{"id":1959,"date":"2003-10-21T11:15:07","date_gmt":"2003-10-21T17:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:47:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:47:20","slug":"make-god-and-his-kingdom-center-life","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/keith-b-mcmullin\/make-god-and-his-kingdom-center-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Make God and His Kingdom the Center of Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
My dear brothers and sisters, it is thrilling to be with you today. I bring you greetings from President Hinckley and the First Presidency. Sister McMullin and I marvel over the goodness of your lives and the potential you represent. It is humbling to realize that Heavenly Father has selected you to come forth in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times.<\/p>\n
I should like to tell you a story. If you have already heard something similar, no matter\u2014the moral is worth revisiting. As the story goes, the airline company Air France opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia. Some weeks later, the company\u2019s chief officer called the Atlanta office. A receptionist answered and, in her charming Southern accent, said, \u201cAir France.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proper Frenchman was disturbed. Speaking to the office manager, he said, \u201cWe cannot have someone answering the phone \u2018Air France\u2019; it must be \u2018Air Fr\u00e4nce\u2019!<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
Some weeks later, the company executive called again. The same receptionist answered the phone. She said, \u201cAir Fr\u00e4nce<\/i>\u2014can I hep ya?\u201d<\/p>\n
The moral is clear. It is much easier to dress up the outside than to change what is within. It is easier to put on an appearance than it is to alter one\u2019s nature. Today I hope to be helpful in changing our natures, in lifting us above the things of this world to \u201ca more excellent way\u201d (Ether 12:11).<\/p>\n
You are living in a momentous day in the history of this modern world. Much is expected of you. Your interests and challenges run the gamut from the sciences to the humanities, from the newest discoveries to the most ancient studies. Neither solar systems nor DNA escape your inquisitive probing. Furthermore, that which was arduous for your predecessors you now accomplish in nanoseconds. You are at the forefront of change. Such is the nature of your day and time.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately there is a darker side as well. Exciting and beneficial advances are often eclipsed by things sordid and sensual. Concerning today, the scriptures speak of false Christs and false prophets; nations at war; kingdoms arrayed against each other; famines, plagues, earthquakes, and hailstorms; even cataclysmic events that will shake the very orbs and powers of heaven (see JS\u2014M 1:29\u201334).<\/p>\n
On a personal level, the Lord speaks of conditions and dangers besetting His covenant people. We read:<\/p>\n
For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;<\/i><\/p>\n
They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.<\/i> [D&C 1:15\u201316]<\/p>\n
This, too, is part of your day and time.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world much is said about being holistic<\/i> in one\u2019s approach and empowered<\/i> in one\u2019s work. Given what we have just considered, if ever a situation demanded a holistic approach, this is it. If ever a generation needed to be empowered, you do! Unfortunately, the way we typically approach life accomplishes neither of these. Allow me to illustrate.<\/p>\n
We have all been asked the question \u201cWhat are you going to be when you grow up?\u201d It is a simple question, usually asked in hopes of pointing us in the right direction. In response, our minds typically turn to such things as education, career, marriage and family, wealth and status, lifestyle, church, and the like. In other words, we are inclined to compartmentalize life, to divide it into seemingly neat segments, each of which is expected to contribute to our overall good. In fact, most of a person\u2019s time at this great university is spent sharply focused on one or more of these segments.<\/p>\n
But caution is in order. All too often we feel compelled to do everything so we can amount to something. Each segment demands a great deal of personal energy and commitment; each wants to be as important as the other. Soon the battle is with time\u2014time to work it all in\u2014and the day planner or cell phone becomes almost as important as food and air. In the words of Brigham Young, \u201cYou are all the time on the wing, and in such a hurry that you do not know what to do first\u201d (JD<\/i> 15:36; see also Deseret News Weekly,<\/i> 5 June 1872, 248). No wonder we feel a little frantic.<\/p>\n
A life divided into compartments risks being overwhelmed by the divisiveness. Priorities can be lost, balance can be surrendered. We can become one of those who \u201cwalketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god,\u201d trusting \u201cin the arm of flesh\u201d to pull him through (D&C 1:16, 19). Our purpose on earth becomes blurred. We no longer have an \u201ceye . . . single to the glory of God\u201d (JST, Matthew 6:22). In the words of the Apostle James, we become as \u201ca double minded man . . . unstable in all his ways\u201d (James 1:8).<\/p>\n
Admittedly, it is improbable that we are going to change the course of warring nations. It is unlikely that a BYU graduate is going to stop the tide of nature\u2019s destructive forces. Even an outstanding MBA candidate is not going to alter very much the U.S. balance of payments or the rise and fall of the stock market. But there is something every one of us can do to change our world. We can change ourselves. And as we change ourselves, we alter the way the world affects us. This is done under two simple banners\u2014love and kingdom. Here is how it works.<\/p>\n
Visualize the first banner\u2014\u201cLove.\u201d The Lord was asked, \u201cMaster, which is the great commandment in the law?\u201d Jesus said, \u201cThou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment\u201d (Matthew 22:36\u201338; see also D&C 59:5). This commandment is at the nexus of all others. Abide by it and every other appetite, passion, or compulsion will yield. As we love God more than anything else, we find that things inimical to His character become unappealing to us. We do not wish to break the commandments; we strive to keep them. We do not lust after what is forbidden; we shun all evil. Even the desire for fashion and fad is replaced with a simple yearning to be neat and comely. That which we love determines that which we become. \u201cNo man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon\u201d (Matthew 6:24).<\/p>\n
When I married my dear wife, I knew I would always be number two in her life. This is because she loves God more than she loves me. Over the years my understanding and appreciation for the paramount importance of this \u201cfirst and great commandment\u201d has deepened. You see, because she loves God more than anything else, she is able to love me more than everything else. How grateful I am that the keeping of this commandment helped her overlook some pretty major deficiencies.<\/p>\n
There is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them;<\/i><\/p>\n
. . . He created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them;<\/i><\/p>\n
And gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship.<\/i> [D&C 20:17\u201319]<\/p>\n
As we center our love first and foremost in God, the Eternal Father, the capacity emerges within us to love all the works of His hands. For example, no earthly affection or ambition has ever interfered with my wife\u2019s devotion to her husband and family. Our marriage is now in its 40th year. Our lives are filled with adoration for one another. Children and grandchildren adorn our home. Temple covenants protect and preserve us. All of this and so very much more because of this \u201cfirst and great commandment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Change yourself! Decide today \u201cI am going to love God more than anything else!\u201d <\/b>Pray for the capacity to do so. Repent of things that stand in the way. Follow the prophet and keep the commandments. Allow your love for God to supersede the styles you wear, the hours you keep, the impressions you give, the grades you receive, the words you speak, even the way you are. As this love grows, changes will emerge. You will become a better neighbor, a more conscientious student, a more honest person, a more devout disciple. Your circle of friends will increase, and your circle of influence will expand. You will also discover that Heavenly Father loves you (see 1 John 4:19). In the words of the Apostle Paul:<\/p>\n
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,<\/i><\/p>\n
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/i> [Romans 8:38\u201339]<\/p>\nKingdom<\/b><\/h2>\n
Visualize the second banner\u2014\u201cKingdom.\u201d Brigham Young lifts our sights to this banner with the words \u201cWith us, it is the kingdom of God, or nothing\u201d (JD<\/i>5:342). The Lord taught:<\/p>\n
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? . . .<\/i><\/p>\n
Behold, I say unto you, that your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.<\/i><\/p>\n
Wherefore, seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.<\/i> [JST, Matthew 6:35, 37\u201338]<\/p>\n
Our beloved prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, has given luster and direction to these teachings for our day:<\/p>\n
I wish to remind you<\/i> [as Latter-day Saints] that we are all in this together. It is not a matter of the General Authorities on one hand and the membership of the Church on the other. We are all working as one in a great cause. We are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ.<\/i><\/p>\n