2024 April General Conference, Sunday Morning Session

God’s Intent is to Bring You Home

Elder Patrick Kearon
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Main Points

  • Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home.
  • Our choices really matter, even though God’s plan is designed to bring us home
  • The purpose of the Father is our salvation; the purpose of the Son is to fulfill the will of the Father.
  • The Plan of Salvation is brought about by and through the Lord Jesus Christ
  • God is benevolent
  • With God’s grace we can do the things we need to do and change the things we need to change in order to come back home.
  • This is the good news! I am unspeakably grateful for these simple truths.

Gospel Principles taught

 Our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, Agency, The Atonement, Faith in Christ, Repentance, Exaltation

Gospel Doctrine taught

The Plan of Salvation, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Prophets and Revelation, Commandments, God the Father, Jesus Christ, The Plan of Salvation, The Covenant Path

Scriptures

2 Nephi 26:25, 27; Moses 1:39; Moses 7:33;  Jacob 6:8; Alma 12:30; Alma 42:15; Alma 42:8, 16; Moses 6:62 ;Doctrine and Covenants 45:4; Doctrine and Covenants 76:50–70; Omni 1:26; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 5:43–44; Mosiah 5:2; Alma 42:13; Mosiah 3:19; John 8:11; John 6:38; 2 Nephi 26:24; Luke 15:4; 2 Peter 3:9; Doctrine and Covenants 18:11–12; 3 Nephi 9:14; 3 Nephi 17:7; see also verse 6; Matthew 7:13–14, 21–25; Matthew 27:50–51; Hebrews 9:6–12

Other Sources

Related talks: 

Look for Jesus Christ:

  • Testimony of Christ.
    • He does not put up roadblocks and barriers; He removes them. He does not keep you out; He welcomes you in. His entire ministry was a living declaration of this intent.
    • The Father’s design, His plan, His purpose, His intent, His wish, and His hope are all to heal you, all to give you peace, all to bring you, and those you love, home. Of this I am a witness in the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, amen.
  • Description of His Life.
    • (God) sent His precious Beloved Son to this fallen world to live the full range of the human experience, to provide an example for the rest of His children to follow, and to atone and redeem. 
  • Description of His Teachings.
    • 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.
  • Description of His Atonement.
    • Christ’s great atoning gift removes every roadblock of physical and spiritual death that would separate us from our eternal home.
    • They call it the plan of redemption, the plan of mercy, the great plan of happiness, and the plan of salvation, which is unto all, “through the blood of mine Only Begotten.”
    • Christ’s infinite atonement covers all of us. “Infinite” means “infinite.” None are excluded.
    • “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.”
    • Then of course there is His atoning sacrifice itself, which is harder for us to understand, beyond our mortal capacity to comprehend. But, and this is an important “but,” we do understand, can comprehend, the holy, saving intent of His atoning sacrifice.
  • Description of His relationship with us.
    • 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.
    • The Saviour, the Good Shepherd, goes in search of His lost sheep until He finds them.He is “not willing that any should perish.”
  • Christ’s words.
    • “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”
    • “Mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive.”
    • “Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you.”

Inspiring Words & Phrases

  • It is… indeed a great honour to serve the Saviour, in any capacity, and to be engaged with you in sharing the good news of His gospel of hope.
  • It has been said that behind every new Apostle stands an astonished mother-in-law.
  • 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.
  • God is in relentless pursuit of you.
  • Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home.
  • Christ’s great atoning gift removes every roadblock of physical and spiritual death that would separate us from our eternal home.
  • Everything about the Father’s plan for His beloved children is designed to bring everyone home.
  • The intent of the Father’s great plan of happiness is your happiness, right here, right now, and in the eternities. It is not to prevent your happiness and cause you instead worry and fear.
  • The intent of the Father’s plan of redemption is in fact your redemption, your being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, freed from the captivity of sin and death. It is not to leave you as you are.
  • The intent of the Father’s plan of mercy is to extend mercy as you turn back to Him and honour your covenant of fidelity to Him. It is not to deny mercy and inflict pain and sorrow.
  • The intent of the Father’s plan of salvation is in fact your salvation in the celestial kingdom of glory as you receive “the testimony of Jesus” and offer your whole soul to Him. It is not to keep you out.
  • 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.”
  • If you are prone to worry that you will never measure up, or that the loving reach of Christ’s infinite Atonement mercifully covers everyone else but not you, then you misunderstand. Infinite means infinite. Infinite covers you and those you love.
  • He did not cast away the woman with the issue of blood; He did not recoil from the leper; He did not reject the woman taken in adultery; He did not refuse the penitent—no matter their sin. And He will not refuse you or those you love when you bring to Him your broken hearts and contrite spirits. That is not His intent or His design, nor His plan, purpose, wish, or hope.
  • He does not put up roadblocks and barriers; He removes them. He does not keep you out; He welcomes you in. His entire ministry was a living declaration of this intent.
  • The veil of the temple was rent in twain when Jesus died upon the cross, symbolising that access back to the presence of the Father had been ripped wide open—to all who will turn to Him, trust Him, cast their burdens on Him, and take His yoke upon them in a covenant bond.
  • The Father’s plan is not about roadblocks. It never was; it never will be.
  • Are there things we need to do, commandments to keep, aspects of our natures to change? Yes. But with His grace, those are within our reach, not beyond our grasp.
  • The Father’s design, His plan, His purpose, His intent, His wish, and His hope are all to heal you, all to give you peace, all to bring you, and those you love, home.

Lists

Our Heavenly Father’s plan:

  • Is beautiful. (“pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically.”)
  • Is fabulous. (“extraordinary, especially extraordinarily large.”)
  • Is designed to bring you home.
  • Is not designed to keep you out.
  • Does not have a roadblock.
  • Does not have someone stationed there to turn people away
  • Is designed to bring everyone home

God, our Heavenly Father,:

  • Is in relentless pursuit of you to bring you home to Him
  • Wants all of His children to return to Him
  • Employs every possible measure (“a plan or course of action taken to achieve a particular purpose”)  to bring you back
  • oversaw the Creation of this earth
  • Created the earth so that we could experience mortality

The express purpose for which God created the Earth:

  • To provide an opportunity for us to experience mortality stretching and refining experiences of mortality,

The purpose of mortality is:

  • To stretch us
  • To refine us
  • To use our moral agency to choose Him
  • To learn
  • To grow
  • To make mistakes
  • To repent
  • To love God
  • To love our neighbor
  • To return to Him

God sent Christ to the earth:

  • To live the full range of human experience
  • To provide an example for us to follow
  • To atone
  • To redeem

The prophets call the Heavenly Father’s plan:

  • plan of redemption 
  • the plan of mercy 
  • the great plan of happiness
  • the plan of salvation

The intent of Heavenly Father’s plan:

  • Your happiness, now and in the eternities
  • Your redemption
  • your being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ
  • To free you from the captivity of sin and death
  • Is to extend mercy as you turn back to Him and honour your covenant of fidelity to Him. 
  • Your salvation in the celestial kingdom of glory 

The intent of Heavenly Father’s plan is NOT:

  • to prevent your happiness 
  • to cause you worry 
  • To cause you fear
  • to leave you as you are
  • to deny mercy 
  • To inflict pain 
  • To inflict sorrow
  • To keep you out

Implicit in the Savior’s teachings is:

  • A call to live on a higher plane of moral conduct 
  • a call to personal progression
  • A call to transformative faith in Christ
  • A call to a mighty change of heart.

Jesus opened the way for all to return to the Father to all who will:

  • turn to Him
  • trust Him
  • cast their burdens on Him
  • take His yoke upon them in a covenant bond

Warnings

  • Even though the way has been cleared for us through Christ, we still need to keep the commandments and stay true to our covenants. 

Blessings/Promises

  • If you are prone to worry that you will never measure up, or that the loving reach of Christ’s infinite Atonement mercifully covers everyone else but not you, then you misunderstand. Infinite means infinite. Infinite covers you and those you love.
  • The Saviour, the Good Shepherd, goes in search of His lost sheep until He finds them. 

Equations:

  •  redemption=being rescued through the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ

Stories:

  • From a hotel window, Elder Kearon observed a policeman who was stationed to redirect traffic from a road that was closed. As more and more traffic came, the policeman seemed to enjoy turning the traffic away, and was unsympathetic to travelers who spoke to him. 

Application Ideas

  1. Ponder the quote “If you are prone to worry that you will never measure up, or that the loving reach of Christ’s infinite Atonement mercifully covers everyone else but not you, then you misunderstand. Infinite means infinite. Infinite covers you and those you love.” If this sounds like something you are inclined to do, post this quote where you can see it several times a day. Make a point to read the quote several times a day for the next week, and in your prayers ask for a greater witness of how the atonement applies to you personally.
  2. Focus your scripture study this week on the Plan of Salvation. Make a list of all the words you can find that describe the Plan.

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