Talk on Abiding in Christ, given 6/24/2023

(I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting based on a talk called “Abide in Me, and I in You; Therefore Walk with Me” by Elder David A. Bednar from the April 2023 General Conference. Here is my talk. The bolded bits were to help as I spoke to remind me of the general point of each paragraph so I didn't have to read it word for word.)

When I was a teenager, one of the youth in our stake passed away suddenly in an accident. This was my first real experience dealing with death; he was the first person to die that I had known. I felt so many emotions: I was sad, confused, lost, wondering why something like this could happen. I struggled for days trying to come to terms with what had happened.

A few years later when I was a student at BYU, I was called to be the gospel doctrine teacher in my student ward and I was scared. Most of the ward members were returned missionaries and I wasn’t and I was afraid that they all knew much more than I did and that I wouldn’t have anything to offer them as a teacher. Also, I was very, very shy and the idea of talking to people I didn’t know very well was seriously intimidating. I felt very unprepared and inadequate.

Have you ever felt like something in your life was hard to bear? Have you felt like something God was asking you to do was too difficult - whether it was keeping a specific commandment or serving in a particular calling? Have you experienced other challenges in your life that have caused you to feel lost? Confused? Disappointed? Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Inadequate? 

What do you do when you feel this way? Do you go to bed and pull the covers over your head? Eat a pint of ice cream? Bury yourself in a book or a hobby? Talk it out with friends, family or a therapist? Do these coping mechanisms always help? Where can we find a reliable source for guidance, comfort, and peace?

On the third day after the Savior’s crucifixion, two of his disciples were on their way to a village called Emmaus. I’d like you to imagine how these men must have been feeling. The man that they had come to believe was the Messiah, the one that had been prophesied of for thousands of years, the King of the Jews, the one who was going to come and redeem them, had just been killed. Not only that but there were rumors that his body wasn’t in the tomb anymore and some people were saying that he was alive. I can only imagine the mix of devastation and confusion that these two disciples must have been feeling at that time. 

As they were discussing all this, a stranger approached and asked what was going on that they looked so sad, and when they told him, the stranger opened up the scriptures and showed them that the Savior’s death was a necessary part of the Father’s plan, as revealed to the prophets. As the stranger explained, the disciples felt their hearts burn within them, confirming that the words were true. The stranger brought them understanding, and comfort, and they wanted that feeling to continue. When evening came and they reached their destination and the stranger looked like he was going to continue on, they invited him to “Abide with them”. As they sat to eat, the stranger took bread and blessed it and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened and they finally realized that the man who had brought them so much peace was the Savior. 

A couple hymns have been written that were inspired by this story, and one of them is called “Abide With Me” (Hymn 166). This hymn recognizes the comfort and peace that the Savior brings. Here are the words:

• 1. Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;
  The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide!
  When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
  Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!

• 
  

• 2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day.
  Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away.
  Change and decay in all around I see;
  O thou who changest not, abide with me!

• 
  

• 3. I need thy presence ev’ry passing hour.
  What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
  Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
  Thru cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me!

The Savior can bring us comfort, peace and guidance when we invite him to abide with us. Elder Jeffrey R Holland defined “abide” as “to stay -- but to stay forever.” When we invite the Savior to abide with us, we don’t want his help for only a few minutes or a few days as we deal with that moment’s crisis, but we want him to stay with us forever, to be that constant guide and support “through cloud and sunshine”, whatever trials we may face throughout our lives. 

Sometimes our lives seem especially hard when we are trying to do what the Lord wants us to, whether it is serving in a calling or keeping a commandment that we struggle with. Often when  someone wants to be baptized it suddenly feels like their world is falling apart. When we are trying to do what God wants us to, it can feel like we are trying to swim upstream and we need his help even more! 

A couple generations before Noah and the flood, the Lord called a man named Enoch to be a prophet to call the wicked people of the world to repentance. Enoch’s reply was essentially, “I am but a lad and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech”... Why do you want me? Like many of us, Enoch felt unprepared and inadequate. He needed help to do what the Lord was asking of him.

The Lord told Enoch that if he would just try to do what the Lord asked, then the Lord would give him the protection and power that he would need. “Open thy mouth and it shall be filled and I will give thee utterance.” And then he said, “thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.” The Lord was teaching an important point - If we want the Lord to abide in us, then we need to first abide in him. 

In our dispensation, the Lord told Joseph Smith something similar when he told him, “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me;” (D&C 88:63) The more we come to Christ, the more he will be there for us. 

In 3 Nephi 10, the Nephites have suffered from storms and earthquakes and three days of darkness and then they hear the Lord’s voice from heaven and he says, “O ye people… who are of the house of Israel, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you. And again, …how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not. O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.” (3 Ne 10:4-6)

I don’t have a lot of experience with chickens, but I understand that when there is a predator around a hen will cluck to her chicks and they will come to her for protection. Her chicks may also be gathered under her wings for warmth or for comfort as they sleep at night.  I’ve seen some pictures of hens with her chicks gathered under the wings, and it looked like this big blobby chicken with a dozen or so little legs coming out underneath. The chicks were almost completely hidden in the shelter of the wings, warm and safe, and it looked like one creature.  

I picture abiding in Christ as kind of like letting him gather us in as a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings, receiving that protection as we become like one creature with Christ. Like the mother hen, the Savior knows what’s going on. He knows of the trials we face and he wants to help us, but we need to come to him, abide with him in order to receive all the blessings he can give us. We need to hear his call, heed his call by obeying his teachings, and then we need to snuggle into that refuge in the shelter of his wings and his atonement.

We hear his call when we learn of him and what he asks of us. We hear his call as we pray sincerely to the Father in Christ’s name and develop relationships with them.  We “Hear Him” as we feel the guidance of the Holy Ghost and pay attention to the promptings we receive. We hear his call by immersing ourselves in the scriptures, studying his words and his teachings. We hear his call when we attend church and watch General Conference and listen to the words of our prophet and other Church leaders and we learn about the commandments and the covenants that the Lord wants us to make with him.

But it isn’t enough just to know. If the chicks want their mother hen’s protection, they need to come when their mother calls them.  If we want the Lord to abide with us, we need to “heed the Savior’s voice”, and do the things he asks of us. As we strive to keep the commandments, as we repent and are baptized and then go to the temple to make covenants with God and then keep those covenants, this is how we draw nearer to him. 

Finally, we snuggle into the shelter of his wings as we continue to keep those covenants that we’ve made. We take the sacrament each week and renew our commitment to keep those covenants, to show our willingness to take his name upon us, to always remember him, to keep his commandments, so we can have his spirit to be with us. We snuggle into the shelter of his wings as we commit to “abide in him”.

The Lord promised that if we will draw near unto him that he will draw near unto us. If we abide in him, then he will abide in us. How does this happen? This is a natural consequence of our seeking to abide in him. If we surround ourselves in Christ and his gospel, then he becomes our center.

As we learn about and come to understand the Father’s Plan of Happiness and Christ’s atonement, we come to realize what is really important. We begin to see things the way he sees them, with an eternal perspective that can bring us peace, just like the disciples on the road to Emmaus were comforted as they gained a better understanding of God’s plan.

As we heed the Savior’s voice, as we keep his commandments and our covenants, we begin to do the things he would have us do, or the things he would do if he was in our place. We become more like him. We see others as He sees them. We serve as he would serve. We become tools in his hands - and we recognize that we ARE tools in his hands. Like Enoch, if we try our best to do what the Lord asks of us, we can trust that he will give us all the guidance, the protection, and the power we need to meet the challenges that we face.

Finally, as we continue to keep his commandments. As we come to church each week and have a meaningful sacrament experience, as we renew the covenants we’ve made and recommit to keeping his commandments, a change begins to happen. We are no longer just eating a bit of bread and drinking a sip of water, but we are taking in the emblems of Christ’s atonement and it becomes personal. At some point we realize that the Father’s Plan and the Savior’s atonement isn’t just for the bishop or just for a select few. We realize that it is for us! We realize, “You know what? The Savior atoned for *my* sins. I can be forgiven! The Savior knows what I’m going through; I’m not alone! The Savior resurrected so I will also resurrect - along with everyone else who I have ever known and loved! This realization will bring us peace.

As we take the sacrament, we covenant that we will always remember God’s Son. If we always remember him and stay close to him, he will always be with us. As we abide in Him, He will abide in us and we will have guidance and comfort and peace.

I say this In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.