"God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home"

Last updated on August 4th, 2024 at 10:02 am

General Conference Applied

S3 E15 – Sunday, July 28, 2024 | “God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home” by Elder Patrick Kearon; April 2024 General Conference

Listen on Amazon Music | Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify | Listen on YouTube Music

Podcast Episode Social Media Posts

Facebook | Instagram

Podcast Episode Outline

Introduction

Doctrine: Plan of Salvation: “The plan includes the Creation, the Fall, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection, the Final Judgment, and all God-given laws, ordinances, doctrine, and commandments. Moral agency, the ability to choose and act for ourselves, is also essential in Heavenly Father’s plan. The Holy Ghost is provided to guide us in our choices.

“Because of the plan of salvation, we can be perfected through the Atonement, receive a fulness of joy, and live forever in the presence of God. Our family relationships can last through the eternities.”

Principle: The Atonement of Jesus Christ: “The Fall of Adam brought two kinds of death into the world: physical death and spiritual death. Physical death is separation of the body and spirit. Spiritual death is separation from God. If these two kinds of death had not been overcome by Jesus Christ’s Atonement, two consequences would have resulted: our bodies and our spirits would have been separated forever, and we could not have lived again with our Heavenly Father (see 2 Nephi 9:7–9).

“But our wise Heavenly Father prepared a wonderful, merciful plan to save us from physical and spiritual death. He planned for a Savior to come to earth to ransom (redeem) us from our sins and from death. Because of our sins and the weakness of our mortal bodies, we could not ransom ourselves (see Alma 34:10–12). The one who would be our Savior would need to be sinless and to have power over death.

“We accept Christ’s Atonement by placing our faith in Him. Through this faith, we repent of our sins, are baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and obey His commandments. We become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven and cleansed from sin and prepared to return and live forever with our Heavenly Father.

“The Savior tells us, ‘For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer … even as I’ (D&C 19:16–17). Christ did His part to atone for our sins. To make His Atonement fully effective in our lives, we must strive to obey Him and repent of our sins.”

Christlike Attribute: Hope: “Your ultimate source of hope is Jesus Christ. The prophet Mormon asked, “What is it that ye shall hope for?” He then answered, “Ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41; see verses 40–43).”

Bio

“Elder Patrick Kearon was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 7, 2023. At the time of his call, he was serving as Senior President of the Seventy.

“He served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy beginning in 2017, following five years in Germany where he served in the Europe Area Presidency and as Area President. During his time as Senior President, he had supervisory responsibility for the Middle East/Africa North Area and the Utah Area.

“After joining the Church on Christmas Eve of 1987, Elder Kearon served in numerous Church callings, including ward Young Men president, counselor in a bishopric, branch president, stake president, and Area Seventy.

“Elder Kearon has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the United States in a range of industries and ran his own communications consultancy. His civic and community involvement has included service on the boards of charities, a school, an enterprise agency, and a college.

“Patrick Kearon was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, on July 18, 1961. He married Jennifer Carole Hulme in January 1991. They are the parents of four children.”

“I would like to express gratitude for your prayers as I have started the process of adjusting to the call, through President Nelson, to serve as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can probably well imagine how humbling this has felt, and it has been a time of extraordinary upheaval and sobering self-examination. It is, however, indeed a great honor to serve the Savior, in any capacity, and to be engaged with you in sharing the good news of His gospel of hope.

“Beyond that, it has been said that behind every new Apostle stands an astonished mother-in-law. I don’t know if that has actually been said, but in this case, it certainly could be. And I suspect that the fact that my mother-in-law is no longer with us does nothing to reduce her astonishment.”

Overview

“He Loves You Enough“, Nik and Darla Day:
- “You’ve been wonderin’
  “With worn down heart strings
  “Trying to feel something in your soul
  “You think he’s somewhere
  “So far up there
  “And you want to feel him close
  “Whatever you’re feeling
  “He wants you to know
  “He loves you enough
  “To think about you every day and night
  “Enough to to heal your pain
  “And stay by your side
  “Show him all your scars
  “Open your heart
  “And he’ll fill it up
  “He loves you enough”

Trust that Heavenly Father wants to bring us home

“Several months ago, when my wife and I were visiting another country for various Church assignments, I woke up early one morning and looked blearily outside our hotel window. Down below on the busy street, I saw that a roadblock had been set up with a policeman stationed nearby to turn cars around as they reached the barrier. At first, only a few cars traveled along the road and were turned back. But as time went by and traffic increased, queues of cars began to build up.

“From the window above, I watched as the policeman seemed to take satisfaction in his power to block the flow of traffic and turn people away. In fact, he seemed to develop a spring in his step, as if he might start doing a little jig, as each car approached the barrier. If a driver got frustrated about the roadblock, the policeman did not appear helpful or sympathetic. He just shook his head repeatedly and pointed in the opposite direction.

“My friends, my fellow disciples on the road of mortal life, our Father’s beautiful plan, even His ‘fabulous’ plan, is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out. No one has built a roadblock and stationed someone there to turn you around and send you away. In fact, it is the exact opposite. God is in relentless pursuit of you. He ‘wants all of His children to choose to return to Him,’ and He employs every possible measure to bring you back.” -Elder Kearon
“Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” by Gregory Boyle: “At three o’clock in the morning, the phone rings. It’s Cesar. He says what every homie says when they call in the middle of the night, ‘Did I wake you?’

“I always think, Why no, I was just waiting and hoping that you’d call.

“Cesar is sober, and it’s urgent that he talk to me.

“‘I gotta ask you a question. You know how I’ve always seen you as my father – ever since I was a little kid? Well, I hafta ask you a question.’

“Now Cesar pauses, and the gravity of it all makes his voice waver and crumble, ‘Have I … been … your son?’

“‘Oh … yeah,’ I say.

“‘Whew,’ Cesar exhales, ‘I thought so.’

“Now his voice becomes enmeshed in a cadence of gentle sobbing. ‘Then … I will be … your son. And you … will be my father. And nothing will separate us, right?’

“‘That’s right.’

“In this early morning call Cesar did not discover that he has a father. He discovered that he is a son worth having. The voice broke through the clouds of his terror and the crippling mess of his own history, and he felt himself beloved. God, wonderfully pleased in him, is where God wanted Cesar to reside.

“Jesus, in Matthew’s gospel, says, ‘How narrow is the gate that leads to life.’ Mistakenly, I think, we’ve come to believe that this is about restriction. The way is narrow. But it really wants us to see that narrowness is the way.

“St. Hedwig writes, ‘All is narrow for me. I feel so vast.’ It’s about funneling ourselves into a central place. Our choice is not to focus on the narrow, but to narrow our focus. The gate that leads to life is not about restriction at all. It is about an entry into the expansive. There is a vastness in knowing you’re a son / daughter worth having. We see our plenitude in God’s own expansive view of us, and we marinate in this.”

(Also share how homies consistently would say “Me?” when Gregory Boyle asked them how they were doing when they were alone in a room together.)
“The intent of the Father’s plan is”:
- “Your happiness, right here, right now, and in the eternities.”
- “Your redemption, your being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, freed from the captivity of sin and death.”
- “To extend mercy as you turn back to Him and honor your covenant of fidelity to Him.”
- “Your salvation in the celestial kingdom of glory as you receive ‘the testimony of Jesus’ and offer your whole soul to Him.”
“The intent of the Father’s plan is not”:
- “To prevent your happiness and cause you instead worry and fear.”
- “To leave you as you are.”
- “To deny mercy and inflict pain and sorrow.
- “To keep you out.”

Do everything we can to help others get home

“If we believe the intent of the Father’s all-reaching plan is to save us, redeem us, extend mercy to us, and thereby bring us happiness, what is the intent of the Son through whom this great plan is brought about?

“The Son tells us Himself: ‘For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.’

“Jesus’s will is the benevolent Father’s will! He wants to make it possible for every last one of His Father’s children to receive the end goal of the plan—eternal life with Them. None is excluded from this divine potential.” -Elder Kearon
5/1/2024: If God doesn’t put up barriers, do we put up barriers? Or do we allow our fellow brothers and sisters to repent and return?
“A Robe, a Ring, and a Fatted Calf“, President Jeffrey R. Holland, BYU Devotional – January 31, 1984: “Of course, one of the added tragedies in transgression is that even if we make the effort to change, to try again, to come back, others often insist upon leaving the old labels with us.

“I grew up in the same town with a boy who had no father and precious few of the other blessings of life. The young men in our community found it easy to tease and taunt and bully him. And in the process of it all he made some mistakes, though I cannot believe his mistakes were more serious than those of his Latter-day Saint friends who made life so miserable for him. He began to drink and smoke, and the gospel principles which had never meant much to him now meant even less. He had been cast in a role by LDS friends who should have known better and he began to play the part perfectly. Soon he drank even more, went to school even less, and went to Church not at all. Then one day he was gone. Some said that they thought he had joined the army.

“That was about 1959 or so. Fifteen or sixteen years later he came home. At least he tried to come home. He had found the significance of the gospel in his life. He had married a wonderful girl, and they had a beautiful family. But he discovered something upon his return. He had changed, but some of his old friends hadn’t—and they were unwilling to let him escape his past.

“This was hard for him and hard for his family. They bought a little home and started a small business, but they struggled both personally and professionally and finally moved away. For reasons that don’t need to be detailed here, the story goes on to a very unhappy ending. He died a year ago at age 44. That’s too young to die these days, and it’s certainly too young to die away from home.

“When a battered, weary swimmer tries valiantly to get back to shore, after having fought strong winds and rough waves which he should never have challenged in the first place, those of us who might have had better judgment, or perhaps just better luck, ought not to row out to his side, beat him with our oars, and shove his head back underwater. That’s not what boats were made for. But some of us do that to each other.”
“Strengthen Thy Brethren“, Elder Mervyn B. Arnold, April 2004 General Conference: “Brother José de Souza Marques was the type of leader who truly understood the principle taught by the Savior: ‘And if any man among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also’ (D&C 84:106).

“As a member of the branch presidency in Fortaleza, Brazil, Brother Marques with the other priesthood leaders developed a plan to reactivate those who were less active in his branch. One of those who was less active was a young man by the name of Fernando Araujo. Recently I spoke to Fernando, and he told me of his experience:

“‘I became involved in surfing competitions on Sunday mornings and stopped going to my Church meetings. One Sunday morning Brother Marques knocked on my door and asked my nonmember mother if he could talk to me. When she told him I was sleeping, he asked permission to wake me. He said to me, ‘Fernando, you are late for church!’ Not listening to my excuses, he took me to church.

“‘The next Sunday the same thing happened, so on the third Sunday I decided to leave early to avoid him. As I opened the gate I found him sitting on his car, reading the scriptures. When he saw me he said, ‘Good! You are up early. Today we will go and find another young man!’ I appealed to my agency, but he said, ‘We can talk about that later.’

“‘After eight Sundays I could not get rid of him, so I decided to sleep at a friend’s house. I was at the beach the next morning when I saw a man dressed in a suit and tie walking towards me. When I saw that it was Brother Marques, I ran into the water. All of a sudden, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. It was Brother Marques, in water up to his chest! He took me by the hand and said, ‘You are late! Let’s go.’ When I argued that I didn’t have any clothes to wear, he replied, ‘They are in the car.’

“‘That day as we walked out of the ocean, I was touched by Brother Marques’s sincere love and worry for me. He truly understood the Savior’s words: ‘I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick’ (Ezek. 34:16). Brother Marques didn’t just give me a ride to church—the quorum made sure I remained active. They planned activities that made me feel needed and wanted, I received a calling, and the quorum members became my friends.’

“Following his reactivation, Brother Araujo went on a full-time mission and has served as bishop, stake president, mission president, and regional representative. His widowed mother, three sisters, and several cousins have also entered the waters of baptism.

“When speaking about the work of the Aaronic Priesthood quorums in his ward, Brother Araujo, who is once again serving as a bishop, stated:

“‘Our rescue work is the focus in all three quorums of the Aaronic Priesthood. We have a list of each one of our lost sheep. The quorum presidencies, advisers, and bishopric divide up and go visit them on a regular basis. We visit not only the less-active members, but we also visit the nonmembers in less-active or part-member families.

“‘Activities are organized to reach each young man. We discuss each young man in our quorum presidency meetings and in our monthly bishopric youth committee meetings. In 2003 we managed to rescue five priests, one teacher, and two deacons, who are now active in their quorums. We have also reactivated some families and have enjoyed the blessing of seeing some nonmembers enter the waters of baptism.’

“As I reflected on the desire of these priesthood brethren to fulfill their sacred duties, spending the bulk of their time ministering instead of administering, these words of the Savior came into my mind:

“‘For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“‘Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me’ (Matt. 25:35–36).

“The Savior’s example of going the extra mile to find His lost sheep is evident throughout the scriptures. ‘What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine and go into the wilderness after that which is lost, until he find it?’ (Joseph Smith Translation, Luke 15:4). The Good Shepherd knew when one of His sheep was missing: ‘He numbereth his sheep, and they know him’ (1 Ne. 22:25), ‘and he calleth his own sheep by name’ (John 10:3). He went ‘into the wilderness,’ which at times has been defined as ‘a confusing multitude or mass’ (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. [2003], ‘wilderness,’ 1432), and He searched for that which was lost.

“We are not told how long it took the Good Shepherd to find the lost sheep or if others helped in the search, but we do know that they ‘[knew] his voice’ (John 10:4) and that He loved them. We also know that He did not give up, that He did ‘go … after that which [was] lost, until he [did] find it,’ and that when He returned, the lost sheep was safely on His shoulders. And then He exclaims, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth’ (Luke 15:6–7).”

What is the speaker inviting me to do, and how might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “Does this mean anything goes with regard to how we live our lives? That the way we choose to use our agency doesn’t matter? That we can take or leave God’s commandments? No, of course not. Surely one of Jesus’s most consistent invitations and pleas during His mortal ministry was that we change and repent and come unto Him. Fundamentally implicit in all of His teachings to live on a higher plane of moral conduct is a call to personal progression, to transformative faith in Christ, to a mighty change of heart.

“God wants for us a radical reorientation of our selfish and prideful impulses, the eviction of the natural man, for us to ‘go, and sin no more.'”

Just because Heavenly Father loves us doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to become like Him and His Son.
5/1/2024: How is all of this possible? Through letting our will be swallowed up in Heavenly Father’s will. Aligning the purpose of our lives with His purpose for our lives.
- “‘Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father’“, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, October 1995 General Conference: “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we ‘give,’ brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give!”
Footnote 24: “In Jesus Christ’s teachings indicating that some individuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, He makes it clear that this outcome is not His desire for them but is a result of their own choices (see Matthew 7:13–14, 21–25).”
“The Love of God“, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, October 2021 General Conference: “Because God’s love is all-embracing, some speak of it as ‘unconditional,’ and in their minds they may project that thought to mean that God’s blessings are ‘unconditional’ and that salvation is ‘unconditional.’ They are not. Some are wont to say, ‘The Savior loves me just as I am,’ and that is certainly true. But He cannot take any of us into His kingdom just as we are, ‘for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence.’ Our sins must first be resolved.”
7/26/2024: God’s intent is to bring us home. Is our intent, manifest through our choices, to return to Him?

Take Action

How will you take action on the invitation extended in this General Conference address?

Conclusion

As we conclude this episode, I have some important information. Show notes for this and all other episodes can be found on my website, mitchellryanpeterson.com. On my website, you will also find my weekly What? Eye. Read. 💡 newsletter.

In my newsletter, I share the best thing I heard, saw, and read during the past week, as well as the best idea I developed. If you are wondering how you can help me: if you could subscribe to, rate, and review the podcast as well as share it with others, I would appreciate it. And please also sign up for my newsletter at mitchellryanpeterson.com.

You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook where I share additional General Conference related content. The links to my social media accounts are in the podcast episode details for each podcast episode. Lastly, please remember that General Conference Applied is meant to be a supplement for your review of General Conference Addresses.

I promise that you will get more out of each General Conference Applied episode when you study the General Conference address first. Thank you for joining me in this effort to become doers of the word and to take action on general conference invitations.

Additional Content

Previous Podcast Episode (“Covenant Confidence through Jesus Christ” by Elder Ulisses Soares)

Next Podcast Episode (“Pray, He Is There” by President Susan H. Porter)

All Podcast Episodes