Obedience
This is the point where people usually make a joke, or an
introduction. So here goes both! You commonly hear in church someone tell a
story at the beginning of their talk about how, “There I was, standing in
church, with My Quad in one arm, and my baby in the other. The bishop comes
waltzing down the hall, and I know exactly what is about to happen. So I took
off running, but the bishop was too speedy! So here I am.” Well, It didn’t
happen like that at all for me. You see, I am a runner, so I can easily escape
the bishops. No. For me, it was more like a, my mom turns to me one day and
says, “Hey, I talked to your aunt today! Your cousin is getting back from his
mission, and you’ll be a missionary soon, so we’re gonna have you talk in his
ward next week at his homecoming on the topic of obedience! Good luck!” Me:
“Wait, what?” So, here I am, and I’ve
been asked to speak on, like I said, obedience.
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Obedience and Agency tied together.
o
Agency Critical ingredient of obedience - without
it, no learning.
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All about choice. Joshua 24:15
o
In our premortal existence, we chose whether to
obey God or whether to obey Satan. Since we’re all here, we made the right
choice.
§
Earth is a time of testing for us, part of
Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation (Abraham 3:24-25)
o
We use our agency to choose whether or not we
follow the commandments of the Lord. Although, we fail to realize one important
fact.
§
Commandments are for our benefit.
§
D&C 130:20-21 – blessings come from God by
following the commandments, in fact, he will always bless us for keeping His
commandments, as He says in D&C 82:10 (8-10).
§
Not only will God bless us immensely for our
obedience, but we will have never ending happiness. King Benjamin, in his final
speech to the Nephites says the following, in Mosiah 2:41.
§
With this guidance, we may wonder, why is it so
hard to keep the commandments? The answer is that the natural man makes us
think: we are not perfect, therefore, we undermine our abilities and we become
overwhelmed with all that we have to do. Nevertheless, God did not intend us to
fail. As Nephi teaches, God does not give us commandments that are beyond our
abilities. They are not impossible. 1 Nephi 3:7
o
Since we are able to keep all the commandments
God gives us, we are tested by our willingness to follow them. Should we obey
them, we will grow and learn and become more like what our Father and Christ
wish us to become.
·
The savior was a perfect example in everything,
and keeping the commandments was no exception.
·
As Dallin H. Oaks said in October 2011 General
Conference:
Quote:
‘Always, Jesus honored the Father and
followed Him. Even as a youth He declared to His earthly parents, “Wist ye not
that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). “For I came down from heaven,” He
later taught, “not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38; see also John 5:19). And the Savior taught, “No man
cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6; see also Matthew 11:27).
We
return to the Father by doing His will. Jesus taught, “Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). He explained:
“Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and
in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
“And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity” (Matthew 7:22–23).
Who then will enter the kingdom of heaven? Not those who
merely do wonderful works using the name of the Lord, Jesus taught, but only
“he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Jesus showed us how to
do this.”’
Close Quote
·
The Savior also said, “If ye love me, keep my
commandments” (John 14:15). He later declared: “If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide
in his love” (John 15:10).
o
This is one of the best ways we can show our
Heavenly Father that we love Him.
·
So you need more than just words to get into the
kingdom of heaven. It requires faith.
·
Being obedient also takes some faith.
·
“Faith obedience” is a matter of trust. The
question is simple: Do we trust our Heavenly Father? Do we trust our prophets,
his mouth pieces?
Elder Conrad Schultz of the Seventy
related this story in July of 2002.
Conrad
was boating with some family on the Oregon Coast when their boat was suddenly
struck by something called a sneaker wave, a rogue wave that comes out of
nowhere with no warning. Luckily, they were prepared, and there were no
casualties. However, other boaters weren’t so lucky. Five people had drowned
that day in three separate boating accidents up and down the Oregon-Washington
coast. All were caused by the same sneaker wave, which for no apparent reason
had welled up off the ocean surface. Elder
Schultz made the connection that Satan can be compared to this sneaker wave.
As we make our way through this life’s
journey, we must continually be on guard and watch for those things which are
deceptive and not what they appear to be. If we are not careful, the sneaker
waves in life can be as deadly as those in the ocean.
One of the sneaky ploys of the
adversary is to have us believe that unquestioning obedience to the principles
and commandments of God is blind obedience. His goal is to have us believe that
we should be following our own worldly ways and selfish ambitions. This he does
by persuading us that “blindly” following the prophets and obeying the
commandments is not thinking for ourselves. He teaches that it is not
intelligent to do something just because we are told to do so by a living
prophet or by prophets who speak to us from the scriptures.
Our unquestioning obedience to the
Lord’s commandments is not blind obedience. President Boyd K. Packer in the April conference of 1983 taught
us about this: “Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled
to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths
and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the
commandments of God. … We are not obedient because we are blind, we are
obedient because we can see”
BREATHEEEEEE!!!!
·
All scriptures teach obedience, and it is an
essential part of the plan of salvation.
o
All prophets have taught it.
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Sometimes, our obedience requires a lot of
faith, because we are unable to see the reason for the obedience.
o
We need to remember that no matter what God
commands, it is right.
·
President Howard W. Hunter, when he was a member
of the Quorum of the 12 apostles in Nov 1982, talked about how Joshua, the
prophet immediately after Moses, had to be obedient to the Lord. You see,
Joshua had extremely large shoes to fill. Moses had been the prophet for a very
long time. Joshua naturally shrank from this huge responsibility. But God had
commanded him to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land. God was with him, blessing him every step of
the way. He knew how difficult it would be for Joshua to continue following His
commandments when the Israelites had grown accustomed to Moses. The Lord says
to Joshua, in Josh. 1:9: “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good
courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with
thee whithersoever thou goest.” So, the Lord blessed Joshua for following his
commands by granting him the ability to part the river Jordan that the
Israelites had to cross so that they would realize that Joshua had the power of
God as well. As soon as the bearers of the Ark of the Covenant touched the
river, it dried up, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground. The Lord
continued to show that he blessed his servant for following his commands by
causing the walls of Jericho to fall.
Had Joshua not followed the Lord, the
results could have been disastrous. This story shows the great value of
following the instructions of those who know better. I had a similar experience
in Hawaii a few years ago.
·
My family and I, a couple years back, took a
trip to Hawaii to visit some relatives we had there. One day, on our way to
Pearl Harbor, driving on the Likelike Highway, we came to a tunnel that went
through the mountain of the island. As is common in Hawaii, the temperature was
perfect, and the weather was great and sunny. We entered the tunnel, and it
went on for not too long. It was long enough no member of my family could hold
their breath on the entire way through, but not too much longer than that.
Probably about a mile and a half or so. Anyways, near the end of it, there was
an overhead traffic sign that read: “Caution! Reduce Speed to 30 mph. Wet Road
conditions ahead.” We looked at the sign in disbelief, because the weather had
been so pleasant when we had entered the tunnel. However, we decided that the
sign knew more than we did. We came out the other side, and to our exceedingly
great astonishment, we drove into a torrential downpour. In case you haven’t
been to Hawaii, you should remember that the weather is extremely bipolar, as
we found out. Had we not followed the advice the sign had given us, we might
have hydroplaned as soon as we exited the tunnel. This is very much like what
the Lord does for us. The sign, in our case, is the Lord’s commandments. The
torrential downpour could be any number of consequences that could come as a
result of disobeying the commandments of the Lord. We need to follow the Lord’s
commandments, or we could careen out of control in life’s torrential downpour.
·
As we follow the Lord’s commandments, we will
find that we are blessed for our obedience. We will find that our life is
better if we are obedient. We will know that the Lord is with us throughout
life’s difficulties. We will have the help that God can provide for us when we
need it.
Testimony
g
The Atonement gives us a do-over with obedience. Reading
scripture for example.
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