Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - If I repent of a sin and then do it again, can I repent of the same sin? : follow HIM Favorites

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

The followHIM Favorites episodes now entail Hank Smith and John Bytheway answering Come, Follow Me study questions from the youth.

Hello everyone, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the wonderful John. By the way, we are the co-host of a podcast called Follow Him. This year, our Follow Him Favorites is taking on a specific question given to us from youth, the YSA, someone younger who's just has a question about the gospel, and we're going to answer that specific question. And the question we received this week, John, is this idea of if I repent of something and then do it again, can I repent of the same sin basically over and over? Is that allowed? Right. What does God think about that? I've received that question before from students who feel like or young people who feel like, man, I'm no good at repenting. Right? Because here I'm repenting, but I'm repenting for the same thing.

What would you say? Oh, man, that's a good question. I think I had it as a kid, but I think one of my favorite synonyms for repentance to turn, one of the things that I find fascinating, Stephen Covey talked about it once is that an airplane is off course about 90% of the time. You fly across the Pacific Ocean, New York to London or something, you are off course 90% of the time. You fly across the Pacific Ocean, New York to London or something. You are off course 90% of the time.

But the airplane just keeps turning. Turning back. The autopilot just keeps... Kind of crosses the curve. Yeah, it just keeps turning back to on course. Finally, lands on the numbers, pulls up to the gate, and you walk out the jetway. Exactly where you're supposed to be, which is incredible. You can be off course 90% of the time and get where you're going, yeah, because you keep on turning. And that's why I like that synonym of repent is to turn. I like that. And that's a daily, that's a daily process.

It's just like a journey, like a flight is a journey. There's a scripture in the doctrine, Covenants that confuses people, sometimes John, it's Section 82 verse 7, where the Lord says, but under the soul, the soul who sineth shall the former sins return, say, at the Lord your God. And we've taken that to mean, oh, well, if you repent of a sin and then do it again, it's like you've never repented and now you're guilty of all those sins, which that's not really what the Lord says in that verse

We're kind of implying some things it reminds me of a great parable Jesus told Where he said listen if there is a if a man casts an evil spirit out of his house He said really out he meant his life if he man casts an evil spirit or a sin out of his life But then he doesn't do anything else. He doesn't fill his house. That evil spirit or that sin is going to come back and he's going to find a vacant house, right? He hasn't filled his life with anything. And so he's going to invite him, this sin back, and six of his evil spirit friends. So he said, and now that that man is worse off than he was when he started. I think that's what the Lord is referring to here in section 82 is the idea of like, if you sin

and you repent and get rid of that sin and you don't do anything else, you don't fill that spot, that void in your life, then something else is going to come and that sin is going to come back and return back to your life. So I would say to anyone who is worried about this, keep repenting of that same sin, keep casting that spirit out. But also put good things into your life. Start inserting more scripture study, more temple attendance, more prayer, right? All these basics, insert them into your life, so those former sins can't return. That's how I read that verse anyway. And I found it to be a little

more empowering than discouraging for students. Yeah, you know, you know, it's also encouraging to me, Hank, is that Jesus would tell, I mean, when disciples are like, hey, how many times do I have to forgive my brother? And seven times is that enough? And he's like, well, actually, and hyperbole is what? Seven times 70, whatever. And yeah, 400 and 70. So, so keep it tall. He'd take a little notebook with you. No, that's not what he meant. He just kind of meant always. And I think if the Lord's going to ask that of us, he's probably, he's equally forgiving. And he knows that we're gonna need to keep course correcting a lot.

So that gives me a lot of hope and hopefully it's helpful. In fact, John, you pretty much quoted the book of Mormon there, Mosiah 2630, the Lord says, Yeh as often as my people repent, well, I forgive them their trespasses against me? So how often can, how many times can you repent? It seems that when the Lord says, as often as my people repent, meaning he knows,

we're gonna need to repent often. He's saying, oh, this isn't a one time thing. This is a daily thing. It's often as my people repent, will I forgive them? We have a very merciful Lord. Yeah, and it's gotta be real. It's sincere, really is repentance. And I think you'll you'll you'll make progress when you keep repenting and that those sins will become less enticing to you. That's an important point is to say that just because you return to a sin, doesn't

mean that first repentance wasn't sincere. It was. It was sincere. And you just keep trying. Wasn't it, wasn't it Brad, our friend Brad, brother Wilcox, who said, listen, worthiness is not flawless. That was the title of his talk. And it was, it's called being a disciple, discipline, discipline disciple same word that you keep getting back on track. Now you don't plan to send. No, that's not what we're after. But you're trying. You're sincerely trying. And that's also what Brad said. You're not trying to hide it. You're seeing your bishop. You know, you are trying and make to make those course corrections. John, what you just said reminded me of something that Elder

Renland said in the April 2015 General Conference, he said, quote, even if we've been a conscious deliberate sinner or have repeatedly faced failure and disappointment, the moment we decide to try again, the atonement of Christ can help us. This is the idea of the Lord understands even the deliberate sinner. You know, oh, I made a mistake. It's the no idea of I actually willfully went after this sin. Now I don't, I'm sad I did that. I want to turn it around. The moment we decide to try that, the Atonement of Christ steps in. We tap into that power. That's why I like that it's

turned. Just keep getting back on course and you'll get to your destination with the help of the Savior, but you've got to keep getting back on course. The idea is I just won't stop trying. I can't say I'm never going to commit a sin again, but I can commit that I won't stop trying to become like him and do what he wants me to do. And I'm honest in that, I won't stop trying. And over time, you know, Joseph Smith says we can eventually, we lose desire for sin, but he said, it's a station to which no one ever arrived in a moment. So it's a, it's a, that's a life-long process. Just keep trying and hopefully and prayerfully that sin will become less appealing to you

and less and less and you'll start, you'll taste the bitter and no to price the good as we learned in Moses six. Doesn't happen in a moment. It doesn't happen in a moment and that's okay. The Lord, the Lord understands you. He gets you. He knows why you do what you do.

He's not disgusted by you. He's not what, what were you thinking, right? He gets you. He knows why you do what you do. He's not disgusted by you. He's not what were you thinking, right? He gets you. He understands your childhood, your personality, your DNA, your genetics. He understands all of it. So go to him. The one who understands you. Well, John, let's take on another question next week. That's great. We hope all of you will join us for follow him favorites. you