Metanoeo/μετανοέω
Jordan Falslev
26 May 2019
Smithfield YSA 2nd Ward
Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters!
I’m grateful for the songs, the sacrament especially and the opening prayer for the peace and comfort I’ve received so far.
Because most of you are new faces, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly tell you a little bit about myself.
My name is Jordan Falslev and I am from Benson. If you are unfamiliar of where Benson is, it is west of the Logan-Cache Airport.
I graduated from Sky View seven years ago. I served my mission in Northern Virginia and am hoping to go back for a visit this next spring or summer.
Like many in our Stake, I work for Lee’s Marketplace, but in their Corporate Office. I oversee their 5 Online Grocery Departments and do a handful of other things for the Company; one being managing their social media.
Although I am a fan of Utah State, I don’t attend school there. I am taking classes here and there from UMPQUA located in Oregon but through online. Lee’s is currently paying for my education, so that’s a major plus.
The first time I remember meeting Bishop Anderson was when a few of us North Cache Freshmen, interviewed him for a Bobcat News story as our New Vice Principal. I’m happy to be assigned to this Ward and hope to get to meet and know each of you better.
You may be asking yourself, as much as I am, “why is this guy a High Councilor?”
I testify to you that The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways. I have a big suspicion it has to do with me learning from you way more than it does the other way around.
Today I would like to talk to you about repentance. But before I do that, we need to address sin.
What is sin? Sin is to willfully disobey God’s commandments or to fail to act righteously despite a knowledge of the truth.
Each of us know to varying degrees the commandments of God and due to our fallen nature, we are prone to break them. By sinning we disqualify ourselves from receiving many blessings. Namely peace in this life and salvation and exaltation in the life to come. As we do this our spirit mourns. We have that feeling in our core, that what we’ve done just isn’t right. Our spirit knows that it must be clean from the stains of sin to live with God again.
Our Father loves us. Let that simple phrase sink in… Our Father the God of the universe loves us! And because of that love He wants us to return to Him. To do so, He has provided a Savior. Jesus Christ preformed the ultimate sacrifice called the Atonement. By so doing He became the only One that can cleanse us from our sins.
Our spirit wants to return to heaven and experience the life that our Father and Savior do. Jesus Christ has been given power to redeem only the repentant sinner. Eventually all must repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. We must turn from our sins to Him.
The Lord’s Spokesman, President Russell M. Nelson, recently said the following, “Too many people consider repentance as punishment – something to be avoided except in the most serious circumstances. But this feeling of being penalized is engendered by Satan. He tries to block us from looking to Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal, forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify.”
My prayer today is that you come to know, even more so, that repentance is freeing, liberating, gracious, and beautiful.
Repentance is not weakness; it is a strength. I am not a very strong individual and so my strength will be a repenting son of God. It is an act that breaks the chains of captive sinners and sets the heavens cheering!
Recorded in Luke 15:7, Jesus teaches, “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”
Repentance is not only to help us to turn from our sins, but also to help us along the pathway of returning home. Repentance is the act of accessing the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And until we are perfect like our Father we must strive for perfection; repentance is the lifeblood of striving for perfection.
President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “When most of us think of repentance we tend to narrow our vision and view it as good only for [others]–anyone and everyone except ourselves. This is of course not so. If we are humble and desirous of living the gospel we will come to think of repentance as applying to everything we do in life, whether it be spiritual or temporal in nature. Repentance is for every soul who has not yet reached perfection.”
And as President Nelson said, “The Lord does not expect perfection from us at this point in our eternal progression. But He does expect us to become increasingly pure. Daily repentance is the pathway to purity, and purity brings power.”
There are three elements in genuine repentance.
First, there is recognition. You must know what is right before you can know what is wrong. If you get on the wrong road, you will never know it until you have some knowledge of the right road. There can be no turning back unless first there is a conviction that you are going the wrong way.
Spiritual conviction is like that. It is a signpost planted in the heart of our spirit saying, “Stop. Look. Listen! Danger ahead!” The Holy Ghost, our conscience (light of Christ) and our better judgement all join to warn, “Detour! Change! You’re on the wrong road!”
Imagine the visual of God is waiving us down, directing us to a proper path. Before we can fully access the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we must be convicted of our sins.
The second element of true repentance is feeling remorse or godly sorrow. It is a sincere regret over past sins and an earnest desire to walk in a new path of righteousness.
Said Reverend Billy Graham, “Peter, when he denied The Lord “went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). He was never more lovable or more admirable than when he stood there alone, apart from the crowd, his body trembling as the tears of remorse ran down his cheeks. In his heart was a noble resolve to live for the One who would die for him.”
Brokenness, with its godly sorrow for sin, is the second step toward true repentance.
Third, repentance carries with it the process of changing. President Nelson recently said, “When Jesus asks you and me to “repent,” He is inviting us to change our mind, our knowledge, our spirit – even the way we breathe. He is asking us to change the way we love, think, serve, spend our time, treat our [loved ones] and even care for our bodies.”
I recall my mission president often addressing us with, “Hello, sinners!” How true that statement is. We all have that natural man/woman inside us that can only become perfected through trial and error, and as President Nelson said, “When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
Have you repented? Have you changed? Is your life different from how it used to be? I would hope each of us can respond with yes, every day! President Nelson hits it spot on again, “When we choose to repent… we allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy – the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become like Jesus Christ.”
Adam repented. David repented. Jonah repented. Peter Repented. Paul Repented. Nephi Repented. Enos Repented. Alma Repented. Joseph Smith Repented.
Hundreds and thousands of God’s children repent every day, don’t hold back on following along.
A couple of weeks ago, I believe it was a Saturday, I was bored out of my mind. I was tired of looking at screens, tired of sitting around, really becoming complacent with my weekend choices. So, I decided to go outside and seek to conquer the overgrown weeds we had allowed to grow in our garden.
Knowing that I would be speaking in Church in a couple weeks, I not only sent up a prayer asking to be able to have the energy to clean up the majority of the weeds but to receive inspiration to know what to share in my talk.
Here is what I learned about pulling out obnoxious weeds that tormented me that afternoon and how they are symbolic of our sins and our need for repentance.
When Adam and Eve transgressed by choosing to take a bite of that forbidden fruit, God cursed the ground, saying, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake… Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee… (Gen. 3:17-18). Ever since that day, thorns and thistles, weeds in general, have represented sin.
“Weeds are the little vices that beset plant life and are to be got rid of the best way we know how.” -The Farmer’s Almanac, 1881
Every time I see a weed now, I compare them to sin. It’s no accident God chose a punishment for sin that would visually remind humanity of what sin can do if we let it. The similarities are striking.
If we’re not careful, weeds spread. Think of dandelions and their delicate little parachutes borne away by the wind. If our sin is causing not only ourselves to stumble but also others into unrighteousness, we need to dig it out quickly.
Once a gardener knows which weeds need to go first, it’s imperative to get them while they’re still small and haven’t developed those thorns or spread their seeds. Sins also start as small as a seed. Like thorns and dandelions, we’ve got to dig them out as soon as we perceive them.
Weeds need to be pulled by the center to get it out. If one pulls on the side of the weed, it will just break off, slowing it down a bit, but still leaving the healthy root ready to produce more leaves and thorns. Some weeds’ roots pull out easily by the center, but some need more intervention than that–some need a weeding tool to push down into the soil to loosen the dirt around the deep taproot, freeing it.
Sin is this way. We could rip at it without much thought, stifling the outward signs of it through behavior methods. These methods are not all bad, but the sin will just come back like those half-torn weeds if we don’t get to the root of the issue and kill it there. We need to go back to the root and find out what the real issue is. We can do this by thinking and questioning ourselves, but the Word of God will help. After all, “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).
Recall the Parable of the Sower and the Seed.
When the sower threw the seed among thorns, he did not throw it on poor soil. In fact, it was just as damp and fertile as the good soil! Notice that the "thorns sprang up" after the seed was cast; the weeds were not significant beforehand. But when they "sprang up," they were not cleared away and growth was choked!
In Matthew 13:22-23 the only difference between the seed sown among weeds and the seed sown on good soil is in the action of the hearer. Both heard the Word, but only one acts on what he hears. Think about this. The seed sown on good soil could easily be overcome and choked out by weeds if action were to become inaction. What if spiritual laziness sets in?
What would happen if, let's say, a young adult has a vegetable garden and next to this garden is a small patch of weeds? What should he or she do? They must go out every day to monitor the situation and take whatever action is appropriate. Perhaps they need to cut the weeds back, or maybe they will justify it will be okay for another day.
The point is that the gardener must stir himself to be diligent. What happens if we try to manage the weeds from our bed or from the couch watching Netflix? In a few weeks, we would want to go out to pick some red, ripe, juicy tomatoes and find that not only do we not have any tomatoes, but we don’t even have a garden!
Every day we have to work on our spiritual garden. Prayer and scripture study, we all understand about—we know how necessary they are to spiritual growth. But we need to go even further and fight, root out, the weeds. Is that tv, smartphone, game an entanglement? Are we spending too much time trying to "make it" or "get ahead" or "keep up with our friends"? Do we allow ourselves to become easily sidetracked by "little things"? While sleeping late instead of getting up early to pray, are weeds creeping over our fruit?
We can extend this technique to any part of life. Just ask yourself, "Am I asleep?" If you’re are not asleep, ask, "Am I coasting?" You may find that you have allowed other pursuits to crowd out higher, spiritual priorities. If so, you need to walk into your overgrown garden and begin pulling out weeds by the fistful.
As we pull out our daily weeds of sin, our gardens, our souls, will grow into something beautiful.
We celebrated Easter last month. Have you ever noticed all the references to gardens in the Resurrection story? Where does Jesus go before, He dies? To the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36). When He’s on the cross, He tells one of the thieves hanging next to Him that He would see him in Paradise that day. Paradise in Greek means garden. After He dies, His body is taken where? To a garden tomb (John 19:41). When Mary comes to this garden and finds His tomb empty, in her distress, she mistakes Jesus for what? A gardener (John 20:15). God placed His first created children in a garden, and that is where we will go in the end. Do you realize that along with His other titles, He is the Master Gardener?
Jesus Christ, the Master Gardener, can destroy sin faster than the blazing sun drying out weeds. The same sun brings life to grass, thickening it, giving less room for the weeds to grow. God does the same in our life, helping the good to grow and the bad to be choked out and die.
God can actually take a sin out and cause it to never return. He doesn’t always do this, of course. Our Gardener often wants us to dig in and do our part to rid our lives of the weeds of sin–we’ve got to see how stubborn those sins are and how much we need His help. We’ve got to come to the point of realizing how much we want it gone. Sometimes He leaves the thorns in our flesh to help us stay humble. However, we shouldn’t stop asking Him if He would see fit to rid us of a sin with which we struggle. We need the faith to know He will help us in one way or another. For Him, it’s effortless.
Not only will God help us weed out our sins daily, but do we remember daily that He makes a difference for our eternity, too? Without Jesus, our sins will be held against us after we die. Sins aren’t just annoying difficulties like weeds are–they’re deadly. They actually separate us from God. A truly good Gardener doesn’t want even one weed to spoil the good.
It was no accident that those soldiers (who didn’t know what they were doing, but God did) placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head before He was taken to the cross to die for our sins (John 19:2). He carried the symbol for sin on His head, showing what He was doing for us spiritually.
God created and was present in the first garden. Weeds and thorns came from our sin, but Jesus carried those thorns on His head and spirit to rid us of them forever. He will be with us in the final garden, if we allow Him to help change our lives. And guess what? His garden has no weeds.
Brothers and Sisters, I know that repentance is a beautiful thing.
I’m just like everybody else, sometimes we listen to satan’s whispers and say that we aren’t worthwhile, that God doesn’t want to hear from me, that I can’t be forgive, but it’s all a LIE.
God always has His arms open wide, and He wants YOU!
I close with the words of our Prophet, “Whether you are diligently moving along the covenant path, have slipped or stepped from the covenant path, or can’t even see the path from where you are now, I plead with you to repent. Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance – of doing and being a little better each day.”
