Hey there everybody welcome out to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood.
Scott and David Durfey here as always.
Hey Scott.
How are you Dave?
All good.
I got a granddaughter coming home today.
I can't even believe how excited you must be.
Yeah.
Isn't that sweet?
Yeah, you know it's easy to say this because I'm not her parent, I'm not Kyle, I'm not
Aubrey so it's easy for me to say this but man that went fast.
Yeah.
It went fast for them for me.
When I had a missionary out those days didn't go fast.
Yeah, I probably didn't go fast for Aubrey.
Yeah, yeah.
But it went fast for me and it sure did for her.
She sure, wow she wrote such an amazing email.
Did she?
Yeah, Monday.
Tell me about it.
Wow.
Just bearing testimony and on fire.
No bearing testimony, sharing her heart, bearing her soul.
Yeah.
And saying I'm so thankful the Lord allowed me to come out here to help change people
but mostly I'm thankful I came out here so he could change me.
Yeah, I love that and that's how it works you know for those missionaries who really
apply themselves and get in and do the work.
But I gotta tell you that I thought this morning I wonder if Heavenly Father puts on his best
pair of white pants because his children or grandchildren are coming home.
As I dressed this morning I thought you know it's kind of like when you have a new baby
and you're going to the hospital to bring the baby home.
I remember that with my first baby.
Did you really?
I shaved twice as hard.
I wanted to be totally clean shaven so I could kiss that baby and I wanted that baby
to be proud of me.
That baby probably didn't even see or recognize me but I remember combing my hair and wanted
to look so good for that baby.
That's what you call being intentional right there because that never even occurred to
me.
Really?
No, I just wanted to get there.
If I'm wearing sweats and a New York Yankees hat.
I was that way with every one of my kids when they were babies.
That's cool.
And I was that way this morning with a granddaughter coming home from a mission.
I was thinking oh I got to look good today and brush my teeth especially good and shave
extra hard.
You look extra handsome.
Yeah, that's why.
That's why.
Yeah, it's working.
That's why but you're not wearing white pants.
No, no, but I thought these are nice pants.
Yeah, you look great.
So anyway, that's exciting.
But this is not uncommon for you.
You always look great.
No.
Well Deb and I just got back from San Diego and we were at the airport last night, cute
missionary girl coming home and it was somewhat apparent to me that she was returning from
Hawaii.
You know she had the flowery day on and she had a really pretty Hawaiian type style dress.
And so I asked her if she was just coming home from Hawaii and she said yes.
And I asked her what mission.
She said the LIE mission.
I asked her if she knew our sweet niece.
I got a cousin for me, niece for you.
Sadie and she's she stopped her.
She says, oh, sister, ma'am, she was one of my favorites.
It just they just come home and they have after having given themselves to the Lord for a
year and a half in her in her case, they just come home different.
Yeah, oh, for sure.
And that's what right in line with what we're talking about changed.
Yeah, changed, changed to God.
And so yeah, let's let's jump into what we want to talk about today because this has
kind of been a lifetime thing for me.
I remember even as a teenager thinking about this topic and and throughout my life off
and on, I've revisited this and continue to think a lot about it.
And Sunday I had a experience with someone who's really struggling in the church and
doesn't matter if it's boy or girl or who it is.
But anyway, this person has had high church positions and but messed up again and reverted
back to old habits and addictions that they had even a little bit after their mission
and a little bit before their mission and they just keep slipping back into the same
hole and sin.
And but this time, I think this person is especially discouraged because they think
that there's I just can't do it.
I mean, if you can't do it when you're in in that calling and have that responsibility
and putting in that much effort to serve the Lord as as they were doing in a calling.
You think if I can't change doing that, then I can't change.
This must be who I am.
And
gratefully they reached out to me and we're willing to come over and talk to me for a
couple of hours.
And it's just so it's just I know Scott's on everyone's mind from time to time on mine
and yours, right about how how can we change and so right off the bat because to set this
up.
That's the problem.
How can we change the problem isn't about us changing.
It's not about how can I change the focus should be.
How can I be changed?
This is a this is a common dilemma that I run into in a in all recovery circles, actually.
You know, I've had people on multiple occasions tell me, Scott, I just can't do it after they've
tried and after there's been unsuccessful attempts or or some success and then later
down the line, they fall or a relapse or or whatever.
And they'll say, I just can't do it to which I almost always reply.
Well, of course, you can't.
It was never intended for you to be able to.
Yeah, that's why we focus on an AA higher power.
That's why it's so important that we understand in the church and we spent, you know, five
episodes I think on talking about why I choose to believe and stay.
Well, that has to be part of that.
There's just no there's just no possible human way that any of us left to our own devices
will be able to stay in alignment with Heavenly Father's will for that for us, whatever that
looks like for us as individuals.
Yeah.
Yeah, we get people get stuck on it.
And again, it's just it's just a matter of perspective and focus.
Correct.
It's not about me changing atheists and agnostics can change.
It's about being changed through Christ.
That should be the perspective, the emphasis, the focus, all of our intentions should be
on being changed.
Right.
That's so important and there's just so many in the church who grit their teeth and bear
it and quite knuckle it and think that they have to change.
They're trying to conform.
They're trying to perform, but they're not being transformed.
Well, Dave, this is an area to where false gods enter the picture.
Let me explain.
Yeah.
You know, what I mean by that is, for example, you know, somebody who's got a little bit of
a sense of, you know, somebody come and I'm going to use my reference.
I obviously have the same reference that you Dave have, you know, when it comes to our
application through the church and stuff like that.
But I want to share, you know, when we're when we're talking about change and we come
and we want to be different and there's a lot of things, though, that are really kind
of play into it.
You know, first off, why do I want to change?
Am I being compelled?
This is something that's burning within me.
You know, there's just a lot of these things, but false gods begin to enter because, for
example, you know, there are certain drugs that will make you sick if you drink alcohol.
There are certain drugs that block opiates from entering your system.
And these drugs can become a false God.
Because we think that that change can happen to me through that.
And what we find is it's just that never works.
You know, I should I can't say never works because as soon as I do, somebody's going
to send an email saying, well, it worked for me.
Well, and there's a place for those drugs.
There are.
And I might also reply, yeah, but the story is not over for you.
Because it will reenter.
It will reenter.
Taking the drug doesn't mean you're.
Until we are safely dead using the words of Elder Maxwell, until we are safely dead to
all of the things of this world, then we are never fully out of the out of the woods on
stuff like that.
Yeah.
Because these things come.
It was never really intended.
And I say this in all honesty.
There's it's never really intended for us to make the changes ourselves that will allow
us to have the things in our lives that we say that we want.
Just peace and serenity and a relationship with the.
Well, and they're just I I'm I don't mean to be critical and I'm not being critical,
but you know, this this person who came to me Sunday, you know, was was regurgitating
some of the thoughts that he had had or previous counsel he had received or previous therapy
purpose had told him certain things, you know, and that it was about this habit or that habit
or doing this or that.
And I said, you know, I all of those things have their place and they're not bad things
that you're being told, but it all comes down to one thing, one needful thing.
And that's your relationship with Jesus Christ.
What is your Scott?
I guess that sounds too simple to some people, but it all comes down to your relationship
with Jesus Christ.
He is the only true change agent or agent of change.
Yeah, I love the way you put that change agent.
It's been a big that's kind of a big catchphrase in corporate America right now.
Change agents of agents of change, a lot of a lot of books being read.
Jesus Christ is the only true change agent.
Yeah.
Amen.
Honestly, I've seen I've seen and you know what and I'm guilty of this.
We probably all are.
I'm all are.
I'm extremely guilty of this.
Yeah, we forget.
We just forget.
I mean, we're raised in a grit your teeth and bear down kind of world.
Yes.
And that's how, you know, and I love that I was raised that way.
I think that that's commendable.
I can do it.
I can absolutely.
Self-reliance.
If it is to be, it is up to me.
A culture of self-reliance, Scott, is what we're taught.
Yeah, exactly.
And that, unfortunately, goes through some sort of filter where it goes from physical
self-reliance to spiritual self-reliance and pretty soon we don't even realize it that
we're we're trying to save ourselves and change ourselves.
There's a, it gets, I don't want to use the word tricky because it's not tricky, but there's
it.
But we get tricked into thinking it can be tricky if I can say it that way because sometimes
when we are working on this change of ourselves and then we decide, okay, I need to let go
and just let Heavenly Father, you know, that's one of the big things in Alcoholics Anonymous
that we talk about.
This what we're talking about today falls so much in line with becoming sober or overcoming
an addiction through these types of programs.
And when we do this, we have to know that I can't, you know, if I could have, I would
have a long time ago.
For example, for me, you know, if drinking was my, became a big problem for me and I'm
an alcoholic, I'm a recovering alcoholic to this day, I identify that way and I need to
identify that way so that I can remember that I've got to stay in my program, which means
I can't, he can and I'm going to let him.
And those are the first three steps.
Step one is my life has become unmanageable.
I can't.
Step two, came to believe that in a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
He can.
There's some presumption there that I was saying in the beginning, which one might argue
with, but it's there nonetheless.
I can't.
He can.
And number three is we made a decision to turn our will in our life over the care of
God as we understand him.
Let him.
And then that leads to steps four.
Four through 12, which are the process of letting him.
Clean house and help others.
Which aren't necessarily easy steps.
They're difficult steps.
They're difficult steps, but and they're they're impossible steps.
If we do them ourselves, if we do them all by myself, they're impossible.
Yeah.
Just doing them by yourself defeats the whole purpose.
Yeah, but if I do it as I'm trying to establish and maintain a relationship with God as I
understand him and that understanding increases, obviously.
And the reason that's put in there, you know, made a decision to turn our will in our life
over to the care of God as we understand him is because in the beginning, we may not think
we understand him enough to turn our will in our life over to him.
If we understand him at all, if we just want to feel him and one of the greatest ways to
understand him is to do this very thing.
And then like you said, steps four through seven were really through nine rather were
really cleaning house.
You know, we take an inventory, we make amends, we make a list of all persons we had harmed
throughout our lives.
And we try to make it as exhaustive as we can.
And we make amends to such people wherever possible.
And then we move into the relationship with him.
We continue to take personal inventory when we're wrong promptly admit it.
Number 11, we seek through prayer meditation to maintain conscious contact with God.
Praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out.
And then 12, having as the result of these steps, as the result of the steps, we have
a spiritual awakening.
And that makes us want to carry this message to others.
And a spiritual awakening is defined as spiritual awakening is just defined as me having the
ability to see somebody more powerful than me and being and having the trust and the
faith to turn that will over to him.
It comes in steps one, two and three.
It initiates, but it really develops in four through 12 and recognizing your dependence
100% 100% dependence.
Yeah, and and and and you know, many, many of us.
Most I would their venture.
Most of us, not just when it comes to matters alcohol related.
Our whole life.
Yeah.
Because our life had become unmanageable.
Well, that's the idea.
Stop repenting of a sin and start to repent of sinning.
Right.
Straight from the book.
And that's your life.
Yeah, and that's that's another key to this, I think, Scott.
So maybe if we're identifying keys, you know, a key one is stop trying to change and start
being changed.
Let God change you.
Open yourself up.
We'll talk maybe more about that in some detail in a minute.
But let's open up what what can we do?
What actions can we take?
What small and simple things, even though they may not be necessarily easy, but but
what small and simple things can we do to open ourselves up to being changed?
That's that's what we should focus on is being changed by Jesus Christ instead of me gritting
my teeth, white knuckling it and changing.
That's number one.
The second one, Scott, is that instead of trying to just change a habit, a bad habit,
or even just trying to create a new habit, that's that's a wrong way to go about it.
We need to have Jesus Christ through the Spirit of the Lord change our lives.
Hold cell change.
A new heart.
You know, I think this is really one of the key elements in the scripture, Scott, is is
about getting a new heart.
It's not about it's not about changing your heart or having your heart fixed or having
it's about getting a new heart, right?
A new view about being born again.
The whole idea of being converted to the Lord, you know, I had someone recently tell me,
you know, I somebody else who someone who who went through church membership council
and and they were told, you know, we know you have a testimony, but you don't have a
testimony of chastity.
Well, I have a little bit of a problem with that.
I don't think I need a testimony of chastity if I am truly converted to the Lord.
If I am truly converted to the Lord, that covers that.
And to try to focus on changing my my habits of immorality without focusing upon my real
conversion and faith in Jesus Christ.
I just don't think you can make a wholesale change.
No, you can't.
And that's that's kind of what I'm talking about when we're talking about the first three
steps in alcoholics anonymous.
You know, if it was wholesale change, if it wasn't wholesale change, if it was just,
I'm just going to change something, it would be my life has become unmanageable.
My drinking has become unmanageable.
Yeah, there you go.
Instead of my life has become unmanageable.
My drinking has become unmanageable, right?
And that's it.
And a power greater than myself can relieve my drinking problem instead of restoring me
to sanity, you know, or whatever.
And I'll turn my will and my life as far as drinking goes over to power.
That's not it's our life.
It's our whole being our heart.
I love that you bring that up.
And I know that that's the way it's talked about in scripture is a whole change of heart
and giving our whole heart to him.
We don't just we don't just when we have, well, the book puts it that way, you know,
in the when we read in the Divine Gift of forgiveness, it talks about we already we
already mentioned it here in the podcast today, that it's important that we don't just repent
of sinning or a sin.
Yeah, you don't focus too many people's got over and over and over again.
I've experienced this.
They get so hung up on repenting of a sin, right?
Instead of repenting, instead of focusing on repenting of sinning.
And so in other words, going back to this, let's say they really focus on they want to
be they want to be chased.
They want to be clean.
They want to live the law of chastity, but they don't read their scriptures.
They don't pay their tithing.
They don't minister.
They don't serve others.
They don't pray.
They don't go to the house of the Lord.
They don't do all the and they wonder why can't why can't I change?
You can't.
It's just wrong to see it that way.
It's about again being born again, and you cannot born yourself.
I know I can bore myself, but I can't born with an N myself.
You can't do that.
That only comes through your relationship with the the your relationship with the father
as you cry out to him in prayer and your relationship with Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice
and through the gift of the Holy Ghost administering grace and mercy and compensatory powers in
my life.
That's how you have to see it.
So when we speak of change, we have to speak of it as not.
I'm going to do a little here and a little there.
Now I'm not saying that we have to do it all at once.
I'm not saying that Scott.
It's a process and it doesn't rarely does it happen all at once like Paul or like Alma
in the Book of Mormon.
It's usually a process and we start by small and simple things, but we're consistent in
those small and simple things.
For example, just again when I was I've shared this before, but when I was first called to
be patriarch, Scott, I knew I had to change.
I wasn't a bad person.
I, you know, there were great things in my life, but I knew I had to change and I had
to give my heart and my will and a whole, this had to be a wholesale change.
I remember that it changed how I listened to the radio.
It changed how I watched the television.
I started to change how I remember thinking one day I even brushed my teeth different.
I remember that it changed everything.
And as a result, I was changed.
Yeah.
Let me ask you a question about those changes though.
Were those changes, changes that came from you or were those changes that came through
you because of a new spirit that had entered you?
So because I have the desire, okay, and so a little bit abstract here and we need to maybe
be more concrete sequential a little later in this podcast, but here's the abstract
because I desired it.
That's number one.
And gratitude is the beginning of desire.
So I always have to attach gratitude to desires because I know gratitude is the key to desire
in my life.
Because of my desires and because of my faith and trust in God, my belief in Him, it takes
really at the core, Scott, of being changed.
It takes belief that you can be changed, that you will be changed.
You have to believe that.
And I believed that.
I believed that I didn't not only need it to, but I believed I would be, I could be,
not just I should be.
And believing that, you're right.
Great point that it wasn't just me, but I felt the spirit of the Lord in my life.
I think what I did do in small and simple ways was I opened myself up to that.
For example, the other day I was thinking about this person I had talked to this last
Sunday thinking, and I almost texted them this.
I said, start changing what you listen to.
Start changing the music you listen to.
Start changing the programs that you watch on television.
Our environment is a big key here.
Start changing small, simple ways will open you up to being changed.
And that's the goal is not me changing.
It's opening up myself to being changed.
To become a new creature.
Right.
So there's, I think there's some key, some of my favorite verses on this topic, Scott,
in Alma chapter five is, I think so, wow, I love this chapter.
This is a chapter I think I've said this before, but my daughter Rachel, when she was eight
years old, I told her she had to read the Book of Mormon before she got baptized.
And so she was really trying hard to read the Book of Mormon.
And I could see her bed and through my, where I was laying in my bed, I could look into her
bedroom and see her bed in our little home in Highland.
And I saw her reading one day and all of a sudden she wasn't laying down.
She was setting up and all of a sudden I could just, there was just an energy about her and
then pretty soon she said, daddy, daddy, come here.
And I went into her bedroom and I sat on the edge of the bed and I said, what, Rachel,
what happened?
And she said, daddy, have you ever read Alma chapter five?
And I thought, no, no, wait a minute.
I know what Alma chapter five says.
And there is no storyline in Alma chapter five.
There are 42 spiritual questions, introspection questions, like an interview, you know, there's
no arms being cut off.
There's no blood.
There's no war.
There's no nothing that would be apparently, I thought there, wow.
And all that went through my mind like a flash.
And I said, yeah, I've read, I've read Alma chapter five.
And she said, and I said, I said to her, Rachel, is that what you're reading?
And she said, yes, daddy, yes, I love it.
And I said, Rachel, what you're feeling right now is the spirit of the Lord.
Yeah.
Testifying to you that the Book of Mormon is true.
And I hope that you'll never forget it.
She said, I just love it, daddy.
I just love it.
That's sweet.
That just before her eighth birthday.
I love that.
That's sweet.
That was amazing experience.
And so I've always, I've always, Alma chapter five has always been one of my favorites.
And I think a couple, just a couple of verses, I think it's, it's awesome.
Look at verse seven.
First of all, Scott, look at, look at just verse seven.
Behold, he changed their hearts.
And he awakened them.
Scott, that's a spiritual awakening.
You don't do that on your own.
You don't.
In the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
He changed their hearts and he awakened them.
Yeah.
I'm going to back you up just a little bit if it's okay.
Let's look at six to why.
And now, behold, I say to you, my brother that you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently
retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?
It's important that we know where we came from.
Dave, why?
It's important that we understand the relationship that we have with the fall of Adam and Eve
too.
Right?
So I mean, and it's not about the captivity.
You read the next slide.
And ye ye and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long suffering
towards them.
See, it's not the captivity.
It's the mercy and long suffering towards them.
But the captivity, I need to know that I can't.
Right?
Right.
My life has become unmanageable.
Right.
I can't.
Right.
He can because of his love and mercy.
Right.
Yeah.
Long suffering.
That he delivered them from hell.
Yeah.
And he changed their hearts.
And he awakened them.
And it's so important and we're going to come back to where we're here, but I need to throw
this in here too.
John 17.3.
It's life eternal to know him.
And before any of this can even happen, we must know him.
You talked about trust.
You talked about faith.
We must have a knowledge or a relationship, the beginning of a relationship.
And it'll increase, obviously.
This is how it does, in fact.
Anyway.
President Nelson has tried so hard to teach us.
You know, read every scripture on Jesus Christ where he's mentioned in the scriptures and
take notes and hear him.
Be more intentional and overcome your casual approach to knowing Jesus Christ.
Have a relationship with him.
I mean, President Nelson has tried so hard to teach us that.
Even had a talk that said the answer is Jesus Christ.
All of the solutions to our problems and all the answers to our questions.
Well, over in verse 12, it says, according to his faith, there was a mighty change wrought
in his heart.
Talking about really Alma after he had heard of Benadie.
Okay.
But this word, so there was a change wrought in his heart.
W-R-O-U-G-H-T.
Yeah.
That means that it wasn't just because of him.
There was an external power.
That's what we're talking about here.
He couldn't do it in and of himself.
Otherwise there would be a different word used there.
But it was wrought in him because it was through the power of the Spirit, Jesus Christ's atonement,
that allowed this to happen.
And that's key.
Faith, according to his faith or belief, there was a mighty change wrought in his heart.
Verse 14, now, behold, I ask you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born
of God?
Have ye received his image in your countenance?
Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
Wow.
A mighty change.
That's a big deal.
But the small, simple things that we do opens up our hearts to allow the Lord to make that
mighty change in our hearts.
And again, not just a change of heart, but to give us a new heart, which I love in Ezekiel
36.
And over in verse 26, this is still Alma 5.
In still in Alma 5 it says, and now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced
a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask,
can ye feel so now?
A change of heart, Scott.
We can't change our own heart.
There's a couple things in here that I want to kind of talk about.
Going back to 14.
Now behold, I ask you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God?
What does that mean?
Let's talk about that for a second.
What does it mean to be spiritually born of God?
I mean, we know what it is to be born.
Here we are.
But what does it mean to be spiritually born of God?
I've got some thoughts on that, Dave.
But what do you say?
Well, it means, number one, that you have repented of your sins.
Come unto him.
Repented your sins behind you. Come unto Christ, and that through ordinances that you have been
baptized by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, which is also
a change agent, and that he has filled you with grace and mercy and the pure love of
Christ.
We have spiritually been born of God because we're born of the world, and every day that
we don't maintain conscious contact with God, we are becoming again born of the world.
So we will do one by default.
We'll be born of God if we put a little effort into it.
And then it goes on.
Have you received his image in your countenance?
I think that we think about what does it mean to receive Jesus' image in my countenance?
Like, does it just mean that I groom myself better?
Does it mean all these things?
Or does it really mean that I carry myself the way Jesus would?
Do I act and react the way Jesus would in any given situation?
Do I go back to the Sermon on the Mount?
And is that applicable in all parts of my life?
That's receiving the image in his countenance.
And we can work on those things a little bit at a time, but unless we really become spiritually
be born of God, we're never going to put ourselves in a position to have that image
manifest itself in our countenance.
And connected to all of that, Scott, is what it means to take upon yourself the name of
Christ, you know, to become his sons and his daughters is to be spiritually.
Look at verse 7 again in Mosiah 5.
So we got Mosiah 5 and Alma 5, two of my favorite chapters.
This is Mosiah 5 verse 7.
And now because of the covenant which he have made, he shall be called the children of Christ,
his sons and his daughters.
For behold, get this, this day he has spiritually begotten you.
What does it mean for Christ to have spiritually begotten us?
For ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name.
On his name, not just faith in him, but faith on his name.
Therefore ye are born of him.
You have his name upon you.
His name is upon you and have become his sons and his daughters.
And under this head, you're made free and there's no other head whereby you can be made
free.
Out of bondage, out of bondage, addictions, habits, you've been changed.
You've been changed, you've been freed.
My missionary granddaughter coming home today and for two years she's had the name of Jesus
on her.
Everybody has seen it.
She has worn it.
Maybe we all need to start wearing missionary tags.
I don't know, Scott.
We shouldn't have to do that to every day think that we represent Jesus Christ that
were his sons and his daughters, that we have spiritually been born again of him by the
Holy Spirit and to begin to act like we are his sons and his daughters.
Begin to act like him.
I mean to have faith on his name means that we believe not just in him, but we believe
in his works, his examples, his atonement, his power, his priesthood, his church, everything
about him.
And to do that opens us up again to have a mighty change of heart.
And now we come to the part then, it's like, okay, so how does this happen in my life?
What steps or what, and I really hesitate to use that word, but I think out of reference
when we all understand what it means, what do I now need to do to invite the Spirit into
my life so that this change of heart, so that I can be born again, so that I can be reborn,
so that I can have all of the things in my life that so do easily be sent me, taken away,
or healed, or made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
And there's a few things, Dave, I think that we can do to precipitate that in our lives.
Yeah, for sure, Scott.
And a small, simple thing.
Again, by small, simple things, great things come to pass.
And that's true for allowing ourselves to be changed.
For example, again, just seeking to hear the word of the Lord every day, and we can do
that by just spending a few moments every day in the Word of God, in the Holy Scriptures.
Honestly, Scott, that one choice, that one act, or just maybe a 1% improvement each day
on trying to hear the voice of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures, or by studying the words
of His prophets, opens us up to be changed.
Or how about maybe just one more prayer a day?
Just one more prayer a day.
If you're praying once a day, pray twice a day.
If you're praying twice a day, pray three times a day.
I'm not saying that you do that every day and you increase that every day.
I'm just saying, what small and simple things can we do?
One of my favorites, and it goes right along with what you just said, is step 11 in AA,
sought through merit prayer and meditation to maintain conscious contact.
Not just occasional contact.
Conscious and it doesn't use word constant, but I do, conscious and constant contact.
We go to one of the Scriptures that are both of our favorites and we talk about it quite
a bit in the podcast here.
It's in Doctrine and Covenants, section 6.
Look unto me in every thought.
And I've heard you say you've actually made an attempt to do that.
I haven't.
I think everybody, in fact, the person who came to visit me Sunday said, I think this
is one of the keys to you being changed is that you really try to experiment with this.
No one can do that perfectly, and I'm sure he didn't expect us to do it perfectly, but
just experimenting with it and attempting to can be life changing.
And just the fact that we're aware of it, and we put that concept into our minds and
continually focus on it.
You know what we focus on expands.
If I'm going to focus on overcoming an addiction, what do you think is going to expand?
My addiction, right?
What's going to expand if I focus on a relationship with Jesus Christ, my relationship with Jesus
Christ?
And when that expands, what's going to diminish all things, not just my addiction, but all
things in my life that come as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve and my rebellion?
So look unto me in every thought.
And I think about this.
Deb and I were actually talking about this on our vacation in San Diego the other day.
She was like, you know, it's really hard for me to look unto him in every thought.
I says, yeah, me too.
And then I think we came to the conclusion that, you know, just the fact that we are
aware and conscious of this idea, I'm thinking of him in more thoughts than I were before.
And that alone gives me the balm of Gilead I need, so to speak, to kind of heal through
some of these barriers.
We should learn from driving that the direction you look is the direction you move.
That's right.
That's, is that a, it's kind of some sort of natural law phenomenon.
Yeah, it must be.
Have you ever noticed that?
Well, yeah, not only.
If you look at a truck passing you.
Yeah.
And I look at that truck.
Have you caught yourself doing this?
This isn't just me, right?
No, no, no.
You draw yourself closer to that truck.
This is a concept that was actually taught, made known to me by somebody, a famous speaker,
you go and you get to drive these supercharged fast race cars on a racetrack and you go
through a training.
And one of the trainings that they, one of the things that they teach you to do before
you go out and drive this race car is they give you a course on how to drive the race
car.
And one of the things that they teach you is that when you're nearing the wall, it feels
natural to look at the wall so that you can avoid it.
But what that does is it draws you into it.
So he said that he was driving and as, and just naturally he couldn't help himself just
out of habit, looked to the wall and it started drifting, the instructor grabbed his head and
pointed it back to where it should be.
Wow.
And the car came with it.
So yeah, you know, when I'm riding horses, you know, my grandpa's, your dad, my other
grandpa taught me and my dad taught me that you don't look at the down off the cliff.
You look towards the center of the trail and that's where you drift.
And you're right.
This phenomenon doesn't just take place in our, it doesn't.
This law does just doesn't take place in our physical lives.
It takes place in all parts of our lives.
So just trying, just trying, just experiment.
Just being aware and being intentional about our awareness.
To look unto him in every thought is life changing.
Yeah.
Doubt not, fear not.
And I actually think that the way that scripture is worded, look unto me in every thought.
Doubt not, fear not.
And I think that means look unto me in every thought and you won't doubt or fear.
And you won't fear.
That's what I teach my kids at Institute.
We talked about it last week.
So what's the antidote to fear and doubt?
Look to me.
Yeah.
How often in every stinking thought look to me.
Yeah.
I think the same with the scripture in Luke 22, when Christ says to Peter, be thou converted
and then strengthen thy brother.
If you're converted, you will strengthen your brother.
You know, it's kind of follows.
So anyway, Scott, I think that the small, simple ways that we can just look to Christ
and follow him, open ourselves up to him by listening to the holy music.
I like I like America and the Eagles and Horse with No Name and and you like bread too.
We have a lot.
Yeah.
I like all of those.
And and there's there's maybe a time and place to listen to those.
But but really, it's so interesting to me, Scott, that just what choice of music you
choose to listen to can make a difference between changing or being changed.
And we should focus on being changed.
That changes what you listen to and how you use your time.
So changing not just what we listen to, but all parts of our environment, what we listen
to, what we allow into our homes on TV, all of this, these kinds of how you observe the
Sabbath.
Yeah.
How you observe the Sabbath.
How you open you up to be changed versus trying to change yourself.
I know all of us can make improvements in that.
All of us can make improvements in all of these areas of our life.
We can make our prayers a little more meaningful.
We could pray maybe just a little more often.
You know, I am so always touched by the by the Muslim prayer life that they that they
display if you're ever in their country, being in Egypt and being a awaken at four or five
in the morning, their call to prayer.
And I'm not necessarily envious of that or don't think that's the way it should be done.
But it causes me to think what's how can I improve my prayer life?
What we focus on expands.
And so if we're focusing on having this relationship with Jesus Christ, then all of those things,
prayer, the way we treat other people, the Beatitudes, because we have invested in our
relationship with Jesus, now our focus just naturally becomes becoming like him.
So getting to know him and then being like him, Matthew 548.
Now we become becoming like him.
And as we are becoming like him, then we recognize and realize the things in this life that
trouble us and discourage us and make life seem so difficult for us at times are being
healed because we're turning our will and our life over to care of God as we understand
him.
And we have a deep understanding of him as we continually strive for that relationship.
That's awesome, Scott.
I again, I want I want to this is kind of unique to the Old Testament, actually, Scott,
but this idea that God doesn't just fix our heart, doesn't just heal our heart, doesn't
mend a broken heart.
He gives you a new heart in the in the Hebrews.
According to the Hebrew culture, it was like the thoughts of the thoughts in the intense
of our hearts.
God is a the according to the Hebrew culture, the the heart actually thinks the heart has
thoughts, the thought the heart is the key center to our focus.
And if he gives us a new heart, it changes our focus and it changes our thoughts.
And that's what it really means, I think, to be born again and to be to be changed.
The first one is in first Samuel, Chapter 10, where in verse nine, and it was so that when
he had turned his back to go from Samuel, this is about Saul, God gave him another
heart and skipping and the spirit of God came upon him.
God gave him another heart.
It's also in Ezekiel, Chapter 18, cast away from from you all, all your transgressions
were by you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit, a new heart
by repenting.
It talks about repenting in verse 30.
And then in Ezekiel, Chapter 36, which is my favorite in Ezekiel 36, it says, a new
heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my
spirit within you and cause I will cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my
judgments and do them.
Verse 29, I Jehovah will also save you from all your uncleannesses.
Anyway, I be changed, allow the Lord Jesus Christ our savior and redeemer to change us.
Yeah, so now we begin to focus again, not on the what but the who.
Yeah.
Who?
Who changes us?
It's the who.
Yeah, we do have some control of our environment and we should put into place the things that
we can to invite and to enhance, etc.
Like you mentioned, listen into music, deepening our prayers, deepening our kindness and the
way that we treat other people, etc.
But yeah, it's I love the why, I love the how, I love all of those, but it does come
down to really the who and having a relationship with our savior.
You know, one of the one of my favorite scriptures again on being changed is in Mosiah chapter
seven.
I think it was Mosiah, right?
It sent out 16 men to find what happened to the people that had Xenoph in his group and
lo and behold, they come upon Limhi, who is now in bondage to the Lamanites.
And Limhi is grateful.
Limhi gives us this is really quite a discourse.
This is one of my favorite discourses in the in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah chapter seven.
And Limhi says to his people, but if he will turn to the Lord, so hang on, this is Mosiah
seven thirty three thirty three, right?
If he will turn to the Lord, how do we turn to the Lord?
You know, through repentance, repentance, that's what it means.
That's what it means.
That's literally what it means.
But if he will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart and put your trust in him,
you got to have faith in him or repentance doesn't work.
You got to trust him and serve him with all diligence of mind.
It's got listen to that phrase.
How do you serve him with all diligence of mind?
He's not talking about making bread, nothing against making bread and cookies and ministering
with bread and cookies.
But how do you serve him with all diligence of mind?
That's looking unto him in every thought in every thought.
That's what that I.
I think that's how I see it.
So serve him with all diligence of mind or if you do that, and by the way, if you do
that, you'll probably make cookies and bread and deliver it to those that you minister to.
But you'll do it for a more holy purpose than just trying to be a friend.
You'll do it because you want them to be closer to Jesus Christ and you want to administer
the Atonement of Jesus Christ in their life.
And that's why you're making bread and making cookies take to your ministering families
or whatever service you rendered to others.
It's to help them not to be closer to you or feel attached to you, but to come to know
Jesus Christ.
You just described my ministering brothers.
That's cool.
Yeah, they're that way.
And actually so's Deb's ministering sister.
Well, that's awesome.
It's just amazing.
Well, you're blessed.
Yes, we are.
So if you turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, put your trust in him and serve
him with all diligence of mind.
If you do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of
bondage.
That's to be changed, to be freed from bondage, to overcome an addiction, to overcome sins
that you're, you know, that's the key to it.
Is that you with full purpose of heart, it's got to be with full purpose of heart.
Right.
In order to receive the new heart and the new mind and the new life to be born again that
he has promised.
I know it's not easy, but I know it's not complicated to change one's life by being
changed is not complicated.
It's living the gospel with full purpose of heart and giving your whole soul to God.
And allowing him, our heavenly Father, to be changed through his son, Jesus Christ, by
the administration of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
Who administers the Atonement in our lives.
That's the process and small and simple ways open us up to be able to participate in that
process.
And I just, I really encourage people not to try to make any whole cell change, but by
small and simple things, open themselves up to be changed and then to recognize it, to
be aware of it, to journal it, to hold on to it, to remember it and to try to be consistent
in that process throughout the rest of their lives.
And when we stumble, which we surely will, and when we stub our toe, which we surely
will remember that he's not surprised by that either.
And to just and just to always remember this.
You know, in, in Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery groups, we come up with these
cliches that kind of help us.
And one of those is let go, let God.
I'm going to let go of all the things that I, Scott Durfee, feel like I need to change.
I'm going to let God through his son, through the administration of his spirit, change me
as I let go of those things.
Yeah, that and, and you know, and it sounds simple and it is simple.
It's a simple process, but we find it difficult to do because of our humanness, because of
the effects of the fall.
The fall of Adam and Eve manifests itself in our lives in that way as well.
So you have to be intentional about it.
And that's to let go.
You can't just drift into that.
You, that's exactly right.
You can't just by chance or by mistake or hitting rock bottom doesn't guarantee that
nothing, nothing will bring that about unless you consciously intentionally make that choice.
Yep.
And last thing I want to say is going back to this person who came to me who has, you
know, felt ready to throw in the towel who's, who's had the important church positions and
has, has fallen and has practically wanted to give up.
It all came down to Scott just becoming too casual, too trite, too unintentional in the
way this person lived their life.
It takes intention.
It takes daily repentance and daily choosing in the small and simple things that we do
in order to be changed daily, not just once, but over and over and over again.
So last word I, I know that only through Jesus Christ can most important, only true
change agent.
Can we be changed?
I think just the focus of I can't, why can't I change?
Why can't I, I need to change.
I need to, if we would just tweak that and focus on how can I put myself in a position,
place myself in a, in a place where I can be changed would be a powerful thing for all
of us to do.
And by invitation, I mean, he invites us to do that.
Come on to me.
That's your favorite scripture, right?
Come on to me, I'll you the laborer and her heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly of heart and you shall
find rest unto yourselves.
So it's, it's really, I was going to say that earlier and I, I forgot.
It all comes down to as far as being changed is yoking ourselves to Christ.
Being yoked.
How can we yoke ourselves to Jesus Christ and allow him to carry our burdens and allow
him to free us from bondage and just depend upon him and not upon the arm of the flesh?
How can we through Christ discussion maybe for another time, maybe next week, how can
we allow Christ to help me overcome the, the pole and the weakness of the flesh?
You know, that's, I, I think we all struggle with that is the, the weakness of the flesh.
How can, how can I live a more spirit directed life instead of depending so much upon the
pole and the temptations we all feel through the flesh?
This has been a really important topic for me today, one that I always spend a little
bit of time on.
I'm just going through the first few steps with a new sponze and AA.
So this has been upfront in my mind in that regard as well.
I love this.
I'm so grateful that we get to focus on him instead of ourselves.
If I focus on me and I'm in big trouble, but if I focus on him, I have all kinds of hope.
David gave us a, an invitation, whether he knows it or not, he says, maybe that's what
we should think about is how do we take his yoke upon us?
Let that be our invitation this week as we particular the sacrament this week.
Those of us who get that opportunity or find that opportunity, let us can, let us consider
that.
How am I taking his yoke upon me and how can I better do so?
He'll shortly lead us in that direction.
I know that.
Thanks for being with us.
We look forward to being with you again next week.
And until then, be well.