You can watch or read Elder Phillips’ talk here.

Elder Alan T. Phillips was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the April 2023 general conference. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Seventh Quorum of the Seventy in the Europe North Area Presidency.

Elder Phillips has served in a number of Church callings, including full-time missionary in the England Manchester Mission, counselor in a bishopric, high councilor, stake president, and Area Seventy.

Elder Phillips received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has worked in business, finance, and education. Prior to his call to the Seventy, he worked as the academic director for the Brigham Young University London Centre.

Six years ago our family was traveling at night just outside the city of Oxford. As is often the case with young children, we needed to stop, so we found a service station with an array of shops and restaurants. With precision, we filed out of the car, visited the services, and filed back in, resuming our journey.

Fifteen minutes later our eldest son asked a significant question: “Where is Jasper?” Jasper sits on his own at the back of the car. We assumed he had fallen asleep or was hiding or playing a trick on us.

As his brother inspected the back of the car more closely, we discovered our five-year-old son was not there. Our hearts filled with dread. As we made our way back to the service station, we pleaded with Heavenly Father that Jasper would be kept safe. We called the police and informed them of the situation.

When we anxiously arrived, more than 40 minutes later, we found two police vehicles in the car park, lights flashing. Inside one of them was Jasper, playing with the buttons. I will never forget the joy we felt in being reunited with him.

Can you imagine how Elder and Sister Phillips must have felt? What lessons did you draw from this story?

Many of the Savior’s parabolic teachings focus on gathering, restoring, or striving to find that which has been scattered or lost. Among these are the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

As this incident with Jasper has played in my mind over the years, I have reflected on the divine identity and importance of God’s children, the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, and the perfect love of a Father in Heaven, who knows you and me. I hope to bear witness of these truths today.

These parables all illustrate God’s mercy and concern for the lost soul. Why is God concerned about each lost individual?

I. Children of God

Life is challenging. Many people feel overwhelmed, alone, isolated, or exhausted. When things are difficult, we may feel that we have wandered or fallen behind. Knowing that we are all children of God and members of His eternal family will restore a sense of belonging and purpose.

President M. Russell Ballard shared: “There is one important identity we all share now and forever. … That is that you are and have always been a son or daughter of God. … Understanding this truth—really understanding it and embracing it—is life-changing.”

What blessings flow into our lives when we understand our divine identity?

Do not misunderstand or devalue how important you are to your Father in Heaven. You are not an accidental by-product of nature, a cosmic orphan, or the result of matter plus time plus chance. Where there is design, there is a designer.

Your life has meaning and purpose. The ongoing Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings light and understanding regarding your divine identity. You are a beloved child of Heavenly Father. You are the subject matter of all those parables and teachings. God loves you so much that He sent His Son to heal, rescue, and redeem you.

Each person on earth is a spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents. As their children we have inherited the potential to become like them also.

‘Let us briefly discuss a significant threat to achieving our divine potential. Today we receive many warnings about identity theft. Some of you may have experienced the trauma resulting from this fraud. In our cybernetic world of trust and rapid transmission of medical, financial, and other personal data, we are vulnerable to exploitation of our identifying details. Theft of our numerical mortal identity can be costly and cause us a great deal of misery. But the theft of our eternal identity has much longer effects and more dire consequences. I am not talking about addresses, credit cards, or any other identifying numbers. I am talking about something much more basic and more important than who the world thinks you are. I am talking about who you think you are.

We know we are sons and daughters of God, with the potential to become like Him as described in His plan of happiness. We know this potential is achieved through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and through obedience to the eternal laws and principles embedded in His gospel. We also know that Satan is totally dedicated to thwarting and derailing this marvelous plan-of-happiness knowledge and process. We know that one of his primary tools is to entice us to forget who we really are—to fail to realize or to forget our divine potential. This is the cruelest form of identity theft.’ (Elder Robert C Oaks, BYU Devotional, March 2006)

Jesus Christ recognized the divine nature and eternal worth of each person. He explained how the two great commandments to love God and love our neighbor are the foundation of all of God’s commandments. One of our divine responsibilities is to care for those in need.  This is why as disciples of Jesus Christ we “bear one another’s burdens, … mourn with those that mourn … , and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.”

Religion is not only about our relationship with God; it is also about our relationship with each other. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explained that the English word religion comes from the Latin religare, meaning “to tie” or, more literally, “to re-tie.” Thus, “true religion [is] the tie that binds us to God and to each other.”

How does Elder Holland’s explanation link to the two great commandments?

How we treat one another truly matters. President Russell M. Nelson teaches, “The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire.” This is even more important when our fellow travelers feel lost, alone, forgotten, or removed.

A story is told about Alexander the Great. When he had his portrait painted, the selected artist was greatly perplexed about how to do it. Alexander had an ugly scar from battle on the side of his forehead. The artist did not want to paint that scar in the portrait, because it would be offensive. But leaving the scar out of the painting would not be honest either, and the likeness of his king would be false. The artist finally arrived at a decision what to do. He asked Alexander to lean his head forward and rest it on the fingers of his hand in a way that covered the scar. The finished portrait of the great conqueror was valued as a success.

Do you and I find ways to portray other people in the best light possible, or do we instead focus on their scars?

We do not have to look far to find people who are struggling. We can start by helping someone in our own family, congregation, or local community. We can also seek to relieve the suffering of the 700 million people living in extreme poverty or the 100 million people who are forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, and identity-based violence. Jesus Christ is the perfect example of caring for those in need—the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the poor, the imprisoned. His work is our work.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong teaches that “our journey to God is often found together.” As such, our wards should be a refuge for all of God’s children. Are we passively attending church or actively creating communities whose purpose is to worship, remember Christ, and minister to one another? We can heed President Nelson’s counsel to judge less, love more, and extend the pure love of Jesus Christ through our words and actions.

Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf said: ‘True love requires action. We can speak of love all day long—we can write notes or poems that proclaim it, sing songs that praise it, and preach sermons that encourage it—but until we manifest that love in action, our words are nothing but “sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”.’

II. The Redemptive Power of Jesus Christ

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the supreme expression of our Heavenly Father’s love for His children. The word atonement describes the setting “at one” of those who have been estranged or separated.

Our Savior’s mission was to provide both a way to return to Heavenly Father and relief in the journey. The Savior knows through His experience how to support us through life’s challenges. Make no mistake: Christ is our rescuer and the healer of our souls.

‘There is a Redeemer, a Mediator, who stands both willing and able to appease the demands of justice and extend mercy to those who are penitent, for “He offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.” 2 Ne. 2:7

Already He has accomplished the redemption of all mankind from mortal death; resurrection is extended to all without condition.

He also makes possible redemption from the second death, which is the spiritual death, which is separation from the presence of our Heavenly Father. This redemption can come only to those who are clean, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God.

If justice decrees that we are not eligible because of our transgression, mercy provides a probation, a penitence, a preparation to enter in.’ (Boyd K Packer, General Conference, April 1977)

As we exercise faith, He helps us press forward through hardships. He continues to extend His loving and merciful invitation:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; … and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

The metaphor of the yoke is powerful. As President Howard W. Hunter explained: “The yoke was a device … that allowed the strength of a second animal to be linked and coupled with the effort of a single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labor of the [task in hand]. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one to bear could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a common yoke.”

In his April 2023 General Conference talk, Elder David A Bednar said:

‘We begin to abide in the Lord by exercising our moral agency to take upon ourselves His yoke through the covenants and ordinances of the restored gospel. The covenant connection we have with our Heavenly Father and His resurrected and living Son is the supernal source of perspective, hope, power, peace, and enduring joy; it also is the rock-solid foundation upon which we should build our lives.’

What do you think Elder Bednar is talking about when he talks about a covenant connection?

President Nelson taught: “You come unto Christ to be yoked with Him and with His power, so that you’re not pulling life’s load alone. You’re pulling life’s load yoked with the Savior and Redeemer of the world.”

How do we yoke or bind ourselves to the Savior? Elder David A. Bednar explains:

“Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus Christ. In essence, the Savior is beckoning us to rely upon and pull together with Him. …

“We are not and never need be alone.”

In the footnotes to his talk Elder Phillips quoted Sister Camille Johnson:

President Camille N. Johnson said: “Brothers and sisters, I can’t go at it alone, and I don’t need to, and I won’t. Choosing to be bound to my Savior, Jesus Christ, through the covenants I have made with God, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me’ [Philippians 4:13]” (“Jesus Christ Is Relief,” Liahona, May 2023, 82).

To anyone burdened, lost, confused: You do not have to do this alone. Through the Atonement of Christ and His ordinances, you can be yoked or bound to Him. He will lovingly provide the strength and healing you need to face the journey ahead. He is the refuge from our storms still.

President Howard W Hunter taught:

“Why face life’s burdens alone, Christ asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter? To the heavy laden it is Christ’s yoke, it is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God that will provide the support, balance, and the strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality.”

Sometimes I hear members of the Church murmuring that it is hard to be a member of the Church, that it is hard to keep the commandments, to keep striving to perfect ourselves. This may sometimes be true, but I believe that it is incomparably harder to live life without the Gospel, to not know the purpose of life, to not know what has happened to our loved ones who have passed on, to have nor sure light or voice guiding us through life’s darknesses and to have no relief for sin. As Neal A Maxwell says:

“[Christ’s] yoke, when fully and squarely placed upon us, is much lighter than the weight of sin. No burden is as heavy as the burden of the ‘natural man’! The annoying load of ambivalence and the hecticness of hesitation produce their own aggravations and frustrations.” (Men and Women of Christ, p. 103.)

III. Heavenly Father’s Love

For the record, Jasper is witty, affectionate, intelligent, and rambunctious. But the key to this story is he is mine. He is my son, and I love him more than he will ever know. If an imperfect, earthly father feels this way about his child, can you imagine how a perfect, glorified, loving Heavenly Father feels about you?

To my dear friends of the rising generation, Gen Z and Gen Alpha: Please know faith requires work.  We live in a time when, for many, only “seeing is believing.” Faith can be challenging and requires choices. But prayers are answered. And answers can be felt. Some of the most real things in life are not seen; they are felt, known, and experienced. They too are real.

Elder Phillips included the following footnotes:

“He [the Holy Ghost] is the Comforter (John 14:26). As the soothing voice of a loving parent can quiet a crying child, the whisperings of the Spirit can calm our fears, hush the nagging worries of our life, and comfort us when we grieve. The Holy Ghost can fill us ‘with hope and perfect love’ and ‘teach [us] the peaceable things of the kingdom’ (Moroni 8:26; Doctrine and Covenants 36:2)” (Topics and Questions, “Holy Ghost,” Gospel Library).

“He [the Holy Ghost] ‘witnesses of the Father and the Son’ (2 Nephi 31:18). It is only through the power of the Holy Ghost that we can receive a sure testimony of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

“The Holy Ghost testifies of truth, and it is through His power that we ‘may know the truth of all things’ (Moroni 10:5)” (“The Holy Ghost Testifies of Truth,” Liahona, Mar. 2010, 14, 15).

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John 15:26).

Jesus Christ wants you to know and have a relationship with your Father in Heaven. He taught, “What man among you, having a son, and he shall be standing out, and shall say, Father, open thy house that I may come in and sup with thee, will not say, Come in, my son; for mine is thine, and thine is mine?” Can you think of a more personal, loving image of God the Eternal Father?

You are His child. If you are feeling lost, if you have questions or lack wisdom, if you are struggling with your circumstances or wrestling with spiritual dissonance, turn to Him. Pray to Him for comfort, love, answers, and direction. Whatever the need and wherever you are, pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. For some, you may want to follow President Nelson’s invitation and ask “if He is really there—if He knows you. Ask Him how He feels about you. And then listen.”

How could this counsel affect the way we pray?

Dear brothers and sisters:

• Know your Father in Heaven. He is perfect and loving.
• Know who Jesus Christ is. He is our Savior and Redeemer. Bind yourself and those you love to Him.
• And know who you are. Know your true divine identity. God’s plan of happiness is all about you. You are His precious child and of great worth. He knows and loves you.

Of these simple but foundational truths I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

What have you learned from studying Elder Phillips’ talk?

NB: Passages in italic are direct quotes from Elder Phillips’ talk.

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