Editor’s note: To support personal and family gospel learning, the Church News is publishing articles on messages from April 2025 general conference. It is recommended to listen to or read the full address in addition to reviewing these resources.
About this talk
- “Divine Authority, Sublime Young Men”
- President Steven J. Lund | Young Men general president
- Saturday afternoon session of April 2025 general conference.
- Theme: Holders of the Aaronic Priesthood bless all through the Lord’s authority.
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of President Lund’s message here.
Outline
- Each January, about 100,000 young men are ordained into lifelong priesthood ministries, connecting them through ordinance “to Joseph and Oliver, to John the Baptist and to Jesus Christ.”
- Priesthood ordinations launch young men into lifetimes of service and disrupt the patterns of this world by godly authority spreading around the earth.
- Priesthood restoration began when John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood.
- Since ancient days, the Lord has entrusted Aaronic Priesthood bearers with the authority to teach and to administer ordinances, “all to remind us of His Atonement.”
- By performing the sacrament ordinance, young men learn about their roles and prepare for future priesthood service, which may include “pronouncing inspired blessings in times when hopes and dreams, and even life and death, hang in precarious balance.”
- Deacons and teachers have a variety of responsibilities, including preaching and baptism. One bishop taught his deacons these duties, and they decided to visit and serve elderly ward members.
- Alan, “a rough, often profane and sometimes hostile neighbor,” whose wife was a member of the Church, was one served by these deacons. While opposed to their serving and teaching before, he got sick and asked the young men to pray for him to quit smoking. Eventually, Alan asked to be baptized but passed away before he could be. Vicariously, one of “Alan’s boys” was baptized for him.
- One bishop and his wife were traveling to their son’s baptism when they suffered the sudden loss of their 2-year-old daughter. While no one expected the bishop’s family to be at church the next morning, the family quietly entered a couple of minutes before the meeting.
- Instead of his usual spot, the bishop, the Aaronic Priesthood president, sat down at the sacrament table. “He pronounced some of the most powerful words that anyone is ever allowed to say out loud in this lifetime,” the sacrament prayers. The bishop and his wife now testify of the blessing they have been given from the sacrament ordinance.
- Aaronic Priesthood holders bless all through the keys of “ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins” (Doctrine and Covenants 13:1).
Reflection questions
How can you make your participation in the sacrament more meaningful?
How has the Aaronic Priesthood blessed your life?
What does the sacramental covenant mean to you?
Why is it important that priesthood holders can trace their authority back to Jesus Christ?
What blessings have you found in the sacramental promise of always having the Spirit to be with you?
Speaker quotes
- “The Lord entrusts today’s bearers of the priesthood of Aaron to do very much the same things they did anciently: to teach and to administer ordinances — all to remind us of His Atonement.
- “The Aaronic Priesthood is called the preparatory priesthood partly because its ordinances allow them to experience the weight and the joy of being on the Lord’s errand, preparing them for future priesthood service, when they may be called upon to minister in unforeseeable ways — including pronouncing inspired blessings in times when hopes and dreams, and even life and death, hang in precarious balance.”
- “Serious expectations require serious preparation.”
Reference scriptures
- “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”
- “O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.”
- “The Priesthood of Aaron ... holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.”
Invitations and promises
- “Knowing God’s power for what it truly is, we were witness to the disruption of the very patterns of this world by godly authority spreading across the earth. These ordinations launch these young men into lifetimes of service as they will find themselves in consequential times and places where their presence and prayers and the powers of the priesthood of God they hold will profoundly matter.”
- “When deacons, teachers and priests help with the sacrament, they receive its blessings just like everyone else: by keeping the covenant they make as they individually partake of the bread and the water. But in the performance of these sacred duties, they also learn more about their priesthood roles and responsibilities.”
- “[The sacrament prayers contain] words of eternal consequence. Words of ordinance. Words of covenant. Instruction that connects us to the very purposes of this life — and to the most magnificent outcomes of Heavenly Father’s plan for us.”
Stories
- While sitting in sacrament meeting in January, President Lund was amazed as over a dozen young men were sustained to be advanced in the Aaronic Priesthood. He realized that all around the world, in every time zone, there were tens of thousands of deacons, teachers and priests being ordained. Each January, over 100,000 young men are ordained to a priesthood office.
- A deacons quorum presidency performed their duties by visiting and serving elderly ward members. One member’s husband, Alan, was “a rough, often profane and sometimes hostile neighbor.” While opposed to their serving and teaching at the beginning, he eventually got sick and asked the young men to pray for him to quit smoking. They did, then followed him home to confiscate his tobacco stash. Eventually, Alan asked to be baptized but passed away before it could happen. Vicariously, one of “Alan’s boys” was baptized in proxy for him.
- After the loss of their 2-year-old daughter, one bishop’s family surprisingly showed up to church the next day. The bishop had been prompted the night before to sit between his priests at the sacrament table, instead of between his counselors. In due course, the bishop knelt with those priests and spoke to His Father the sacramental prayers. Eventually, this bishop and his wife testified that they have experienced the promised blessings of the sacrament, that they do “have his Spirit to be with them” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79).
From the footnotes
- 2. In his seminal general conference address “Welcome to the Church of Joy,” Elder Patrick Kearon directed us in footnote 10 to President Gordon B. Hinckley‘s teaching: “When you, as a priest, kneel at the sacrament table and offer up the prayer, which came by revelation, you place the entire congregation under covenant with the Lord. Is this a small thing? It is a most important and remarkable thing” (“The Aaronic Priesthood — a Gift From God,” April 1988 general conference).
Additional resources
- Related image: “Deacon Passing the Sacrament”
- Related video: “Angels Restore the Priesthood”
- Related hymn: No. 1008, “Bread of Life, Living Water”
Recent conference talks on the youth of the Church
- Elder Gary E. Stevenson: “Days Never To Be Forgotten” (October 2024)
- Brother Bradley R. Wilcox: “O Youth of the Noble Birthright” (October 2024)
- Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus: “Faithful to the End” (April 2024)
Who is President Lund?
- President Steven J. Lund has served as Young Men general president since April 2020 and will be released in August 2025. After his mission, President Lund enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. At the time of his call to the Young Men presidency, President Lund was the executive chairman of the board of directors of Nu Skin Enterprises and a regent of the Utah System of Higher Education.
