to succeed. Everyone here will eventually die and stand before the judgment bar to be judged of our works here in this life - the final final. While here at the university, most of you knew when you would be finished and graduate; however, none of us know when we be called home and face that ultimate final exam so we must live prepared to stand before the Savior at any time. When you take a class here at the university, you are given a syllabus and are told what you need to do to pass the class. Throughout the semester you have a teacher, teacher’s aides, study groups and a text to help you learn everything you need to succeed in the class. Our lives are similar. The scriptures are the syllabus and the church leaders are our teachers that guide us through this mortal class. Some of the teachers include the Prophets and Apostles, the Stake Presidency, the Bishop, Quorum or Relief Society President, Home & Visiting Teachers and Instructors. Each of these individual have special callings to help us understand how to live and what we need to do to be prepared for that final exam.

I would like to suggest four things that will help us prepare for that judgment day and at the same time provide you and your family a rich and abundant life.

1.              Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

2.              Loyalty to the brethren

3.              Making and keeping temple covenants

4.              Personalizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ

First – Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. Every time I read this inspired document it increases my testimony that we have living prophets here to show us the way and warn us when we stray off the gospel path. When President Hinckley presented that document to the Relief Society in 1995, the family was still regarded as an important part of a successful society. Now governments, the philosophies of men, and society, are threatening the family in general. The world is trying to teach women that they are worthless unless they have a career, that men are not important or even needed, that children are a burden that is no longer valued and that traditional marriage is not important or even necessary. Satan is using everything he can to destroy the family because that is the way he intends to destroy us and make us as miserable as he is.

As members of The Church we must understand and live the principles taught in that proclamation. We must defend it in our legislatures, in congress and in the courts. We must not allow these sacred principles to be defeated and we will be held accountable at that final final for the way we have honored God’s pattern for marriage and the family.

Second – Loyalty to the Brethren. We must be loyal towards the leaders of the church, from our quorum presidents, auxiliary presidents, bishops, stake leaders and general authorities. We should not speak out against the brethren either in public or in private conversations. I am not suggesting that we blindly follow our leaders and never question things. Questioning is good if it is for the intent of gaining a testimony of something or trying to understand what they are teaching. Asking the right questions and seeking to understand is the very foundation of the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation.

When we question we should not do it in a way that criticizes or disrespects the Lord’s anointed. When we seek answers to our questions we should always turn to the scriptures and the writing of the brethren and not to the groups that are trying to tear down the church or turn us away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must be careful when posting comments on social media that in any way disagrees with established doctrines and church policies. Keep your comments to yourself. Be careful not to align yourselves with any person or group that is in opposition to the brethren and the church. The first step on the road to apostasy is criticizing our leaders.

I want to make sure you understand what I am saying. There is nothing wrong with questioning what our leaders are asking us to do. But you need to go to the scriptures, the writings of the brethren and to the Lord. If you ask with real intent the Lord will tell you what the brethren are doing is right. He will never tell you to go against them. He has called them and they are his representatives here on the earth.

The third principle is to make and keep temple covenants. Before we can go to the temple and make the covenants there we must be worthy. To be worthy of a temple recommend we must keep God’s commandments to pay a full tithe, and keep ourselves pure and clean. We must sustain the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the other general authorities and our local leaders. Those individuals that opposed the sustaining of the general authorities this past general conference (April 2015) are no longer worthy of a temple recommend and have broken the covenants that they have made in the temple if they have made them.

Once we have made those temple covenants, we must live each day to be worthy of entering the temple. We must be totally faithful to our spouse and never put ourselves in any situation that would compromise those sacred covenants. Brethren you must be constantly on guard against the temptations of the world and Satan to enslave you with pornography or any thing else that would have you break those covenants and destroy your family. This is a daily choice that we need to make and it will always come down to the choices in what we watch on TV, the Internet and the movies we go to. It will be in the choices we make in our music and other entertainment. It will determine the character that will govern our lives each day.

I encourage you to make attending the temple as often as you can a priority in your lives. Attending the temple at least once a month is the minimum and more often is the goal that we should all strive for. Where ever you live, especially in the U.S., you should be close enough to a temple to go once a month. The more you go to the temple the better chance you have of keeping those covenants and living a life that will always qualify you for a temple recommend and you will have peace and harmony in your home. As your children see the value of the temple in your lives, they will want to live lives that would qualify them to go and receive the covenants for themselves.

The fourth principle is to personalize the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is not a group thing, but is done by developing a one on one relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. We will never live lives that are perfect so that we do not need the atonement. We all sin and we do it many times. Simply acknowledging our need or dependence on the Savior does not save us, nor are we saved by working our way into heaven. The scriptures teach that “it is by grace that we are save, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25 23).

What does this scripture mean? To be saved by grace means that there is nothing that we can personally do that will save us. We can keep the commandments the best we can all our lives; we can serve in every calling, do our home and visiting teaching, and even attend the temple every day and yet this would not be enough to overcome our sins.  We must individually go before the Savior and acknowledge our weakness and inability to overcome our sins without him. Like Alma the Younger, we must cry out “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.” (Alma 36:18) Once we do that we will be “harrowed up by the memory of our sins no more” and we will be filled with the marvelous light of forgiveness. (Alma 36:19-20). Jesus Christ has already paid the price for anything and everything that we could possibly do to commit sin that is the grace of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Once we feel that exquisite joy of forgiveness, we live our lives according to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We keep the commandments, not because it elevates us to a higher degree of righteousness, but because we love God and choose to keep his commandments. We want to live our lives so that we will be worthy of the Kingdom of God here on earth and in heaven and feel comfortable to live among others that are striving for the same thing. We set ourselves apart from the world while living in the world. We are clean from the blood and sins of this generation.

As we adopt these four principles and do the best we can to follow them, we will live “after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27) that Nephi described. Our children will see the joy the gospel brings and want to be followers of righteousness (Abraham 1:2) and have the blessings of the fathers in their lives as well. I am not saying life will be easy, it is not intended to be. You will have difficulties and challenges that will test you to your limits. I can testify that if you keep the commandments and your temple covenants you can get through anything that Satan will throw at you.

Sisters remember there is no nobler calling that you will ever have than that of a mother. I encourage you to talk to your husbands about when you should have children and when they come where possible stay home and nurture and teach them to love the Lord and his prophets. There is no day care or other family member that can do what you have to offer them. Get as much education as you can so that you can teach your children in all things. There maybe situations that do not allow mothers to stay home with your children, but that should be the exception. Brethren provide for your families and live so that your wives are able to be home with your children. I am not talking about times where your wives may need to work while you are finishing your degree, but when you are finished make sure you talk about these things and find a way for your wife to be home. When you should have children is between you and the Lord, but we have heard our prophets and apostles talk about the blessings of having children even while still in school. I encourage you to make this a matter of prayer and do all things in faith.

I testify that these things are true, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restore Church, that Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ, he did translate the Book of Mormon, Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today. God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Savior and God and Christ live today. I leave you my blessing that if you follow these principles you will be blessed and if you will strive to do all the Lord asks of you, you will prosper and be blessed with everything you need to provide a comfortable living for your families.

I ask that Heavenly Father will bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.