Welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood.
Scott Durfey here joined us always by David Durfey.
How are you David?
Good morning everybody and I hope you all had a great Easter.
Yeah me too.
Here's my favorite holiday.
It just is.
It's one where we celebrate the one needful thing.
Certainly the most important holiday.
Yeah certainly.
Certainly.
While we finished up the week before Easter we were starting to get into the repentance
process or the repentance portion of the podcast, Dave.
We got into what repentance is not and we finished up.
We pretty much covered one topic of what repentance is not.
But in my estimation maybe one of the more important.
Yeah right.
Right.
So anyway.
Yeah let's just review it for a minute Scott before we get into the other detours.
That's what Elder Anderson chose to call them in his book The Divine Gift of Forgiveness.
He calls them detours.
I had kind of talked about them being myths when we had our discussion about those.
But anyway whether you want to consider myths of repentance or the detours on the road to
repentance.
So last time we talked about repentance is not absolutely not the payment punishment
or penalty for sin.
So you know I think we read Dr. and Covenants 19-4 actually repentance and suffering are
exactly opposite.
Now I know that President Kimball said that if you haven't suffered you haven't repented.
But he's not saying that repentance is suffering.
I know that I know what suffering is and I've suffered in repentance.
I mean it's not comfortable having a broken heart and contrite spirit.
That can be somewhat painful but that's not a payment.
No suffering in this world can make any payment for sin.
Jesus suffered for all the sins of all the world.
I just think it's so critical that you start there and you understand that absolute fact
and truth.
Now it's true Scott.
President Oakes recently has talked about that if you don't repent in this world you
will suffer and he uses the word for your sins.
And I know that if you absolutely reject Jesus in this life and the next, if you absolutely
refuse to accept the gift that he's offered, well somebody's going to have to pay for it.
And if you don't accept him paying for it, then I guess it's possible that in the next
life an individual will have to pay the demands of justice for themselves.
And there may be some suffering and payment in the next life if they completely, hard
for me to imagine somebody just completely rejecting the payment that Jesus Christ made
so willingly that he tells us that we can partake of freely without price.
But anyway, I'm sure there are probably some individuals that will spit in his face even
in the next life when they look into his face and if they do then there are probably going
to be some severe suffering for their sins.
But I, when Elder Anderson and I had this discussion about payment, penalty, you know,
and punishment for sin, this is just kind of simple reasoning, right?
Did Jesus pay for all the sins of all the world?
Yes.
All of them.
Yes.
All of them.
Yes.
He suffered for all of them.
All the sins.
All of the, not only the sins of the world, but the suffering as a result of the sins
of the world, not only for all the sins, but all the sicknesses.
I mean, he paid for every negative of the fall.
Every sin, every suffering, every sickness, every disease, every pain.
Jesus suffered it.
I can't comprehend that.
No one can.
But there are divine blessings that flow into our life because of it.
And if he did, in fact, suffer for all the sins of all the world, if there is a ticket
for everyone by just accepting Jesus Christ, confessing him, having faith in him and participating
in the doctrine of Christ and receiving the ordinances and repenting of their sins, Jesus
covers it.
But if they refuse what he paid for, if they refuse it, then I suppose that they'll have
to suffer for it.
But this is what I know back to our discussion with Elder Anderson.
If Jesus paid for all the sins of all the world, do we believe that God would demand
a double payment?
Well, that's not the God that I believe in.
I think that mercy and grace will be so available to individuals in the next life as well as
it is in this life.
So I just think people need to understand that they don't have to make payment for their
sins.
Sometimes this becomes a problem that we keep talking about, the scriptures, Scott, you're
saved by grace after all you can do.
And people like my wife, first 40 years of her life, thought she had to make a payment
before she could call upon Jesus Christ's atonement.
And she thought that she had to pay her percent before his atonement would kick in.
That is just such false evil, even mockery really of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Jesus paid 100 percent.
No one, quoting Brother Matthews, can pay for one millionth of one percent of any sin
they commit.
You can do it.
And I don't think you can do it in this life or the next.
Now you may you may suffer for your sins, but I actually don't think you're making any
payment.
I think Jesus did 100 percent of all of that.
If you don't receive it, you're going to suffer.
But I see it more as not suffering for your sins.
I see it more like suffering because of your sins.
You know, it's like the analogy of the individual who has cancer, Scott.
If you have cancer and you have a sickness and you go to the doctor and the doctor gives
you a diagnosis and surgery is required and maybe even chemo and radiation as horrible
as that is and as much pain and suffering as there is in that process.
Well the doctor didn't cause it.
Who caused the suffering?
It wasn't God.
God doesn't cause the suffering for our sins.
It's the sin that causes the suffering, not the repentance.
That's just so important for people to see that.
There's no suffering.
There may be pain and some suffering, but it's not repentance.
That's not repentance.
That's consequence.
Well, you know, if we talk about and we have as we begin talking about the effects of the
fall of Adam and Eve.
You know, all of the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve causes separation and that separation
can also be called sin and there's so many other things, right, that are attached in
because of that.
Well if that's the case and you know we are because of the fall of Adam and Eve suffering
in this world, the more that we misalign with Heavenly Father's will for us, the more suffering
we will just naturally experience.
And that suffering, regardless of where it comes from, will never pay for the sin.
Correct.
That's how I see it.
Jesus paid for all of it.
Right.
100% not 99.9.
Right.
And just to be clear, you know, when you say there will be suffering maybe later, if we
don't accept the Savior's suffering for us, there will be suffering and we may have to
suffer because of that.
But that suffering still won't pay for it.
Yeah, I agree.
No one, no one can make a payment.
Because even then, God wouldn't demand a double payment.
I was going to say because even then it would become a double payment.
So anyway, Scott, we talked it probably enough about the first myth.
Yeah.
Which is the myth is that you think that you can make any payment or that you can be punished
or penalized for your sins.
It's true.
It's not natural consequences, but Jesus Christ took upon himself all of the payment, all
of the punishment, all of the suffering, all of the sin from us and from the world if we
will just receive it through repentance.
If we don't receive it through repentance, then you're just going to keep suffering.
Right.
So anyway, you know, Scott, when I would teach this class, I would always begin when I would
get into this unit on repentance.
It was always so interesting to do this and almost every class, it was the same list.
I would ask them, so what are the roadblocks of repentance?
What keeps you or your friends from repenting?
Yeah.
And sometimes I just have them write them down and hand them in.
So it was a little more confidential.
So they would be more free to express their real feelings.
Sometimes I would just write them on the board anyway, but I did that for, I don't know,
two or three years and I just got the same list every time.
So there's about 20 of them, 20 different reasons.
I'm not going to read all these, but I'll just read a few.
And a lot of these are expressed in Elder Anderson's book as well.
Something that keeps us from repentance or roadblock to repentance is that they are afraid
they'll lose important relationships.
Something else is that they lack faith in themselves and doubt their ability and their
sincerity to really repent.
Some lack the trust in others like Bishop, parents and etc.
They don't want to make confession or disclosure.
Some feel so worthless and unworthy that they can't pray, which would be a major roadblock
to repentance.
Some think that repentance is too hard and it's too painful.
Some can't forgive themselves.
Some are fear of a church action or any sort of punishment from the church parents, family,
others.
Some are unsure that they are ready to really change or afraid they can't change.
We'll talk more about that in a little bit.
Some rationalize this in by thinking it's not that bad.
If I went through the entire list here, Scott, it comes down to two things really.
And it's really awesome when you see these and you can kind of study them on the board.
You can look at them and kind of see the pattern here.
It's either because of fear or because of pride.
And I think those are actually really closely related, fear and pride.
But because of fear and pride, those are the two major roadblocks that keep individuals
from repenting.
There's a whole chapter in Elder Anderson's book on that.
And I think that if someone's really having a hard time with their repentance, they have
to kind of be aware of those two negatives that can hold us back.
So I just bring that up before, again, we jump into the rest of what repentance is not.
So we've talked about, I want to read a quote by Elder Christopherson on this idea again
of repentance and suffering.
Suffering for sin does not by itself change anything for the better.
Only repentance leads to the sunlit uplands of a better life.
And of course, only through repentance do we gain access to the atoning grace of Jesus
Christ and salvation.
And Nelson has talked about, we should talk about repentance with a smile on our face,
that repentance is not Elder Maxwell, repentance is not a dour, dour, sour doctrine.
It hits the good news.
Repentance is the good news.
And I just, it's gotten such a bad rap over the years.
And I think that we just need to really change our perspective of what repentance is.
And to do that, you have to first understand what it's not.
So let's talk about a second thing that it's not, Scott.
It is not a series of steps.
It is not a checklist.
Repentance is not a checklist.
So many who talk about repentance talk about it in terms of, okay, you have to recognize
it.
And they, they describe these, this checklist as the five hours or the six hours or the
seven hours or, you know, it's, you know, you got to recognize it.
You got to, you got to make restitution for it all, all the hours.
That's how it was taught to me when I was growing up.
But the R that never comes up in, in giving that checklist of repentance, a step by step
process of repentance, the R that never comes up is the redeemer.
That's, it's, it's repentance is all about the redeemer, about being redeemed.
So I hope that our listeners will not ever again teach repentance as being a list of
five hours.
I think it's pretty amazing in Elder Anderson's book though, because some people work better
off checklist.
They like a checklist.
That's how they operate.
That's their operating system.
And he's got a really awesome checklist in his book, but they're all centered in Christ.
So let me just, this is in, this is my favorite, probably chapters, chapter 13.
And he's got, recognize that what I have done wrong has offended Jesus Christ.
So make Christ the center of that.
Not me or not the church.
Second, feel remorse that my actions have offended God, cause Jesus Christ to suffer
and cause suffering to God's children.
Remorse, but it's centered in Christ.
I think it's so important Scott to know that Jesus Christ not only suffered for our sins,
but he suffered because of our sins.
Whenever I think of my sins, and I think of my mind turns to the Savior, and I know that
he suffered for them, the second thought right behind that is, and he also suffered because
of them.
And I think about that's what causes me to have a broken heart, contrite spirit.
A third step is to resolve, to change my behavior, realizing that my own willpower is not enough
and without the help of Jesus Christ, I am powerless to repent.
So resolve, but Christ being the center of that resolve.
Reform, change, repent, appealing for the grace of Jesus Christ, is mercy in his power.
And then another step, so I guess he has five hours here, make restitution to those who
I've hurt and offended, most importantly to the Savior who suffered the pains of all.
In this way I am repenting, and then he says in the last part of this section of chapter
13, there is one more hour that brings light to our perspective on how to see repentance.
Rely, rely on the Redeemer.
The five hours come alive when they are centered in Jesus Christ.
So it's just wrong to think of repentance as a checklist, and Jesus not being a part
or the center of each one of those steps.
So repentance is not a checklist.
And to think of it that way will keep one from really going through the process.
I think it gets too burdensome.
Another thing that repentance is not is, and this may surprise some, it's not a change
of behavior.
So I know that President Nelson has taught that repentance is change, and it is.
You know, it's kind of what the word means literally, is change or you turn around the
Hebrew as you turn around, you move the other direction.
Repentance in the Greek is kind of related to metamorphosis and President Nelson has
talked about that.
So I know repentance is change, but to see it as me changing my behavior.
That is not repentance because atheists can do that.
Agnostics can do that.
Anybody religion or no religion can change their behavior out of their willpower, and
there is nothing redeeming about it.
That's not repentance.
Just stopping a behavior is not repentance.
You can't see that as repentance.
You can't just think, well, I can I'll just stop doing it and then God will forgive me.
That's not repentance.
I think that's a that's a huge myth in our church is all I'm just going to stop doing
it and then I'll be redeemed.
That's just again a mockery almost of the atonement thinking that I'm just going to
do it myself and and think that nothing else has happened and just forget about it.
So repentance has to include Jesus Christ.
It has to include his atonement and it has to include a lot of other things, which again
we'll talk more about what repentance is after we understand what it's not.
In this one, Dave, repentance is not a change of behavior, but repentance creates a change
of behavior.
And so that I think because of that sometimes through Christ, it's a through Jesus Christ.
It's not just stopping it's God.
No, but it's if we're really engaged in the full process of repentance, right?
We rely on our Redeemer, then there will be a change in behavior potentially.
But the big change came in our heart when when when President Nelson gave that talk,
any taught us about Montenegro, you know, and all that other Greek and Hebrew and about
change of metamorphosis and change direction and all that.
There will be change, but that change doesn't come from the brain.
That change comes from the heart, right?
Yeah.
And so it's easy for us.
In fact, it becomes a tool of the accuser, I believe, for us to focus on the behavior,
not the heart, because that can distract us from the most important change of all.
Perfect.
Yeah, it's a it's a change of a lot of things.
But just behavior is not repentance.
It's ultimately a change of heart.
You're right.
Change of mind.
It's a change of direction.
Yeah, and and it's not just that.
It's a sanctifying, refining spirit that comes over us, the Holy Ghost administering the
atonement of Jesus Christ in our life that not only gives us the redemptive power to
be forgiven, but also gives us the enabling power to be strengthened.
Repentance is not just becoming clean.
I mean, we could say that's something that repentance is not.
It's not just becoming clean.
It's being strengthened.
It's becoming a saint.
It's, you know, a president, president Oakes shares a story about, well, if you have a tree
and every time the wind blows, the, the slow, this low branch keeps getting the leaves keep
getting dragged in the mud every time the wind blows and the rain comes and the rain
washes the leaves.
Okay, it's good for now, but what happens the next time the wind blows?
I guess dirty again.
So what are you going to do?
You're going to have to strengthen that branch.
You're going to, you're going to have to do something to keep that branch strengthened.
So you know, it's not just, it's not just stopping or changing.
It's being strengthened in Christ.
That's what it includes.
So change of heart and all of that is centered in Christ.
So repentance is not just a change of behavior and repentance is not.
It's not salvation.
It's not what changed.
It's not what saves us.
Scott.
So let me explain.
Too many people get hung up on repentance as the power that saves us.
There is no power in repentance and there is no power in the atonement.
That power comes from Jesus Christ.
That's it.
Repentance doesn't save us.
The atonement doesn't save us.
Jesus Christ saves us through his atonement by our repentance.
According to our repentance through his atonement by the power of Christ.
Because of our relationship with him.
We are saved.
So I just, if Jesus Christ is not a part of repentance, if he's not the center of it,
well then it isn't repentance.
Anything that you do isn't repentance.
So I used to ask my students, so what else is, what else is repentance not?
What have you thought of it as being, but you now know that it's not?
And I think one of the first ones that would come up was, it is not confession.
Well that's true.
It's not confession.
Now confession may be an important part of repentance if you have committed certain
serious sins when it comes to confessing to maybe a priesthood brother who has priesthood
keys over ordinances, and it's always part of repentance if you are confessing your sins
to God, which is part of the process with a broken heart and contrite spirit.
But repentance is not confession.
And there's so many people who think that like Elder Bednar tells the story about the
girl BYU Idaho, and he was up there and Bishop shared with him this story that a girl who
had committed fornication and went into his office and said, well, you're the last, you're
the last thing on my list, and I need to confess my sin.
And she didn't thought that she was done.
Thought that was repentance.
Was that she checked off the list and confessed her sins to her bishop and thought that that
was it.
There are so many people Scott, especially young adults I think, who do that and then
they don't feel forgiven and they can't figure out why I've done everything.
I've gone through the list.
I've done everything and I still don't feel forgiven.
And again, I can without exception, I think I can tell you why you don't feel forgiven
or if you feel like you're not progressing or you feel like you're spinning your wheels.
And it's always because you lack sufficient faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his Atonement.
Another way of saying that is you have not made Jesus Christ the center of the process
of repentance and you have not believed not just in him, but you, you haven't believed
him that he would forgive as often as you repent.
If people are not making the Savior and his Atonement, the center of their repentance
Scott, then it doesn't matter what they do.
It's not repentance.
Hugh Nibley, Hugh Nibley, I've always loved this definition of what, of what repentance
is.
Question who is righteous.
Answer anyone who is repenting.
No matter how bad he has been, if he is repenting, he is a righteous man.
There is hope for him.
And no matter how good he has been all his life, if he is not repenting, he is a wicked
man.
The difference is which way you are facing.
The man on the top of the stairs facing down is much worse off than the man on the bottom
of the step who is looking up.
And the direction we are facing is towards Jesus Christ.
That is repentance.
And that is what determines whether we are good or bad.
It's really Scott about that simple.
Who or what do you face?
You facing the world?
Are you more interested in the world?
You looking at the world?
That's why I love, I always love the scriptures.
Look unto God and live.
Look unto me and every thought.
I love that because at the center of that, what they are asking us to do is repentance.
Repent.
Every time Jesus says come unto me, repentance is really close by the word.
Almost every time when that comes up, the word usually is close by repent.
Because that's what it means.
Just look to me and move in my direction.
Just come, just move, keep moving.
Some will go faster than others, but move in this direction.
As long as we are moving in that direction Scott, that is repentance.
So I just think that it's important to understand what it's not before you can really understand
what it is.
Another thing that repentance is not Scott is it's not an institutional activity.
I think this really holds people back as well.
That's when they think that it's an institutional activity or event by, that it's through the
church, that it's through the bishop, that they have to, we'll talk about confession.
We'll get into confession.
Confession plays a critical role in the repentance process.
There are too many people and again, especially youth who think that that's what repentance
is and it's not, that's not what repentance is.
It's a part of repentance.
It's not through the church.
Repentance is not through the church.
Repentance you go directly to God.
It's through Jesus Christ and his Atonement.
It's through the Holy Ghost, the power, the gift of the Holy Ghost that administers the
Atonement of Jesus Christ in our life.
That's what repentance is.
It is not a church function or activity.
The church definitely helps us.
The church plays, I think, a really helpful role to help us understand what it is and
to help us participate in the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our life.
The church does so many things that help us to get to Jesus Christ, but repentance, there's
just, there's just too many people, I think, who depend too much upon the church for their
repentance and not enough on the Savior.
That goes back to your story from Elder Bednor and the bishop and the girl, right?
There was a note too found somewhere, right?
Or am I getting a couple of stories mixed up?
Well, yeah, that's when I was a seminary teacher.
Why don't you share that?
Oh, when I was a seminary teacher, I, it was in a difficult class.
It was like the last class of the day, my fifth period.
And I went back to the, back to the class after the class was over and there was some
papers on the floor and I picked up this one paper and I looked at it and it was a note.
It was a communication between two girls in my class.
And this one girl was telling this other girl, confessing her sins, which is just so wrong
and so prevalent that people confess their sins to people, which I think is evil, which
I think is almost like repeating the sin, at least in your mind as you repeat it in
words to others.
But anyway, she was confessing her sin to her friend and her friend said, are you going
to see your bishop?
And she said, I don't know.
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid to go see my bishop and she's going back and forth and this has been over a period
of days or weeks.
This piece of paper.
They were just passing it back.
Yeah.
Every seminary, they were writing notes and I had no idea.
And then she talks about how she finally went in to see her bishop and how difficult it
was, but how, how she felt better because she had talked to her bishop.
Anyway, I, I was so discouraged to thinking, well, I have done such a terrible job of teaching
what repentance really is by not teaching what it's not.
Anyway, that was part of my lesson for me on how to, how to be a better teacher when
it comes to repentance.
Well, and, and, you know, that experience and I think that that experience is pretty
prevalent as well, you know, it's like, okay, you leave the bishop's office after the steps.
Then I have air quotes that I'm showing here after the steps that you've taken.
Now you go to the bishop and often the feeling is, wow, now that's over.
Yeah.
Thank goodness that's done.
Yeah.
I'm so complete.
Right.
That's just so, I know I have felt that way.
I know that I've been to the bishop's office and when I, and what in many years ago and,
and then upon leaving immediately just think, oh, I'm so glad that's done.
I, I'm sure there's a release by being able to share it with others.
I think there's a psychological, mental.
There is.
And that, and that release can be damaging or dangerous.
If we fill that release, we may mistake.
Yes, I agree.
Scott, because, because then the, the, the bishop takes the place of the savior or the
place of even, even God by the, because how many people have confessed their sins to the
bishop, but have never confessed to Heavenly Father?
That's just it.
I had an experience fairly recently where a young man came up to me and he says, I just
really need to go talk to the bishop about some stuff.
I says, have you talked to Heavenly Father about it?
That's good.
You know, and I don't know what happened from there, but that's a question we should all
be asking ourselves, you know, the bishop in that approach is important so that he can
invoke priesthood keys on our behalf and, and help us with the enabling effects of the Atonement
of Jesus Christ, that strengthening effect.
But that's not where it is.
So many people have such a guilt complex and feel so much shame and it kind of, it kind
of drives them to, if they're not confessing their bishop, they're confessing to their
neighbor, their neighbor, they're confessing to their friend.
They're, or worse yet, testimony meeting in front of the entire congregation.
Oh man, that's the worst.
And it was really a problem.
I told Elder Anderson this.
I said, Elder Anderson, we have a major problem among young adults in the church.
They go on dates and they end up confessing their sins over and over again on every new
date that they go on.
They say, you know, have you done this?
Have you done that?
You know, and they, they end up, it ends up becoming a confession when they go on these
dates and I wish the brother would just come out and say, stop confessing your sins to
others and start confessing them to God.
Now, I know it's not easy to confess to God and I think some reason that people don't
confess to God is because they know that he knows.
So what's the use?
He already knows.
So what's the use of me repenting?
And what, what would you say?
What would be your answer to that?
Yeah, of course he already knows.
And just like a parent who wants to give blessings to their kids who do the things that allow
those blessings to be given to them, our heavenly fathers the same way.
He can't step in front of justice.
He can't step in front of our, the process of our repentance.
And I think so often Dave, the reason that, you know, we struggle with this is because
we fail to establish the relationship necessary with our heavenly father, with the Savior
in order for us to have this experience be what it needs to be for us.
Well, for some reason, I don't know why it's so hard for people to do that because it's
really just an act of humility and accountability.
Right.
If, if, if someone were humble enough and they believed in God enough and they knew the character
of God and his love, his love, his fierce, perfect eternal love for that individual.
And he's already knows that he's done it.
That I've sinned or that you've sinned or anyone else is sin.
He's not up there ringing his hands over it.
He's not up there turning their back on them.
He's not even mad at them.
The fact that they would kneel down and confess their sins to him is got to be, I think one
of his happiest moments is that that individual is humble enough, believes in me enough and
wants to be accountable enough to confess their sins to me.
Think of what that would do to, to any father, including Heavenly Father and including our
Savior and to confess, I'm sorry.
And I've said this way more times than I can ever count and more times than I wished I
would have because of all of my sins.
But over and over again, I have said and I am so sorry that I've caused Jesus any pain
or suffering.
And I just think it's so important to acknowledge that, Scott.
That's part of what it means to have broken heart and contrite spirit.
Going to the bishop is so hard for people to do and they think that's a broken heart
and contrite spirit, but I think that's just a fear of man.
I don't think that's a broken heart, contrite spirit, and they may even cry about it.
And I, I, everybody's different and I'm not judging, but so many people cry.
I've been in many church membership actions where in individuals will cry and cry and
cry.
And I think it's because they've been caught or because of the consequences or because
of what, what's others going to think or what's my family.
What's going to, you know, and sometimes you can just tell it's, it has nothing to do with
them understanding the suffering that they've caused Jesus Christ, which is really the,
what it means to have a broken heart, contrite spirit.
You were talking about how our heavenly father would receive us through our repentance, you
know, through that humility.
We have a parable that teaches us that.
Yeah.
And then we have the parable of the prodigal son.
And here we have Scott Durfee, the prodigal son and David Durfee, the prodigal son and
everybody else among us.
We are all the prodigal.
We're also all, all the other prodigal, the prodigal, seemingly prodigal's brother.
We're all him too.
However, not all of us are the father.
And this is what it says about the father.
So we know what happened, right?
The prodigal son goes, he's eating with pigs.
He's just totally blown his entire inheritance, which he cashed in early, which created a
lot of problems for the other brother, etc.
Finally he just comes to himself and he says, my father has servants.
I think I'll go and see if my father will, you know, just allow me to maybe be one of
his servants.
And you know, we know how that worked out, right?
But you know, I think part of my, maybe my favorite part of that is when the, the son,
the other son, the other prodigal son comes to the father and he says, Hey, what's going
on here?
He was angry.
He wouldn't come to the party, you know, and stuff like that.
He says, Hey, my brother's been out with Harlitz yet.
You've killed this fatted calf for him.
You brought him back and he was a little bit upset.
Maybe my favorite part is because this not just applies to this son, but to all sons.
And he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine.
It was meat that we should make Mary and be glad for this thy brother, for this thy brother
was dead and is alive again and was lost and now was found.
And you know, to me, Dave, that's really what repentance provides us is that opportunity
to fill our heavenly father's love.
When I have gone to him in my repentance process, I've had that experience where he has come
running to me in ways that were really beautiful and in some ways a little bit surprising to
me because I hadn't anticipated it to be that way.
Yeah, that's that is sweet.
Scott, you've shared a little bit of your story, which I think is amazing.
Sometimes he runs to us with the help of other people like you did with your dear stake,
President Glee, you know, and he may he may run to us through the voice or the arms of
a parent or a prophet or whoever, maybe other individuals that we through others that we
may feel his love.
But the principle is Scott is really understanding God's infinite, eternal love for us that he
loves his children and he's never going to give up on us and he's never going to turn
his back on us.
We turn our back on him, but he never turns his back on us.
He always sees us.
He knows us.
He knows our our sins.
He knows everything about us and he is so so anxious for us to make our way back into
his presence and to confess our our need for him and our love for him.
So rip repentance is a lot of things which we're going to discuss in the next few weeks
about what repentance is.
We'll kind of lay out an outline and again not talk of it about it in terms of steps,
not more in terms of it being a process, but it's important before we do that that we understand
what it's not.
And I hope that I hope that our listeners have a little bit better idea of what it's
not.
It's it's directly to our Heavenly Father.
Even if we confess our sins, if they're serious enough that we should confess our sins to
the church, still that does not bring forgiveness in our lives.
Ultimately forgiveness does not come through the church.
It comes through our Heavenly Father because of his son.
And if if we do anything when it comes to repentance that is not have that does not have
Jesus Christ as the center of what we do, it is not repentance.
So I hope that in the next few weeks, we're going to we're going to talk and we're going
to define what it is.
And we'll go through that process and hope to help our listeners draw closer to their
Heavenly Father strengthen their relationship with him and to depend more upon Jesus Christ
who who has said over and over again that he is so willing to repent as are so willing
to forgive us as often as we repent.
So that will be fun to do that the next few weeks.
Scott,
looking forward to that.
This this part of the series curriculum course, whatever you want to call it, this part of
that is the part where we really can become to feel free as we you know as we've gone
through the beginning part of the the course here this season season number three we've
talked about the effects of the fall we've talked about the fall itself we've talked
about the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the effects now we're getting into
the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ how they offset all the effects of the fall.
So where we begin now to really see repentance for what it is many of our views can change
I'll invite that to be a possibility in your life but maybe a lot of the views that we
have had towards repentance can and will change as we go through this process and it's a beautiful
sweet experience.
Our invitation is that this week as you take of the sacrament please consider the things
that we've talked about here today continue to re to establish that deep and abiding relationship
with deity with our Heavenly Father with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost so that
the Atonement can be administered into our lives.
Thanks for being with us this week we look forward to being with you next week and always
until then be well.