Hey there everybody welcome back another podcast here my name is Scott Durfey joined as always
by Dave Durfey what's up? Good to be here Scott important things to talk about today and thankful
to be able to do that with you. Before we get started I just want to thank those of you who
have been sending emails asking questions and sharing insights and encourage you to do that again
or continue to you can do that at heredeemsus at gmail.com heredeemsus at gmail.com Dave we
had a great podcast last week we talked about a lot of really important wonderful things and
today we're going to begin or can not begin but continue our discussion around repentance and
I think today we're going to start talking about manifestations. Yeah Scott last week was kind of
the heart really I think of repentance the crying out which some people just kind of I think
ignorantly almost just skips over you know the people maybe not really crying out and people
who see repentance as a series of steps usually that's not one of them and it often gets missed
and I think if in all the scriptural examples we looked at last week and my own personal
experience and I know the personal experience of many of our listeners who can relate to that
crying out it should be seen as an absolute essential part of repentance. Too many people in
the church Scott and this goes to kind of what we'd like to talk about today relates to our
subject today too many people see repentance as kind of an institutional activity they see it to be
kind of through the church and when things are right with the church then they expect to be forgiven
I'm bearing witness today and will always that repentance is not an institutional activity
repentance and forgiveness are not through the church I remember mentioning that to elder
Anderson how many of my students at the Utah Valley University Institute of Religion how they
saw repentance or how they had been taught repentance really by the church that it was
an institutional activity through the church and I remember that that really that saddened him and
I also remember that you know he gave me a book a very thick book of stories that had been collected
over many years 10 years of him traveling throughout the church he had been wanting to write the
book that he eventually did called the divine gift of forgiveness and he had compiled stories
that he thought might be potential parts or stories that he would put in his book well as
I went through every one of those stories I marked them I I tried to put them in categories
what what was the real essence of each of those stories and the lessons learned from each of
those stories it was a little shocking how many people felt they were forgiven because they
had confessed their sins to the bishop and they felt like that was the final step of their
repentance and today Scott we're going to talk about confession and forsaking of sins and I
think these two actually go together at least the Lord put them together confession and forsaking
of sin in the doctrine covenant section 58 a great revelation given in independence or Zion
or Jackson County Missouri on August 1st they were dedicating this the temple site that day
they were having a meeting and and they're at the temple site out it's kind of fun to think about
that because I was just there a few weeks ago again but in doctrine count section 58 versus 42
and 43 we'll get us kind of into the the meat of this subject Scott yeah 42 and 43 of section 58
behold he who has repented of his sins the same as forgiven and neither Lord will remember them
no more by this you may know if a man repented of his sins behold he will confess them and forsake
them by this I want to just focus on those words those two words for a minute Scott by this you may
know if a man repenteth is that what it says yeah yeah exactly by this you may know if a man
repenteth of his sins behold he will confess them and forsake them well as the Lord describes them
there those are manifestations of repentance those aren't repentance you know that you'll know if a
person has repented because he'll be willing to confess his sins and he will forsake them these
are signs or manifestations of their repentance yeah this is not the heart of repentance these
are manifestations of it I that's how I read that and that's kind of I think based on my experience
with it and my experience with so many who would come in and confess sins repentance really at the
heart Scott has a foundational piece which we talked about which is really understanding the
role of the atonement of Jesus Christ exercising faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement and we
talked about all the foundations of repentance last week we talked about the actions of repentance
right we talked about the real the real heart of it is to cry out to God and to to acknowledge him
and to acknowledge our in fact I think since we're talking about confession Scott too often we
talk about confessing to the bishop and too little we talk about confessing to Jesus Christ or to
God our father of our nothingness and our absolute total reliance and dependence upon Jesus Christ
we we're too short on confessing or acknowledging Jesus Christ in our lives and sometimes we might
be too long on confessing our our sins I mean we we see that confessing sins almost to be more
important than confessing our dependence upon Jesus Christ and confessing his his messiahship
and being a savior and redeemer to us confessing his suffering we don't do that enough so when we
speak of confessing today I don't want to I don't want to just have people think that it we're
talking about confessing to the bishop or those who have priesthood keys although Scott we we do
not want to minimize that that is so critical when it comes to certain serious sins but however
confessing includes confessing our need confessing that we're not not just our sins but confessing
that we are sinners and that without Jesus Christ there's really no hope for us and that we can't
do it alone yeah really a recognition of our own nothingness right recognition acknowledgement
of our nothingness if we go back to you know the great discourse by king benjamin and you know
where he talks about the natural man and and in there we he talks about how you know it's through
our because of our own nothingness and and all of those things that that makes us so dependent
on the power of jesus christ through his atonement yeah we are uh and he says remember your unworthiness
Alma told us shiblin good shiblin righteous righteous steady shiblin you know to remember
his unworthiness always acknowledge his sins always before god uh that's that's part of what
we're talking about here which is which is more of an attitude right scott uh maybe more of an
attitude of our repentance and not so much a step quote unquote step of repentance well well i think
that our repentance and and having that attitude of repentance and we talk about repentance as a
process that this is and and we talk about how this is something that we should be constantly
engaged in we should constantly be in an attitude of repentance so yeah you're right this isn't just
an event this you know and there are events included we've talked about that but just doing
repentance is not just an event it's an attitude it's a way of life it's a constant you know we
talk about repentance and as we define it as a turning away from anything that's not of god and
turning towards the sun so that through his power we can be redeemed and claimed um through our
repentance you know that's an ongoing daily process uh elder president nelson's made that clear
all of the other prophets have made that clear actually throughout time uh and so we know that
it's definitely a process it's definitely that something that needs to be and should be on our
mind and in our lives on pretty constant basis dave well daily yeah daily and and such a good
point i'm glad you're bringing it up scott that it's a process not an event and it's really
important in that regard to see repentance not it's not a sequential thing it's not uh these these uh
foundations uh actions manifestations i don't want that to seem complicated or or too
prescriptive repentance is not prescriptive and it's these sequins it's not in this necessarily
sequences even as we're teaching it i mean somebody may cry out to god and that may be the first thing
that they do right i mean be the very first thing and then they build them they build a foundation
underneath that that's right you know and then um maybe maybe for some people maybe the first thing
they do is they they go to their bishop and confess their sins and maybe that causes them to build a
foundation maybe that causes a a broken heart contrite spirit scott i don't i just don't want any of
our listeners to see repentance as a sequential process yeah even it is a process but i don't
want them to see it as being a sequential one well and it's and it's something that's can't even really
be prescribed i mean there's certain parts of it that will be long in the prescription there's no
question there's certain crying out for example recognize recognition of our own nothing i think
these are all essential parts but they may not come exactly in the same order for every single
person they absolutely and it's important that we understand that because because i think so often
in the church i'll honestly just so often in the church i feel like that things become prescribed
and it's not because of the church it's because we're humans in the church and as humans we
want prescriptions we want checklists we want a step by step process we want owner's manuals we want
all that stuff even men right we want all that stuff and and if we don't and if we can have that
stuff if we can kind of put that stuff together from the teachings of the doctrine of the restoration
and of jesus christ himself we put those things together and you know they become they appear
as though they are a prescription or a checklist but they can't be that right absolutely scott and
again that last week we talked about that i the absolute essential part of repentance i believe
scott which again some skip which is crying out that crying out to god that asking for forgiveness
and willing to put everything on the altar and ultimately one has to get to that point
now whether they confess and forsake and make restitution and do all that first
everybody's different yeah their their experience everybody's experience will be different well
in their experiences on certain things will be different it may be one way with this certain
and favorite sin and it may be another way with another character defect or sin or transgression
or whatever you want to call it but it we may approach one set one way and another set a completely
different way depending on a lot of things but while their experience is different these are all
pretty essential elements yeah i mean you can't you cannot repent if you don't have adequate faith
in the lord jesus christ understand his atonement and to acknowledge your nothingness before god
i mean those are all just foundational yeah and and then the actions i just you have to get to all
of this you have to come to an understanding and to feel these these principles in order to i think
uh sometimes even start and for sure to complete one's repentance but it must it it we need to
become converted this is elder anerson we need to become converted to daily repentance this should
be a daily thanks god too many of us see repentance as being some uh as a result of a serious effect
in or a serious event or mistake in our life that president iring uh in a b y u i'd ho devotional
let's see i even have the date here 21st september 1993 so a long time and call it's a
wonderful talk i recommend to our listeners called surrender to christ and he said don't think of
repentance as something you do after you've made a serious mistake think of repentance is something
you do every day so ultimately scott we should be living in a spirit or attitude of repentance
which is uh the result of deep humility deep uh uh you know can really repentance is the deepest
form scott of worship and we should be worshiping daily and that should be to acknowledge our
nothingness our need for jesus christ this is all part of i think of just basic worship and we should
see repentance as a part of our daily worship and to acknowledge the atonement of jesus christ and
to express our sorrow for our sins which caused him such immense incomprehensible suffering
you know to to be able to really confess our sins to him and acknowledge our acknowledge that and then
to seek to forsake and pray for the grace and the enabling power of christ to be in our life
it's to strengthen us to ask for forgiveness to worship ultimately scott is and and this is
repentance i think worship and repentance are almost synonymous with me but ultimately it is a
yearning a reaching a striving to become closer to heaven that's that's ultimately what repentance
i think is and uh so as we talk about confessing and forsaking today based on that scripture you
read in doctrine come that's 58 42 and 43 by this you will know if a man repent of his sins he will
confess them and forsake them now i want to just um maybe talk about something that elder renland
said um six seven years ago on uh in a conference talk he said that there are four impediments to
repentance we haven't talked about these before and they seem to fit here the four impediments
to repentance scott are blaming others turning ourselves into hapless victims that's number one
that really shuts us down if we don't if we don't take responsibility for our for our behaviors and
our actions i mean we're all victims let's just get that out of the way we're all victims but if we
blame if we blame others or we blame uh actions that have been forced upon us or blame being
acted upon as the result of our sins then it's really hard to repent second minimizing our mistakes
well this is a big one to try to you know we we too often compromise uh our mistakes and minimize
them and not really see them for what they really are or to sometimes see ourselves for who we really
are as as humans sinners um on this mortal earth being tainted by sin every day we minimize we
said just sometimes minimize that scott third thinking our sins don't matter because god loves us no
matter what thinking our sins don't matter because god loves us no matter what oh i don't want to go
too much off that but that's i think a really that's a really that's a problem in our culture scott that
everybody wants to believe god is love and they don't want to acknowledge his laws they want to
think of him as a god of love and they throw out the his title as a god of laws and think that just
he loves all of his children it's kind of like c.s. louis said about he said uh you know people don't
want to think of god as a father who would discipline them he wants everybody wants to think of god
as a grandfather who just wants to go out and play on the beach and and uh play with the kitties i
think he used the word play with the play with his grandkitties and uh and just let him go home
and do whatever they want let somebody else take care of the problem or eventually he'll just go away
well god is a father and he's a father of laws and he disciplines us and that's for our growth
and for our progression uh the fourth one discounting sin by dismissing god's authorship of commandments
so um even the very definition of sin is minimized by individuals as uh you know they don't want to
think that they're breaking god's commandments or that he is the author of those commandments
they may think well that's just kind of a that's just kind of a a good thing to do of course i
shouldn't murder anybody of course i wouldn't do that and they sometimes see certain laws as being
man made or for the good of the community or the good of society not as commandments it is a
commandments it is a commandments cut it's never going to change because god is the author of it
that you only have sexual relations with your husband or wife god's not going to change that
commandment that has not changed it hasn't for six thousand years and it won't for another six million
years that's not going to change god is the author of those commandments if if we minimize any of
those four points if we blame others if we minimize our mistakes if we don't see god is just being a
god of love but a god of laws if we discount his authorship of commandments and those are huge
impediments to repentance but the one that stands out in our discussion today is minimizing our
mistakes and they're just too too often scott that minimizing our mistakes keeps us from confessing
i think i think it just really shuts us down from really taking the necessary um i refuse to
use the word steps from taking the necessary actions needed that will help us to uh to make
things right we're about halfway through the year about halfway through the uh in the course so to
speak and here we are we're talking about repentance but we didn't start talking about
repentance in the very beginning we talked about other things in the very beginning we talked about
the fall and and how we should be greater our identity we talked about our identity and how
our identity determines and our eternity you know how we see ourselves and how we understand
our pre-existence and our relationship right and our connection with Jesus Christ even in the
beginning you know and and then we critical and then we recognize our own nothingness in his everything
as we go to the garden as of Gethsemane and as we go to the cross and as we go to the the tomb
and the tomb's empty and it's because of his atonement that all of these things are able to
happen now we're talking about repentance we didn't start talking about repentance in the very
beginning we're halfway in and now we talk about repentance and the reason for that i believe
is is that we need to establish this connection with deity we need to understand and feel his love
and understand not just his love but his laws and understand that even those laws are out of his love
and and once we come to that understanding and we really recognize hey our real true own
nothingness we can all be great you know and and we can help each other and build each other up but
let's not confuse that with our own nothingness compared to his greatness because there's nothing
we can do to merit our return right we are meritless how do we get that return then is we do it
through a qualification process and that qualification process is a turning to him and away from things
that aren't him or in other words repentance and you know i had a conversation when we did this uh
this um this this episode so to speak last set last season and it was with somebody who had been
in the church for all their lives and this person was in their later season of life 70s and 80s
and this person told me um she said scott i just didn't know how to repent every day i keep track
i try to pay attention to my life i try to pay attention to the things that i'm doing wrong
i try to pay attention to but the problem is is i don't really feel like i'm doing all that much
wrong and and i and i can see that i can see that that can be a problem for people when we say
sure we get daily repentance is is an important part of our worship process i can see how that
can be but when we understand that you know it's through our own nothingness and because of that
and when we take a good and this would be an invitation early invitation elder rendlin just
gave us four barriers to repentance or impediments you call them i think he called it actually uh
four impediments to repentance and i love these i love the ones that elder anderson talks about
two in the book the roadblocks the roadblocks or the bear or the twin bullies right but here we have
you know these four barriers and if we go through these four barriers to repentance in our daily
lives and take a real honest deep searching moral inventory of ourselves and how all of these things
relate to us in our own lives i think every single one of us find reason and uh to be repenting or
to be repentant you know so blaming others minimizing our mistakes i okay i'm guilty already
right right i'm both of those we all are i'm guilty already but then we continue on thinking
there are sins don't matter because god loves us i have i have bought into that i don't today but i
have bought into that you know oh he loves me i know a lot of great people uh who have been in
the church who are not participating in the church today through covenantal um relationship etc
and one of these in particular that a man that i have loved all my life but has said you know
i just don't see a loving god keeping me out of heaven because i drink i drink alcohol sometimes i
just can't see a loving god won't let me be with my family because you know or whatever and and we
and we see all of those things it just god i can't see a loving god being that way we hear that even
though that's a direct contradiction to the word of god the enemy can construe this stuff in our
minds make them work for us we see it in society right our culture is really just look at your
just look on any social media turn on the news turn on you don't have to look very far cultural
culture right now scott's really confused about this that they they just refuse to see the authority
or the the uh the part of god that requires him to enforce laws well and then this fourth one
dismissing sin by discounting god's authorship of the commandments i don't get that because i mean
i understand that that's out there right i just don't understand how somebody can buy into that
because either god is or he isn't yeah and if god is then those commandments i mean come on yeah
yeah right yeah so and again referring back to your your experience with an older woman who
just doesn't think that she's sinning part of the problem is that she sees and and all of us
and all of us see repentance there's something we do after we have done something really bad right
but we do things bad every day and it's not just it's not just things that we do right scott really
repentance it repentance should include things we feel inappropriate feelings inappropriate
thoughts yeah it's really repentance is the acknowledging or confessing that we're just human
let's dial this in a little bit too because sometimes when we talk about inappropriate
feelings and inappropriate thoughts i think just by nature a lot of us go to okay i'm having a
thought that's inappropriate in a sexual matter manner for example that's not all we're talking
about inappropriate thoughts can be driving down the road somebody cuts you off and the assassination
that you just committed in your own mind towards that person those can also be there and it's
almost impossible to separate thoughts from feelings our feelings come from those inappropriate
thoughts cause inappropriate emotions right it's really impossible to separate those yeah
yeah but i know saint puts inappropriate thoughts in her mind and we're not guilty of anything when
that happens no but because we're human because we're fallen he does have power over us we are all
fallen we are all carnal we are all sensual and devilish because he has some power over the flesh
he just does that's who we are we're humans and we should not ignore that and we we don't need to
cry about it and we don't need to beat ourselves up over it it's part of the plan it was part of
god's plan that we come out come down here and that we be tempted and that we be tried and we
are every day yeah every day we're tempted with inappropriate thoughts but how long you choose
to let them stay or if you at all feed them and i think that most of us do every day then we sin
and we also if we allow those thoughts scott to become inappropriate emotions and affect our hearts
because that's the center of our emotions at least in the in the word of the lord that if our hearts
become now hardened or influenced in negative ways by negative thoughts if we allow the thoughts
in our mind to go to the center of our heart we've sinned yeah we have sinned and we all do every
day yeah i think i think i think inappropriate fear inappropriate pride uh there's just so many
all of the not just the sins of commission that we need to repent of but the sins of omission
yeah did we do what we were prompted to do did we read our scriptures as we've been asked to
did we say our prayers morning evening and night as amulet exhorts us to did we do everything that
the prophets have asked us to do have you ever at one day in your life done that scott no and here's
the other thing a lot of times we will be thinking of okay in my daily inventory process and i know
that's more formal for some than others but as i go through this daily inventory process and i reflect
on my day at the end of the day for example if i reflect on my day and if i'm just really having a
hard time seeing where those sins are that i need to repent for here's here's a way to do it if i go
back and i can identify any part of my day where the spirit was not with me or was not allowed to
be with me because of my attitude because of my actions because of my speech because of whatever
well then i know because that's how we know if the spirit is you know we when we take the sacrament
that his spirit might always be with them you know if our if his spirit is not with us on a constant
basis then we know that there's sin that needs to be repented of or or there's worship that needs to
be fine-tuned and we need to turn even with more intent and a greater degree to face the sun so that
those things that are in our lives feelings attitudes whatever that we we can't control but he can
remove from our lives is by turning to him that that can finally happen yeah and it's got just kind
of as a matter of doctrine and my own feeling an opinion on this i when we say that the holy
ghosts are constant companion i i believe that for the most part right i really do i believe that he
he is largely most days uh almost always he's my constant companion but when i don't feel him
that's the point when i don't acknowledge him when i'm not when i'm not uh being receptive
or i'm not responding appropriately to his uh promptings and inspiration that comes to me
if he prompts me hey hey go go help your wife with the crying baby if i don't respond to that
i've sinned and we all do that every day if if i if i if i don't respond to the prompting turn
off the television get off your phone if if i don't respond to those promptings i have sinned
and now i don't think any of those would qualify me to lose the holy ghost as my companion right
because i really believe the holy ghost is our constant companion if we're striving
then we're not committing any major major sins in our life but confessing scott is an important
manifestation that we are striving that we are repenting that we are worshiping and i think
we should be confessing daily and if you really want to find power in the confessing of sin
and we're talking mostly right now confessing to god we'll talk about confessing to a church
priesthood leader or uh to the church in a minute but if i really want to find power in confessing
to god i should i should try to be as specific as possible not just confessing my sins in the general
but i should i should really take an inventory of my daily life and if i really do want to change
something i think it can be really powerful when we confess that we are dealing with certain habitual
erroneous thinking or allowing certain thoughts to dominate our life or certain fears certain
emotions that dominate our life and confess those to god and to ask him to forgive us and to help
and strengthen us to overcome not just our sins but our weakness as well and to acknowledge those
in some specificity if we can not just in the generality um a little golf analogy i know that
as much as i love golf and as the many many years i've been at the driving range and and i'm trying
to practice to be better like we do in life that if i if i if i just go through the motions if i
just go to the driving range to hit balls i mean that that can be i love that and it is a great
release in my life and it it releases tension and stress and i've really feel i really feel pretty
good about that but i could go hit a hundred balls a day and not necessarily become much better
if i haven't really focused on what is the purpose of my practice and what are where is my weakness
and how can i get better even even specifically scott uh focus on one club at a time maybe a
weakness or a sin at a time or to focus even when i even when you look at the ball i just got to tell
you from my own experience and everything i've learned when when people look at the ball to hit
the ball if they don't focus on a dot on the ball they're not really looking at the ball
they're just kind of seeing it generally they're not really focused on it and i just think focus
is a really important part of our maybe improving becoming better which is a lifetime
uh experience again we should never shame ourselves for all of our imperfections we
god knew we would we would never would be perfect god knew that we would sin every day the profits
sin every day we all sin every day uh so there's there shouldn't be any shaming in all of this
but we can choose to change how we focus and how we see our lives and to develop a a plan of
improvement and progression by by focusing uh on some of our weakness and some of our sins and that
it helps us to do that by confessing them to god and asking for help in those specific things
when we talk about focusing on our sins and focusing on our worship through repentance to
eliminate the sins in our lives you know our focus isn't on our sin our focus is on Jesus Christ
yeah i love that and it's important that we understand that and and you know it's it is
important that we pay attention and we give specific attention to whatever it is that we're
trying to eradicate from our lives but it's also important for us to realize there's no amount of
personal focus that will do that but if we focus on him then then all of that can be eliminated
and then so it's also important that as we're going through the repentance process that we
realize and and and we maintain that focus on Jesus Christ and his power that comes to us
through his atonement as we go through the entire repentance process that's where our focus needs
to be thank you scott and true amen and it kind of goes back to the original idea when we start
talking about repentance is do we believe that i can change or do we believe that we can be changed
there's a big difference in that perspective scott do i think i can change me well i there is
power this is in doctrine covenants there is power within ourselves we know that as sons and
daughters of god we are innately celestial material we have the spirit of god in our lives
the offspring of god we there is power within us to make changes in our lives but there is
a certain amount of humility when we when we think of the perspective it's not so much that
i can change i want to focus on jesus christ that i can be changed through him through his
atoning blood through his suffering i can be changed i can tap in if i can tap in to the
to the power of jesus christ through his atonement there is so much more power in that approach
in perspective than in the approach in perspective that there's power within me and i just got i just
got a kind of buck up here right i got a toughen it out and i can change and i know i can do this i
i there's no real humility in that scott so so that you're right the focus always should be on
jesus christ in this process and there's not only no real humility there but it's erroneous it's an
erroneous um act he has false it's completely wrong for us to try and do that way because there's no
power in that well now i we've said this too before scott people can change yeah atheists can
change sure agnostics can change sure we're talking about muslims buddhas all them can change
there is power within man to make changes positive changes absolutely in their lives
but we're not just talking about changes we're not we're talking about redemption
we're talking about reconciliation we're talking about a relationship with heaven
and we we cannot do that just by gritting our teeth and and hang and enduring to the end
yeah much to the chagrin of a lot of us right i mean because we we grow up and let's you know you
and i were kind of raised the same and you know and it's not wrong but we were raised in a way
that's you know what just buck up go toughen it out toughen it out you know go make it different
you're it's up to you you know if it's going to be it's up to me that's right and and there's
and there's certain power in that don't get me wrong and it's important you know there's there
is power in positive thinking there is power in commitment there is power in trying to make our
own lives right but we're you're talking about worship through repentance here yeah and so if
if we're if we're really going to approach worship through repentance or repentance as a
process of worship if we're really going to do that then we really really we really need to
understand that it's through his power not our own power right that this worship and that this
repentance process and remember too that you know again repentance is a full turning to him
and in our full turning to him completely in our full turning to him we need him to help us
precipitate that full turning to him absolutely yeah i mean we need his help all along the way
yeah from the beginning to the end and that's part of that enabling power that comes to us
because of his atonement and and that's that is all part of i think humility and humility plays
such an important role in all this well let's turn to confession to the church
and talk about that scott because i think what people think confession that's what they think of
and i think that's wrong but that's that's kind of where their mind goes sure and i hope that
that for ever for the rest of our lives that we won't just think of confessing to the church but
we'll can we'll think of confessing to god and confessing our needs so in mosaic chapter 26 god
speaking to alma you know who now the high priest of the church and is struggling to know how to
help the church progress knowing that there's lots of sinners in verse 29 of mosaic chapter 26
if you want to read that please therefore i say unto you go and who so ever to transgress
sith against me him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed and if he confess
his sins before the and me and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart him shall you forgive
and i will forgive him also in verse 30 is also great yay and as often as my people
will repent i will forgive them of their trespasses against the great truth so hopeful
such a great hopeful doctrine that as often as people repent him will i god forgive them their
trespasses against me i mean i mean there's a god of love and a god of law right yeah that
repentance is a law it is a commandment and he is a god of love because as often as we keep that
commandment and as often as we repent he will he will forgive so i i really love that and
uh when it comes to confession into the church there are certain men who have been set apart
who have been given certain keys and and powers and gifts rights and privileges uh responsibility
to hear sin i've been i've been blessed to be able to be in that position from time to time
throughout my life where others have confessed to me which is i i think such a miraculous process
because it's it's really amazing scott how many times i receive confessions at the missionary
training center and and how those things there would there's a certain mantle about that and uh
the the bishop is called the common judge in israel i mean he has the keys uh to be able to hear
certain confessions to hear confessions from from uh all kinds of confessions but it has to be to
either the bishop or the stake president it can't be it can't be to the young man's president
can't be to the young woman's president it can't be to the elders corn president uh it can't be
to the relief site president it has to be the bishop and why why so scott well this is a great
question so you know in my in my it's not a position but in my involvement with recovery
circles alcoholics anonymous and others you know there's there's a process that we go through
12 steps that we go through one of those steps is the fifth step and so we do a fourth step which
is we take a personal inventory we write it out and we you know everything and then the fifth step
is as we share that inventory and these are the things that we've done wrong and these are the
resentments that we have and these are the things that have been done wrong to us and this can be
quite extensive it's semi-frequent that as you're as i go through this process and this is not a
confession process this has nothing to do with it actually has indirect a lot to do indirectly
with their progression spiritually but this is really just about the steps of alcoholics
anonymous etc but when we go through that step or that process there's been more than one occasion
when you know i'm doing that with people who are members of the church who subscribe to the same
belief system that we do who because of that and because of their it's important that we
maintain that we have integrity as we do that it's important that they go through the the
repentance process as well and it's been asked of me on many occasions more than i can probably
count why do i need to go talk to my bishop about this now and it's a really important question
because i've asked that same thing you know why do i need to go through this humiliation process
why do i have to and we see it wrong when we see it that way because you know there are certain
things as we have gone through so far this part of the course and we've talked about the atonement
of Jesus Christ and the many powers but three main ones that come to us because of his atonement
one of those is in the enabling or strengthening power for me there's just certain sins Dave that
i can't i could not i you know i'm weak i'm the natural man but there's no way that i could
resist certain things if it wasn't through that enabling power if i didn't have the power to
keep certain commandments the power that was given to me through his atonement then i wouldn't be able
to keep certain commandments i just wouldn't that's the natural man in me and maybe many of us are the
same way well when the bishop is set apart as a bishop and ordained to that office which is a
priesthood office there are certain keys that he gets and and some of those priesthood keys that he
has is the key to turn the power of the enabling power of Jesus Christ through his atonement in
our lives to help us better keep the commandments so sometimes that confession probably more times
than we realize that confession isn't just to go in there and you know spew our problems and spew
our mistakes but it's to go in there seeking for strength to help to overcome those problems to
seek for priesthood power that the bishop has the ability to turn that key in our behalf
through that confession process to give us more power to keep the commandments from heavenly
father well i love that scott priesthood keys is power yep there is power in those priesthood keys
and and there's another part of this that's so important and that is that the bishop has keys
to determine one's worthiness to participate in the ordinances of the gospel and in the ordinances
this is dnc dr and covenants section 88 verses 20 through 22 and it's in the ordinances of the gospel
that the powers of godliness are manifest so if the bishop has keys over the ordinances of the
gospel bishops and stake presidents and apostles and prophets that they have given them keys and
they have keys to administer over the ordinances of the gospel and it's in the ordinances that the
power of godliness is manifest which elder bennar has said that the powers of godliness is the
atonement of jesus christ that we've talked about this before scott that whenever anyone participates
in any ordinance of the gospel whether it's one of the five saving ordinances of the gospel baptism
holy ghost temple blessings and ordinances or if it's being healed from the sick or participating
in the in the giving a priesthood blessing or receiving a priesthood blessing or receiving
a patriarchal blessing or giving a patriarchal blessing or even taking the sacrament taking
the sacrament for sure is is critical whenever we participate in any ordinance of the gospel
we receive the blessings and powers of the atonement of jesus christ in our life if we do so
worthily if we were an out extent that doesn't mean we're without sin right there were i don't
think we're quite ever free in this world as humans from sin but if we are worthy enough and
that's what a bishop and a stake president who has keys is able to discern that if we are worthy
enough to participate in the ordinances of the gospel and we do receive the ordinances of the
gospel or participate in the ordinances we then experience the powers of godliness in our life
which is the atonement of jesus christ in our life which is the forgiveness of sin and all of the
redemptive not just enabling powers but all of the redemptive powers because of the atonement of
jesus christ flowing to our life so that's why we need to confess to a bishop or a stake president
who has priesthood keys that's the order god of the church that's the order of god's church his
kingdom so we've established that we need to confess to now confess to proper church authority but
what sins do we need to confess when i was at the missionary training center that was always
a discussion a topic and uh they would always go back to a statement made many many years ago
by president marion g romney counselor in the first presidency counselor to president kimball
and they would always go back to a quote by president romney which was that if anyone commits
any criminal behavior if anyone commits a crime or if anyone commits any moral transgressions that would
put them in a position where they were not worthy to receive the ordinances of the gospel
or where their membership in the church may be in question those were the sins that had to be
confessed to the proper priesthood authority to determine one's worthiness to participate in the
ordinance of the gospel so i i think sometimes scott we can understate sometimes may we overstate
what we need to confess to the proper priesthood authority most sins can just be confessed to
the lord and if we do that in some specific manner accepting full responsibility being
blameless not blaming others taking full responsibility for our mistakes our sins our
weakness and then confess to him and ask for his forgiveness usually that's sufficient
but if one does anything breaks any crimes breaks any moral laws that may put their membership
in question or that if if publicly became known then would cause damage even to the church
ultimately scott the church is concerned about the salvation and redemption of the individual right
they're concerned about the victims there that that's a critical part of what goes into
whether there's going to be a membership council or not you know how's how does it affect the
salvation or redemption of an individual how are victims are there any victims in this and
are victims going to be affected and the integrity of the church and if any three of those right
are in question then one has to needs to should run to the bishop to confess them and i think that's
a this is an important truth that we understand what confession is and kind of what it's not
and scott the the last thing is that the lord going back to the scripture we began with doctor
and come to section 58 42 and 43 by this in other words the sign of one's repentance manifestation
of one's repentance is that he will confess them hopefully out of a broken heart and country spirit
and he will forsake them and we we will get to the forsaking maybe i'll end today with just a story
from it's in elder anderson's book quote from elder david a bednor about understanding a
little bit about confession a lot of our listeners have the book what page are you going to be on
here page 136 okay um elder bednar says when i was president of byu i'daho i spoke with a bishop
and he shared this experience he had received a confession from a young person who said quote
i was involved in immorality friday night you were the last thing on my list now that i have
confessed to you i feel great elder bednar then explained that is not repentance it cannot really
be repentance unless it involves the redeemer even if a person confesses this was a confession
with no regard for the redeemer so again as we kind of conclude our discussion of what confession is
and what it's not the focus has to be on the redeemer and our relationship with him that's
why we do it we don't we don't confess our sins ultimately to make the church better or to even
to to make me feel better uh confession should be because i want to be better in my relationship
with jesus christ and draw closer to him that's that should be the focus and that's what repentance is
well when uh when each of us approaches the worship process we call repentance i love how the
the davie kind of positioned that for us today is a worship process too but as you know as we
approach this worship process that we call repentance one of the things that can be scary
and it just can be for some people and for those who don't really understand can be this confession
process and and so i i'm going to invite us all this week that as we consider our lives as we
consider our worship through repentance as we consider how are we coming to him through
repentance are we really putting him at the center of it as dav just mentioned there but also
so are we are we really seeing it as jesus christ as the center of it because if we are
you know then the confession just helps us draw closer to him we some of the barriers again that
i'll add that you know we'll we'll sometimes see that that will keep us from confession is what will
other people think of me you know we really in our society in our culture we really have a and i
think it's been that way in all cultures and societies throughout the history of the world and
will be forever and ever until the until that glorious day of the ushering in of the millennium
but until then you know we will struggle against that let's let's take this week let's change our
focus on repentance to worship through repentance worship through repentance to draw us closer to
him and putting him in the center of all that we do and as we do that i promise us and and i and i
can make this promise because it's been doctrinally given to us through our prophets and apostles and
the lord jesus christ himself in the doctrine of covenants that as we do this he'll draw closer to us
and we will fill his redeeming powers dav amen scott and that's a daily choice thanks so much for
being with us again today i love i i know that many of you love also the things that we're talking
about here and how i feel the spirit now it draws me closer to him may we focus on that this week
as we focus on our worship through repentance that'd be our prayer we look forward to being with you
again next week and until then have a great week everybody