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Helaman 1-6 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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This chapter or this set of chapters is quite frankly very
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difficult because you're going to see high and then low and
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then high and then low. It feels like you're on a roller
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coaster or a Ferris wheel is going around and around and
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around. What we see in the Book of
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Mormon that President Benson emphasized a lot in his teaching
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is the famous pride cycle. Now you've seen it, you've
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probably diagrammed it multiple times yourself.
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Let's, let's just get it on the board because that way it gives
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us a point of contact with this lesson.
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So at the top, we have prosperity.
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And when individuals and cultures prosper, it has the
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tendency, if we're not careful, to lead to pride being lifted up
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in the pride that makes us feel like we're we're somehow better
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than other people or that we don't need God anymore because
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we're so prosperous. Pride is the gateway sin,
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according to President Benson, so it always leads to greater
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sin. Sin always leads to some kind of
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destruction. Destruction will bring us down
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into sorrow and despair if we let it.
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That sorrow will lead us to greater humility.
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If we let that humility work in us, then it will lead us to
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repent of our sins. Whenever we repent, the Lord
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forgives us and He blesses us. Those blessings mount and grow
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and multiply, and it leads us to prosperity.
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And there we have it, the pride cycle.
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And you'll notice everything on the pride cycle is the opposite
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of that which is directly across from it.
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Pride and humility, sin and repentance, blessings and
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destruction, prosperity and sorrow.
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This is basically the entire lesson today and next week,
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actually, the the book of Helaman is over and over.
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It's going to literally feel like you've been on a Ferris
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wheel this whole book long. President Benson took this one
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step further to say that the book was written for our day,
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and that is you watch the patterns unfold among the
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Nephites and the Lamanites, he said.
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You will see events in our day unfolding leading up to the
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Second coming, just as these people are leading up to his
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first coming. You'll notice some general
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patterns in the Book of Alma. There's some pretty clearly
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defined borders between the Nephites and the Lamanites.
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It's pretty obvious. To tell who your enemy is, you
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open up the book of Helaman and two things happen.
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It shifts from these well defined borders, well defined
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enemy to you're not sure who you who your enemy is anymore.
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He could be standing right next to you and you didn't know it in
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in the book of Healmant. So the two adjustments that the
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devil makes is number one. He becomes more sneaky and more
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subtle than ever before in the Book of Mormon, but this is done
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internally among the Nephites through what we're going to be
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talking about today with the secret combinations.
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This enemy that is among you, that they're not wearing a
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uniform, they're not on their side of a border.
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It's you, just you don't know who they are.
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More sneaky and subtle internally, and he becomes more
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bold and brazen externally. So the Lamanites come in here.
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In chapter one, my good friend Rex Reeve pointed this out to me
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and this is amazing. For the first time ever, the
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Lamanites, they don't come to the outer cities.
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They come in quickly while the Nephites are distracted
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internally with some problems with secret combinations and
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they bring their army right into the capital city.
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First time in the history of the Book Mormon where the first
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attack is. They sneak their way in and
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boom, hit the capital city and take over the that city, kill
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the chief judge and then keep driving further to try to get to
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the land bountiful where they're finally defeated.
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This is the point as we get farther and or further and
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further into time towards the second coming, we're going to
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see our world mirroring and following the same pattern.
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And the farther into time we get, the the less we're looking
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beyond our borders to worry about fighting against evil and
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the more we're trying to figure out where all of the struggles
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are, not just externally, but internally.
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Let's pick it up now. In the actual text, go to
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chapter one, verse one. Now behold, it came to pass in
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the commencement of the 40th year of the reign of the Judges
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over the people of Nephite, there began to be a serious
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difficulty among the people of the Nephites.
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There's been a lot of periods of serious difficulty, but look
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what makes this different. Verse 2.
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Behold, Pahoran had died and gone the way of all the earth.
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Therefore, there began to be a serious contention concerning
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who should have the judgement seat among the brethren who were
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the sons of Pahoran. That's interesting.
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Can you imagine what it might be like to live in a society where
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there's actually serious contention and fighting and
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negativity regarding who's going to be your next government
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leader? I wonder if Mormon saw our day.
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And by the way, Chapter 2 is going to open up with the exact
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same thing, serious contention Ono, who's going to be our next
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leader. And it leads to this, this
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negativity and this real a deep divide among the people rather
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than a unifying thing. So in this first chapter, you
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get the three sons, Pehorn, Peonkai and Pecumeni.
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And they're all vying for this judgement seat.
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And the vote goes to Pehorn, which is fine.
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Pecumeni says, I lost the vote. And he gets in line, not
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Peonkai. Peonkai gets angry and he stirs
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up the people in verse seven. It's exceedingly wroth.
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And because of that, he's condemned unto death in verse 8.
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So those who would follow him, they get one named Kishkuman who
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goes and murders Pahorn while he's on the judgement seat.
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And it was done in secret. He was in disguise.
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And for the first time, we introduce officially in the Book
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of Mormon secret combinations. Let me share a thought here,
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back here in verse 3, These people who wanted power and
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authority in the Nephite civilization, they were the ones
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who did 'cause the people to contend.
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It invites us to ask ourselves, are we actually seeking peace,
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love, understanding, or are we driving contention?
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Are we driving misunderstanding? And I think it's significant
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that these three guys were causing the people to contend.
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And if you go back to King Benjamin's speech, he says the
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parents don't let your children contend with one another.
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Well, what if actually the parents actually caused the
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children to contend with one another?
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I mean, that's even worse. And in some ways, that's what
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the government leaders were doing.
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This is why it's so important in societies everywhere that people
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look first at the inner vessel and say, am I seeking to
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understand others? Am I seeking to be Christ like?
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And am I seeking to avoid contention?
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Now, look, we don't just sit around passively and get walked
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all over, you know, if somebody's going to try to, you
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know, ruin our world. But the idea here is that it is
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possible to prosperously find ways to get people in power who
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will, who will live righteously and rule righteously.
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But when the leaders are driving the contention, it creates
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enormous problems in society, because then people start
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choosing sides. And the last time we checked the
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scriptures, I don't think God ever had any sides except his
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side. I don't think he takes political
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sides. Something also interesting about
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Kishkuman, the first person to introduce secret combinations in
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the Book of Mormon is in the Jaredite record, a guy named A
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Kish. I think it's interesting that
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the first person to bring it into Nephite society was this
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guy named Kish Kuman. Now this is just my speculation.
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I just wonder, you know, if somehow Kish Kuman may have been
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part of one of the Jaredite descendants because even we have
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this guy named Corey Antomer later.
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And it's it may be possible that there were descendants of the
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Jaredites floating around who had access to these secret
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combinations that provided it. Of course, at the same time,
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Satan has a way of working with people and getting to your
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combinations into their hearts and minds.
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And let's also provide this idea.
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Secret Combinations is in contrast to Sacred Covenants.
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We've talked about this recently.
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Senior Combinations is all about being focused on yourself or
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Sacred Covenants is about being focused outward on others.
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Senior Combinations is all about serving yourself and to seek
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power at the expense of others. Where a Singer Covenants is
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about using your power to empower others that they can
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have lives of prosperity. So just a couple of things to
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consider as you look at what we are offered in the gospel.
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We are taught to bind ourselves into sacred covenants to serve
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one another, to love God, love your neighbor.
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Your combinations is hate God, hate your neighbor.
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So Chapter One concludes with this entry of the Lamanite army
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that we had talked about before, where they take over the capital
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city, they kill the chief judge and then they go north and then
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they finally get surrounded and that war ends, leaving us with a
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lot of problems. Chapter 2, verse one, it came to
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pass in the 40 and second year of the reign of the judges,
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after Moron Ihaw had established again peace between the Nephites
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and the Lamanites. Behold, there was no one to fill
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the judgement seat. Therefore, there began to be a
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contention again among the people concerning who should
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fill the judgement seat. And it came to pass that
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Healman, who was the son of Healman, was appointed to fill
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the judgement seat by the voice of the people.
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Now this group of Kishkuman, this group that we've been
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referring to as secret combinations, gets described in
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much greater detail in chapter two.
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Look at verse 4. There was one Gadianton who is
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exceedingly expert in many words and also in his craft to carry
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on the secret work of murder and of robbery.
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Therefore, he became the leader of the band of Kishkuman.
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That's why we call them the Gadianton Robbers for the rest
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of the Book of Mormon. And what are they robbing?
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It's not thievery. Robbery is all about
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insurrection and overthrowing political order, but yeah,
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they're robbing people of their lives and livelihoods.
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So check this out verse five. Therefore he did flatter them
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and also Kishkuman, that if they would place him in the judgement
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seat, he would grant unto those who belong to his band that they
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should be placed in power and authority among the people.
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Therefore, Kishkuman sought to destroy healmen.
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We're told multiple times that no righteous person has ever
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taken from this life before their mission is complete, or
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before their time. So it is with Heelman.
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His mission is not complete. So Kishkuman comes to to do the
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same thing he had done to Pahorn before.
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But the servant of Heelman saw him, recognized him somehow, had
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had enough knowledge of what was going on, gave him a secret sign
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he shared his desire. And at that point, Mormon pauses
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here to give you a nutshell definition of what it means when
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we say secret combinations. Look up verse 8.
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This is the simplest nutshell definition I can find for secret
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combinations. Notice what's involved when the
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servant of Helaman had known all the part of Kishkumen and how
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that it was his object to murder and it was also the object of
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all those who belong to this band to murder and to rob and to
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gain power. And this was all done in secret,
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not out in the open. So Taylor's talking about sacred
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covenants versus secret combinations.
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This is how Satan does his work in the dark, in the corners,
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under the cloak, in the guise of disguise, secretly going about
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to murder, to kill other people, to rob, in order for him to get
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game, to gain power and to gain things notice.
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And this was their secret plan and their combination.
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That's exactly what Satan did in heaven in the pre mortal war and
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he hasn't changed his strategy in all these years.
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In all the interim, he's still still trying to secretly destroy
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each of us, to steal from it, to rob from us, rob life, rob
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agency, rob everything from us in order for him to gain power
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over us. Secret combinations are alive
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and well in in many levels and in many layers today.
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And you then watch he the servant kills Kishkuman and then
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Gadiant and finds out is scared that he hasn't come back in
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time. So they flee before we can
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destroy that band. And look at verse 13.
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Behold, in the end of this book, he shall see that this Gadiant
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and did prove the overthrow. Yeah, almost the entire
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destruction of the people of Nephi.
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This one thing is going to be really, really critical in
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causing problems among the Nephites.
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Now we come into chapter 3 or in the 40 and 3rd year, there was
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no contention among the people of Nephi.
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So we've made our way through the pride cycle.
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There's no contention. There's there's a bit of
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prospering going on here. Uh oh, save it were a little
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pride which was in the church, which should cause some little
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dissensions among the people, which affairs were settled in
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the ending of the 40 and 3rd year.
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So we quickly made it through that one.
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Then verse two, there was no contention among the people in
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the 40 and 4th and the 40 and 5th.
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Verse 340 and 6th, there was much contention and many
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dissensions in the which there were an exceedingly great many
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who departed out of the land of Zarahemla and went forth under
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the land northward to inherit the land.
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You'll notice there's so much contention that this large group
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of people leaves. He doesn't even number them in
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this case. They just leave and they go
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northward. Where did they go?
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Verse four, they traveled to an exceedingly great distance, and
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so much that they came to large bodies of water and many rivers.
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So they just leave. They're up in the northward.
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They're doing their own thing. But our story stays down South
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in the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi in the land
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southward. Verse 14, there are 18 Ands in
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this verse, I'll just say it. Verse 14 is a terrible English
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sentence. It's one sentence, this whole
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verse, It's long, terrible English.
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If you were to turn this kind of writing in, in college, in a, in
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a writing class, you would flunk that English writing class.
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But if you look closely at it, it's beautiful in its ancient
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language aspects, especially a language like Egyptian, Reformed
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Egyptian, where they don't use any punctuation, where they use
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words instead of things like commas and and periods and
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exclamation marks. Look at verse 14.
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But behold, 100th part of the proceedings of this people.
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Yeah, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites
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and their wars and contentions and dissensions and their
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preaching and their prophecies and their shipping and their
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building of ships and their building of temples and of
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synagogues and their sanctuaries and their righteousness and
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their wickedness and their murders and their robbings and
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their plunderings and all manner of abominations and whoredoms
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cannot be contained in this work.
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Breathe terrible English, beautiful Egyptian and
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Hebrewisms in here in that this is not a record that was created
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by a farm boy in the 1820s. This is an ancient record that
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was translated by the gift and power of God into English.
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And all of the punctuation marks in this book that you can see,
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some people have made fun of them.
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Some people have made fun of the grammar in the Book of Mormon
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who would seek to tear down people's belief or faith in the
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book. It's interesting when anybody
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makes any kind of a judgement call regarding the punctuation.
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Keep in mind there was no punctuation on the plates.
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There was no punctuation on the original manuscript.
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It's John Gilbert, the printer's typesetter, who is the one who
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goes through the printer's manuscript and adds all the
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punctuation. And by the way, he really liked
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the semi colon. So don't make any judgement
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calls or any doctrinal decisions based on the placement of a
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punctuation mark in the Book of Mormon, because it's not
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prophetic. And I can just share a personal
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testimony about this. I've spent many years studying
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ancient Hebrew and many other ancient languages from the
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ancient Middle East and elsewhere.
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And the more I study those ancient languages, the more the
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English translation of the Book of Mormon makes sense in an
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ancient context and exactly what Tyler's pointed out.
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This reads super well to me from a ancient Hebrew, ancient
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Egyptian perspective, and I just think it's phenomenal.
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Joseph Smith is this uneducated farm boy.
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This is not his words. These are the words of God that
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he delivered to Joseph Smith to deliver to us.
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The Book of Mormon is indeed an authentic ancient witness of
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Jesus Christ. We know it is.
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And these are just a little icing on the cake to kind of
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demonstrate, Yep, you can take this seriously.
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Some of you may be thinking, oh, so I need to look for more of
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these Hebrewisms and, and these elements of, of the Reformed
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Egyptian in the text in order to really have a testimony.
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That's not our point. A testimony of the Lord Jesus
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Christ of his gospel, of his prophets, of his scriptures is
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born to our soul by the gift and power of God.
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The gift of the Holy Ghost, who helps through the power of the
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Holy Ghost helps us know in our heart to feel truth, to sense
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it. Once you have your testimony in
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place in your heart. Then and only then, when you get
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these kinds of head testimony things we've been talking about
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here, then it becomes validation verification.
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It becomes using our our study and also our faith to combine to
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help us recognize truth and to come under Christ.
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So now we get into the the rest of this chapter, watching this
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pride cycle continue to roll. It just continues to circle.
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So in chapter 3 verse 23, you get the beginning of the 49th
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year. There was continual peace.
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All save it were the secret combinations which Geddy on the
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Robber had established in the more settled parts of the land.
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So you've got this little canker that's just growing in the
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society. Look at verse 24 came to pass
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the in the same year there was exceedingly great prosperity in
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the church. So thousands joined the church.
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So now we're up here and now we're having incredible success.
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And the prosperity was so big that everybody was just amazed.
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Verse 26 Tens of thousands of souls were baptized and united
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themselves to the Church of God. And now Mormon pauses and throws
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in three. Thus we see kinds of statements
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in rapid succession. Thus we see that the Lord is
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merciful unto all, who will, in the sincerity of their hearts
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call upon His holy name. When we're humble and we repent,
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we call upon God. We turn to God, call upon His
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name, He's merciful, and we see it.
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Verse 28 Yeah. Thus we see that the gate of
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heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the
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name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
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You know, there there are a lot of ways to depict the gates of
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heaven. Some would depict them as, you
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know, swinging gates, some as gates of heaven.
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In my mind, you know what the gates of heaven look like?
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They look like the outstretched and open arms of the Almighty
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Son of God named Jesus Christ. That to me is the gates of
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heaven. They're open, His arms are
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opened wide, they're outstretched.
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They're inviting you. He is our gate.
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He is the door. He is the path, the way into
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heaven. It all comes through him and
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only him. Look at verse 29.
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Yeah, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of
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God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide us
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under all the cunning and the snares and the Wiles of the
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devil, and lead the man of Christ in a straight and narrow
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course across that everlasting gulf of misery which you're
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prepared to engulf the wicked. Now you think wonderful.
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It's great. Well, you just keep reading and
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I just keep cycling. Look at verse 33.
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It came to pass in the 50 and first year of the reign of the
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Judges, there was peace also, save a word, the pride, which
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began to enter into the church. Then Mormon pauses.
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He says, wait a minute, Pride didn't really enter into the
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church because pride can't enter into the church.
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Notice the correction that he makes.
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Not into the Church of God, but into the hearts of the people
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who professed to belong to the Church of God.
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So pride doesn't enter into the Church of God itself.
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It enters into the people who profess to belong to the church.
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It's a problem with people. Nevertheless, verse 35, they did
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fast and pray often, did wax stronger and stronger in their
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humility and firmer and firmer in their faith under the filling
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of their souls with joy and consolation.
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So while some are headed in a bad direction, others are
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noticing that and it's causing them.
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This doesn't have to be collective.
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You don't have to be a victim of the society or your culture or
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your environment. Individuals can choose to do
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their own version of this pride cycle.
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What you're noticing right here, in a roundabout sort of a way,
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no pun intended, this is what you might call a terrestrial
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lifestyle. A terrestrial person is going to
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go, they're, they're never really good and they're never
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really bad. They're, they're good, honorable
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people who get blinded by the craftiness of men and maybe
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learn from that and fix things. And this is a terrestrial cycle
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where you've got good and bad all mixed in together and it
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keeps, keeps rotating through. Later on in the Book of Mormon,
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in the last part of 4th Nephi and then into that smaller book
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called the Book of Mormon, you're going to see something
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shift because the people are going to experience destruction
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and sorrow. And instead of that sorrow
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leading them to humility, it's actually going to lead them to
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greater pride, which leads them to deeper sin, further
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destruction and worse sorrow, which leads them to more pride.
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What you see in Mormon chapters one through 6 is a spiral
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downward. They never come over into here.
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There was one time where he's like, oh good, they're, they're
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getting humble and they're going to repent.
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Oh, never mind. They're not humble.
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They're not sorrowing and turning to God.
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They're soaring because they can't be happy in their
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wickedness. And they got worse and worse and
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worse and worse until they come down.
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This is the telestial cycle or slide.
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Brothers and sisters, we're not a victim to any of this.
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You, you don't have to wait for this to happen to you.
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What's the trick? The trick is right here.
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Instead of getting into prosperous times and having that
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somehow puff us up and make us feel like, Oh well, I'm smarter
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than her and I'm richer than him and I have more of whatever it
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is. Instead of getting puffed up in
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pride, what happens if a person or a family or a culture says,
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dear God on high, I didn't deserve this level of
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prosperity? Thanks, I'm very grateful.
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What do I need to do to use this prosperity to keep sacred
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covenants and to turn outward and lift and bless and help
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other people around me? How can I become more like
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Jesus? How can I become an instrument
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in my hands if a people, if a family, if a ward, a stake, if
26:55
we as a collective church, if we as as a nation, as as human
27:01
beings on the planet all did that, it would lead us to repent
27:06
at a more refined level. God would bless us with an
27:09
outpouring of more things than we would have room to receive,
27:14
and our prospering would get astronomically high.
27:18
And it would become this spiral staircase.
27:21
This is the celestial cycle. We don't have to be a victim of
27:27
the pride cycle and we definitely don't have to fall
27:31
into the telestial slide. We can choose to walk the High
27:35
Road. And the trick is what do you do
27:39
when you're prospering? What do you do when you're
27:42
things are going well as well as what do you do when you're
27:45
struggling? Now the rest of this this
27:48
concept from chapter 3 leading into four and culminating with
27:53
five. Watch this.
27:55
So you're in chapter 3, verse 37.
27:59
It came to pass in the 30 and 30 year of the reign of the judges,
28:01
Helaman died and then his eldest son Nephi began to reign in his
28:05
stead. And it came to pass that he did
28:07
fill the judgement seat with justice and equity, and he did
28:11
keep the commandments of God and did walk in the ways of his
28:13
father. You'll notice he gets the
28:14
judgement seat. He's going to be prospering now.
28:17
He's got power, He's got authority.
28:19
It would be very easy for him to pat himself on the back and say
28:22
I'm better than everybody else and fall into pride and sin and
28:26
destruction. But he doesn't.
28:28
He walks in the commandments of God.
28:29
He's showing us a pattern of what it means or what it looks
28:33
like to follow the celestial cycle rather than the pride
28:38
cycle. And let's just remind everybody
28:40
these two phrases here. Keeping the commandments of God
28:43
is also a covenantal phrase. The commandments are how we show
28:47
our love and loyalty to God in a covenantal relationship.
28:50
And a way of expressing that also is walking the ways of his
28:54
Father who is righteous. And when you walk, you're like
28:57
walking on the covenant path. So when we see these phrases, we
29:01
see them all over scriptures. You can also see them as
29:04
covenantal phrases to remind us when we are in sacred covenantal
29:09
bonds and relationship with God. We could express it as keeping
29:13
the commandments and walking the ways of God, or walking the ways
29:16
of righteous parents. So here you are in chapter 4
29:21
came to pass that in the 50 and 4th year there were many
29:24
dissensions in the church and there was also a contention when
29:27
the people insomuch that there was much bloodshed.
29:31
So the society, the culture, there's this unrest in this this
29:36
difficulty in this contention that gets to the point where now
29:39
there's bloodshed going on. Verse 2 on the rebellious part
29:43
were slain and driven out of the land and they did go unto the
29:45
king of the Lamanites. So they stir up the Lamanites.
29:49
And it's, it's interesting to me that Mormon spend so little
29:53
column space on this, but for the first time in the Book of
29:56
Mormon, you get wide scale defeat, like wide scale defeat
30:02
among the Nephites. And Mormon doesn't give you
30:04
much, much detail here. All he tells you is that in
30:09
verse five in the 15th and 7th year, they did come down against
30:12
Nephites to battle. They did commence the work of
30:14
death and in that 15 eighth year they succeeded in obtaining
30:18
possession of the land of Zarahemla.
30:19
Yeah, all of the lands, even unto the land which was near the
30:23
land Bountiful. So they have taken over all of
30:26
these cities in the land of Zarahemla all the way up to
30:31
Bountiful. That's pretty drastic.
30:34
Things are terrible. Now, we talked just a moment ago
30:39
about the critical point being, what do you do when you're
30:42
prospering? That's a turning point.
30:44
That's a decision point that helps us stay on the covenant
30:47
path, on a celestial path, by becoming more humble.
30:52
Well, the other extreme is also an incredibly important deciding
30:58
factor in the kind of people we're going to be.
31:01
It's what do you do when everything's going terribly
31:05
wrong? I love CS Lewis's writings, and
31:09
one of my favorites of his books is the screw Tape letters.
31:13
Really quickly overview. Screw Tape is a powerful devil.
31:18
He's pretty high up in the hierarchy of of devils.
31:22
Actually. In hell, I guess it would be.
31:24
He was pretty low down in the lower archy of devils.
31:28
He has a nephew named Wormwood who has a patient, a fellow in
31:34
England during World War Two, who he's trying to tempt, trying
31:37
to destroy his soul. Wormwood is being trained by
31:41
Screw Tape, hence the name of the book, The Screw Tape
31:43
Letters. So Uncle Screw Tape is writing
31:46
these letters to his nephew to teach him about human beings.
31:51
CS Lewis said it was the hardest book he ever wrote because he
31:56
said he had to think diabolically and it was hard
31:59
work. At one point in the Screw Tape
32:02
Letters, Screw Tape writes one particular epistle to Wormwood
32:09
because Wormwood is excited. He thinks I've got my guy.
32:12
He's in the depths of despair and he's crying out and God's
32:16
not answering him. And in this particular letter,
32:20
Screw Tape introduces us to this idea of undulation.
32:26
He teaches Wormwood and us about our own human condition.
32:31
He said human beings are dual natured, spirit and flesh.
32:36
And he said everything humans experience goes through cycles.
32:42
They have ups and they have downs.
32:45
It's the law of undulation. In all aspects of our life, we
32:50
experience highs and lows. Brothers and sisters, anyone,
32:55
anyone can be good on a mountain peak of of energy and
33:01
spirituality and light and truth and prosperity.
33:05
This is a critical point to not choose to become prideful that
33:10
we talked about before, but to choose to become humble.
33:14
The other point is what happens here and here?
33:19
What are the decisions we make? It's here where screw tape tells
33:24
Wormwood. Oh, be careful, because our
33:28
cause is never more in peril or never more in danger than when a
33:33
human being finds themselves in a through of life.
33:36
They cry out to the wide universe around them, to God for
33:42
help. He doesn't respond.
33:44
They look everywhere and they can't find any trace of him.
33:48
He's he's not talking to them. He's not filling them with light
33:53
and comfort and truth and relationships at that time.
33:59
And he says, and still they choose to obey him.
34:04
That's when the greatest damage is done to the work of the
34:06
devils. I think that's extremely
34:09
insightful because you see this over and over in the Scriptures.
34:13
And he goes on in that letter to say God uses this technique over
34:17
and over with his favorites, people who he's trying to shape
34:21
the most. He lets them go through deep,
34:24
dark troughs that last way longer than they think they
34:28
should, but they continue to obey.
34:31
And that's where the greatest character development and growth
34:34
comes in life. That's what we see in the Book
34:37
of Mormon with Nephi and Lehi and these chapters coming up.
34:43
You've got everything going wrong.
34:46
You've got it. It seems like the whole world is
34:49
falling apart on us. Look at verse chapter 4, verse
34:52
11. Now this great loss of the
34:54
Nephites in the great slaughter which was among them would not
34:56
have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their
34:59
abomination which was among them.
35:01
Yeah, and it was among those who also professed to belong to the
35:05
Church of God. And it was because of the pride
35:07
of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, because
35:11
of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the
35:14
hungry, with withholding their clothing from the naked, and
35:17
smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of
35:20
that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of
35:23
revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing,
35:25
committing adultery, rising up in great contentions and
35:28
deserting away into the land of Nephi among the Lamanites.
35:31
All these things are happening. So what do you do?
35:35
Well, instead of giving up and turning away from God and
35:40
saying, well, I'm not even going to try anymore.
35:43
Nephi and Lehi in chapter 5, they say, let's be obedient,
35:49
let's be diligent, let's be faithful and we're going to move
35:52
forward. Chapter 5 is this beautiful
35:58
example for us today of what to do when you find yourself in a
36:03
through of life. They remembered since they can't
36:07
see the light and the truth, so to speak in in the world around
36:11
them, they cast their mind back to some things.
36:15
And what does their mind go back to?
36:17
Things that they learned at home with beautiful teachings from
36:20
parents. Look at chapter 5 and you'll
36:24
notice a word that gets repeated 15 times in 10 verses starting
36:30
in verse 5. Remember.
36:31
Remember. Yeah, we've talked about this in
36:34
past lessons that remember means to put members back together.
36:39
It's putting memories back together and in a covenantal
36:42
context. It's remembering all the great
36:45
deeds that God has done for you, all his mercy, his acts of
36:48
grace. If we connect it to Moroni's
36:51
grand promise in Moroni chapter 10, he tells us, remember all
36:57
the mercy that God has provided to humanity throughout all of
37:00
human history. And after you've done that, then
37:03
ask him if this is not true. So when we remember all that God
37:08
has done for us and all of us have experienced tremendous
37:11
moments of God's outpouring, you may not feel it right now, but
37:15
if you remember, you will be able to find times in your
37:18
memory when God blessed your life, when you knew He was real.
37:23
And when you remember those things, it brings it back to the
37:25
present. And it is encouraging to us to
37:29
be faithful to God and it motivates our actions to stay
37:33
true and faithful on the covenant path.
37:36
And So what it does is like we had these incredible moments.
37:39
We might be down here in the through.
37:42
We got to remember that this was real and we can have it again
37:45
through the power of God. And let me just take one more
37:48
minute to talk about the names of these men.
37:51
Actually focus primarily just on Nephi.
37:55
So two LDS scholars, John Gee and Matt Bowen, have done some
38:00
research in Egyptian and discovered that the word Nephi
38:05
seems to be an ancient Egyptian name for a man.
38:09
That comes from the word that means good, lovely, beautiful or
38:15
desirable. And what I want you to look at
38:18
is if you think back into first Nephi when he beginning of the
38:21
Book of Mormon, he says I Nephi having been born of Nephi
38:26
parents, goodly parents. When Nephi talks about the tree
38:29
of life, he talks about how beautiful the tree was and how
38:32
desirable the fruit was in an Egyptian context, he would have
38:36
been using his own name to talk about the love of God.
38:38
And if you look here in the, if we could put this back in the
38:42
original Egyptian, what we'd be hearing is that Helaman is
38:47
saying to his sons, I want you to be good.
38:50
And when you remember your name, you'll remember the good they
38:54
did and that you will desire to also do good.
38:58
Now, I'm going to put that in contrast to the counterexample
39:02
to Nephi, and that name is Lehman.
39:05
And this proposal recently was suggested by again Matt Bowen,
39:09
an incredible Book of Mormon scholar in the religion
39:12
department at BYU Hawaii. He proposed this word layman may
39:17
come from 2 words in Hebrew la Amen.
39:22
Now we say this word all the time after every prayer and
39:24
talk. Amen is a Hebrew word that means
39:28
belief or truth. Law in Semitic languages means
39:34
no or not. So if this proposal is correct,
39:38
layman's name actually is a symbol of his life not
39:43
believing. And we will see that Nephi and
39:47
Lehi son Sehiliman go among those who do not believe and
39:52
teach them. And this chapter is beautiful
39:54
because it tells us we need to remember the good, remember the
39:57
love of God and his beauty, and that we should desire these
40:00
things and not fall into that pride cycle of not believing.
40:05
When we're down here, we might choose to not believe the
40:09
beautiful moments of salvation we've experienced in our lives.
40:13
We shouldn't be a layman. We shouldn't be a non believer.
40:16
We should choose, even in the moments of difficulty, to choose
40:19
to remember the good, the lovely, the beautiful, the
40:23
desirable. These low points of life, they
40:28
don't just happen to random people, they happen to everyone.
40:32
Everyone goes through undulations of life.
40:35
When upon life life's billows, you are Tempest tossed when you
40:39
are discouraged thinking all is lost.
40:42
Count your many blessings, name them one by one and it will
40:47
surprise you what the Lord has done.
40:49
That's the one of the the principles that we can apply
40:53
from this to remember God's goodness, remember His mercy.
40:58
So rather than spending tons of time on all of these remember
41:01
passages starting in verse 5, let's just pick up two of the
41:04
verses. Go to verse 90.
41:05
Remember, remember my son's, the words which King Benjamin speak
41:08
unto his people. Yeah.
41:09
Remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be
41:14
saved only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ who shall
41:19
come. Yeah, Remember that he cometh to
41:21
redeem the world. And I might just throw in here
41:25
if you want to talk law of undulation.
41:27
Undulation finds its infinite fulfillment in the life and
41:31
especially in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
41:35
You want to talk about a through of life with infinite
41:39
proportions. Then you talk about death and
41:42
hell being descended into by Jesus himself and being faithful
41:49
throughout that process. Even though he cried out in
41:53
Gethsemane for the cup to pass from him, it didn't pass from
41:57
him. He tread the winepress alone.
42:01
I love the fact, by the way, that Elder Holland said that he
42:04
gave. It is his opinion that never was
42:06
the Father closer to the Son than at those moments through
42:10
that atoning sacrifice, especially culminating on the
42:12
cross. Now go to verse 12.
42:16
Now my sons, remember, remember. Now notice three names or titles
42:21
of Jesus here. That is upon the rock of our
42:25
Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God.
42:29
The one who's going to redeem is the Christ.
42:32
The anointed one is also the Son of God.
42:35
It's upon him that you must build your foundation.
42:38
It's not a foundation built upon scriptures.
42:40
It's not a foundation built upon a church or a government or a
42:43
club or an organization or A cause in this world, or the
42:48
prophet himself. The foundation is rooted in
42:52
Christ, Christ the Lord. That's it, the Son of God, that
42:56
when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, notice you
43:01
could circle the word when he didn't say that if the devil
43:05
shall send forth his mighty winds, it's when it's going to
43:11
happen. We're going to face opposition.
43:13
And notice it's not when you're going to face the devil's gentle
43:17
breezes. It's when the devil shall send
43:20
forth his mighty winds. Yeah, his shafts in the world
43:24
wind. Yeah, when all his hail and
43:28
mighty storm shall beat upon you.
43:32
It shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of
43:37
misery and endless woe. Why?
43:39
Because of the rock upon which you are built, which is a sure
43:43
foundation. A foundation whereon if there's
43:46
your if, if men build, they cannot fall.
43:50
It's not they're less likely to fall or they're probably going
43:54
to survive. It's they cannot fall.
43:57
I build my life on the rock of our Redeemer.
43:59
And then however many of these troughs come along, I can't
44:03
fall. I won't be dragged down to the
44:05
gulf of misery and endless woe because of that rock upon which
44:08
I'm built. And there's an interesting thing
44:11
about storms, especially violent storms like the ones that
44:15
Healman is describing to his two boys here.
44:18
Violent storms don't last forever.
44:21
They come, they hit with a vengeance and a fury, but then
44:25
they pass, and it came to pass. They don't keep blowing forever.
44:29
When's the best time to build your foundation upon the rock of
44:33
the Redeemer? I think if Elder Uchtdorf were
44:36
here, he would say, when's the best time to plant a tree?
44:39
20 years ago, second best time today.
44:42
Best time to build a foundation 20 years ago, Second best time
44:47
today. I love verse 12 because it roots
44:50
us in the most important element that we keep coming back to over
44:54
and over, and we're never going to tire of coming back to Him
44:58
over and over again. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
45:01
only solution. He's our only answer.
45:03
He's our only hope. In all of these struggles, in
45:06
the undulations, whether we're on a mountain peak, in a through
45:10
or somewhere in between, Jesus is the only solution that we
45:15
have. Now at this point, Nephi and
45:18
Lehi in the midst of a very, very wicked society, they say
45:24
we're not going to try to push the the Lamanites out because
45:27
the Lamanites have taken over the land of Zarahemlah.
45:29
So instead they go and start teaching the gospel and in the
45:33
process you'll notice verse nineteen, 8000 of the Lamanites
45:38
were convinced of the error of their ways and of their
45:42
wickedness and they get baptized.
45:44
Then they go on a mission down to serve in the land of Nephi
45:48
among the Lamanites and they get thrown in prison.
45:52
Chapter 5 is sweet because these men come into the prison to kill
45:56
them and you get this beautiful voice in verse 28.
46:01
They were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness and an awful
46:04
solemn fear came upon them. And it came to pass that there
46:07
came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness, saying,
46:10
repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants
46:15
whom I have sent unto you to declare good tidings.
46:19
So these men have this incredible experience.
46:22
They hear the voice three times. You turn the page over, you get
46:25
the wonderful story with a minidab in 39.
46:28
And the Lamanites, they're turning to him in verse 40
46:31
saying, what shall we do? What do we do?
46:37
And his response, verse 41, I hope you can hear a minidab's
46:40
voice echoing through the corridor of time into your own
46:44
home in verse 41. You must repent and cry unto the
46:49
voice yet, until you shall have faith in Christ, who was taught
46:53
unto you by Alma and Emilich and Zezrim.
46:56
So they did that. The cloud passes, they're
46:59
circled by fire, and then they hear a voice again.
47:02
Look at the difference in verse 47.
47:04
Peace, Peace be unto you because of your faith in my well beloved
47:09
who was from the foundation of the world.
47:12
This is the turning point that Taylor was talking about, the
47:16
the crossover point where all of a sudden the Lamanites actually
47:20
become more righteous, more goodly, way more believing than
47:26
the Nephites as a whole. This is the shift.
47:29
This is the turning point where Nephi and Lehigh's mission and
47:33
experience in this group of Lamanites who were preserved,
47:35
they go around and start teaching and it becomes
47:38
incredible. You go to chapter 6 and now you
47:41
have Lamanites preaching to wicked Nephites.
47:45
You're going to watch just for fun.
47:47
You can take our pride cycle and you could go through chapter 6
47:52
and just identify as you go through the verses how many
47:56
times they go through the pride cycle in one chapter.
48:00
You'll notice in 3435 and 36, Mormon, as he's worked through
48:05
elements of this pride cycle and secret combinations, he throws
48:09
in three more. Thus we seize verse 34.
48:12
Thus we see that the Nephites did begin to dwindle on in
48:14
belief and growing wickedness and abominations, while the
48:17
Lamanites began to grow exceedingly in the knowledge of
48:21
their God. Yeah, they did begin to keep his
48:23
statutes and commandments into walking truth and uprightness
48:25
before him. Point being, you don't have to
48:28
wait for people around you to choose the celestial cycle you
48:34
today, this moment and choose to become more humble.
48:39
Turn to God and say not my will but thine be done.
48:43
What do you need me to do? And some of you watching today
48:47
are on a mountain peak of revelation and prosperity and
48:50
peace. Some of you watching today have
48:54
been in a through of lifeway longer than you thought you were
48:57
capable of of enduring in in faith.
49:00
And others of you are somewhere in between going in on on this
49:05
path of life. The point being, wherever you
49:08
are, humility, repentance, faith in Christ, turning to God,
49:14
that's always the answer that's going to lead to greater
49:16
blessings. And it's not a matter of pushing
49:18
buttons. It's a matter of pushing
49:20
yourself and causing yourself to turn to God and swallow up your
49:27
will in His will. Look at verse 35.
49:30
Thus we see that the Spirit of the Lord began to withdraw from
49:32
the Nephites because of the wickedness in the hardness of
49:34
their hearts. And thus we see that the Lord
49:37
began to pour out His Spirit upon the Lamanites because of
49:40
their easiness and willingness to believe in His words.
49:44
This isn't rocket science. I can do this better today than
49:48
I've ever done it before, and you can do this better today.
49:51
We can turn to God in humility. President Ezra Taft Benson said
49:56
God will have a humble people. Either we can choose to be
50:00
humble or we can wait for God to humble us.
50:04
In closing, we know that life is hard.
50:08
We know that the Book of Mormon was written for our day.
50:12
Mormon saw some things that were happening in our society and our
50:16
culture and our time today, and he included things in the Book
50:19
of Mormon. As we get closer and closer to
50:22
that day when the Lord will return, we're getting closer and
50:26
closer in the Book of Mormon to the day when Christ will
50:29
manifest himself among the Nephites.
50:31
And it shouldn't surprise us to live in a world with wheat and
50:35
wheat and tares, that those wheat and tares are growing
50:39
together simultaneously. That it's not just a
50:41
dispensation of the fullness of times for righteousness.
50:44
It's a dispensation of the fullness of times for
50:47
wickedness, and it's growing side by side.
50:50
And we shouldn't be shocked when we see wickedness and
50:54
righteousness both increasing. Let's choose the celestial
50:57
staircase that leads us constantly closer to our Lord
51:02
and Savior Jesus Christ. We know He lives and we know He
51:05
loves us. Even though you don't always
51:07
hear His voice or see His hand, He's there and you're never
51:12
forsaken. And we leave that with you.
51:13
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.