From an address given in Zone Conferences October 18th and 19th By Elder Andrew Colin Beck |
True conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ requires repentance of all sins. As missionaries our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ and be converted. My words today are designed to help us fulfill this purpose. To invite means to request politely or formally, to attract, allure, entice, to call forth, encourage, or challenge. When we invite, we are only echoing the words of Christ himself, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (MAT 11:24) There are about 53 thousand missionaries trying to fulfill their purpose on the planet earth at this time, having varying degrees of success. So what do we need to do that our invitations will pierce the soul of our listeners and cause them to act? Have you ever tried to show someone how to do something that you have never done yourself? Is it very effective? Is it even possible? For how shall we lead others to Christ if we are headed in a different direction? Referring to such, the Savior said: “they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (MAT 15:14) You cannot take someone somewhere you’ve never been, nor explain something you do not understand. Testimony comes from first-hand experience, giving you the ability to testify. It is impossible to lead others to the well of living waters, the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you have experienced the journey first hand, for yourself, and more than one time. Yes, in this quest to lead others to fall at the pierced feet of the master, the only effective teaching tool we have is example. How can we teach obedience if we will not obey the commandments or the mission rules? How can we teach faith if we do not believe in our proselyting areas? How can we teach charity if we have hatred toward our companions or leaders? How can we teach others to repent, if we will not? Are you coming unto Christ, or are you waiting for something? It is impossible to bring others to Christ until you have come unto him. If only we were truly converted to Christ, finding from 10-3 o’clock would be a joy and our favorite activity. If only we were truly converted to Christ, we wouldn’t even need to teach all of this baptizing and binding business, we would weep when recent converts fell away. If only we were converted to Christ, we would love and serve our companions. As missionaries, our purpose is not to ‘bide my time by helping people think about listening to other missionaries by talking about the church through tracting, street contacting, media referrals and enduring through 10 to 3’. But this attitude can certainly appear if you have not experienced the joy of coming unto Christ yourself. If only we had a true testimony of Jesus Christ, we wouldn’t be able to hold it back. An article in the October 2007 Ensign magazine characterizes this type of testimony in a story about my favorite latter-day prophet, Brigham Young. “Before Brigham joined the Church, he described himself as rather slow of speech. But with his acceptance of the restored gospel the Lord made ‘weak things become strong unto [him]’ (ETH 12:27). Just one week after his baptism, Brigham preached his first sermon and spoke for more than an hour. He later said, ‘I wanted to thunder, and roar out the gospel to the nations. It burned in my bones like fire pent up. … Nothing would satisfy me but to cry abroad in the world what the Lord is doing in the latter days.’” A true testimony of Jesus Christ is manifest in confidence. A true testimony is manifest in selflessness. It is manifest in love and willingness. A lack of true testimony is manifest in sarcasm. A lack of testimony is manifest in anger. A lack of true testimony in Jesus Christ is manifested in fear. What stops us from achieving deeper testimony? Self. The great obstacle. You are your worst enemy. Only you can hold yourself back from the riches of eternity. Only the self-indulgent doctrine of Satan can take your blessings. It will take a lot of work, but I testify you can lose yourself and come unto Christ with full purpose of heart. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches that principal this way: “Let no man be afraid to lay down his life for my sake; for whoso layeth down his life for my sake is shall find it again. And whoso is not willing to lay down his life of my sake is not my disciple.” (D&C 103:27-28) Early in my mission I was privileged to go on a life changing exchange with a great assistant named Elder Zion Lovinger. He worked extremely hard all day long and even about a half an hour into our lunch break. As a tired young missionary I could not understand his zeal. On the car ride back to our apartment he said something that entered my soul with great force and has never left me. Among other things he said “Elder Beck, don’t be afraid to let your mission change you.” Coming unto Christ requires letting go of anything that is holding you back. You will not make it if you hold on to anything that you know is holding you back. Letting go produces sanctification. To be sanctified is to be pure. Sanctification is the burning out of all that is impure, the moving aside of all that stands in the way of you fulfilling your purpose and finding the Lord. The apostles James, John, and Simon were extended this same great invitation to come unto Christ and it required great sacrifice on their part to accept it. “And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.” As we come closer and closer to the Savior we must forsake all. On this journey we will notice that there are many things in our lives that are not in harmony with the teachings of His gospel. An attitude, a hairstyle, an unwillingness to follow, a pen pal, an idea; anything that causes you to turn inward and won’t help you fulfill your purpose. Most of the time we will try our best to not recognize that these things are a problem, but the honest seeker of the Christ will quickly cut the cord that binds him to the ungodly thing and continue on his journey. This is called repentance. Have you ever truly repented before? ”Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him,” How can we possibly live up to this impossible commandment: “Be ye perfect even as I or your father in heaven is perfect”? How can we truly come unto Christ and be perfected in him? Moroni gives us the great secret here in this verse: “and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then . . . ye may be perfect in Christ . . . then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.” (MRI 10:32-33) I give these words today, not to show us what we are not, but to show us what we can become! I testify of the sanctifying power of Jesus Christ. I will spend the rest of my life telling of how his matchless power has changed me; my attitude, my motives, my view of the world, my personality, me. I testify that “he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (HEB 11:6). And whatever those words imply, and I take the implications to be eternal, I testify that they are true. Come unto Christ Elders and Sisters and I promise that others will follow you. I invite you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. |