ELDERS QUORUM LESSON – 12 December 2021
Brethren,
This week’s
Elder’s Quorum lesson will be based on President M. Russell Ballard’s General
Conference entitled “Lovest Thou Me More Than These”.
Our
instructor will be Kent Jeppeson
For your
calendars, we have a Church Cleaning assignment this month on Dec 18th.
Here is President Ballard’s conference talk:
“Lovest
Thou Me More Than These?”
What things can you do within your own
life to show that you love the Lord first?
In November 2019, my
friend and I visited the Holy Land. While there, we reviewed and studied
scriptures about Jesus Christ’s life. One morning we stood on the northwestern
shore of the Sea of Galilee at a place that may have been where Jesus met His
disciples following His Resurrection.
After Jesus’s Resurrection, as we
read in John chapter 21, Peter and the other disciples fished
all night without success. In the morning, they saw a man standing on the
shore who told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. To their
astonishment, the net was filled miraculously.
They immediately
recognized that the man was the Lord, and they rushed to greet Him.
As they dragged the net to shore,
full of fish, Jesus said, “Come and dine.” John reports that “when they
had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?”
While I was standing on
that same seashore, I realized that the Savior’s question was one of the most
important questions that He might someday ask me. I could almost hear His voice
asking, “Russell, lovest thou me more than these?”
Do you wonder what Jesus
was referring to when He asked Peter, “Lovest thou me more than these?”
Relating this question to
ourselves in our day, the Lord may be asking us about how busy we are and about
the many positive and negative influences competing for our attention and our
time. He may be asking each of us if we love Him more than the things of this
world. This may be a question about what we really value in life, who we
follow, and how we view our relationships with family members and neighbors. Or
maybe He is asking what really brings us joy and happiness.
Do the things of this
world bring us the joy, happiness, and peace that the Savior offered to His
disciples and that He offers to us? Only He can bring us true joy, happiness,
and peace through our loving Him and following His teachings.
How would we answer the
question “Lovest thou me more than these?”
When we discover a fuller
meaning of this question, we can become better family members, neighbors,
citizens, members of the Church, and sons and daughters of God.
At my age, I have attended
many funerals. I am sure many of you have noticed what I have noticed. When celebrating
the life of a deceased family member or a friend, it is rare for the speaker to
talk about the size of the person’s home, the number of cars, or the bank
account balances. They usually don’t speak about social media posts. At most of
the funerals that I have attended, they focus on their loved one’s
relationships, service to others, life lessons and experiences, and their love
for Jesus Christ.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not
saying that having a nice home or a nice car is wrong or that using social
media is bad. What I am saying is
that in the end, those things matter very little compared to loving the Savior.
When we love and follow
Him, we have faith in Him. We repent. We follow His example and are baptized
and receive the Holy Ghost. We endure to the end and stay on the covenant path.
We forgive family members and neighbors by letting go of grudges we may be
holding. We earnestly strive to keep God’s commandments. We strive to be
obedient. We make and keep covenants. We honor our fathers and mothers. We set
aside negative worldly influences. We prepare ourselves for His Second Coming.
In “The Living Christ: The
Testimony of the Apostles,” we read: “[Jesus] will someday return to earth. …
He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall
bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand
to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.”
As one of the Apostles who signed
“The Living Christ” document, I can say that knowing that Jesus “is the light,
the life, and the hope of the world” gives me a greater desire to love Him
more every day.
I testify that Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ live. I testify that They love us. The scriptures teach that “God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The
scriptures also teach that Jesus “so loved the world that he gave his own life,
that as many as would believe might become the sons [and daughters] of God.”
Heavenly Father so loved us that
He prepared His plan of salvation with a Savior as the central figure. And
Jesus so loved us that in the great Council in Heaven, when Heavenly Father
asked, “Whom shall I send?” Jesus, who was the firstborn of all the Father’s
spirit children, answered, “Here am I, send me.”9 He said unto the
Father, “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.” Jesus
volunteered to be our Savior and Redeemer so that we could become like Them and
return to Their presence.
These two scriptures also teach
that to return to Their presence we need to believe.
We need to believe in Jesus and in God’s plan of happiness. To believe is to love and follow our Savior and keep
the commandments, even in the midst of trials and strife.
Today’s world is
unsettled. There are disappointments, disagreements, distress, and
distractions.
President Dallin H. Oaks,
speaking in 2017, noted the following: “These are challenging times, filled
with big worries: wars and rumors of wars, possible epidemics of infectious
diseases, droughts, floods, and global warming.”
We cannot lose our love
for and hope in Jesus, even if we face seemingly overwhelming challenges.
Heavenly Father and Jesus will never forget us. They love us.
Last October, President
Russell M. Nelson taught us the importance of putting Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ first in our lives. President Nelson taught us that one meaning of
the word Israel is “let God prevail.”
He asked each of us these
questions: “Are you willing to
let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to
let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words,
His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you
allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take
precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to
have your will swallowed up in His?”
We must always remember
that our true happiness depends upon our relationship with God, with Jesus
Christ, and with each other.
One way to demonstrate our
love is by joining family, friends, and neighbors in doing some small things to
better serve each other. Do things that make this world a better place.
What things can you do
within your own life to show that you love the Lord first?
As we focus on loving our
neighbors as He loves them, we start to truly love those around us.
I ask again, how would you
respond to the Savior’s question “Lovest thou me more than these?”
As you consider this question, as
I have done, I pray that you may answer as Peter did so long ago, “Yea, Lord;
thou knowest that I love thee,” and then show it by loving and serving God
and all those around you.
I testify that we are
blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide us in the way we live and
treat each other. In Him, we discover that every daughter and son of God is
very precious to Him.
I testify that Jesus
Christ is our beloved Savior. He is the Only Begotten Son of God. And I bear
this testimony humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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