Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 31-33 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

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2 Nephi 31-33 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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So patterns are everywhere in the world, and we think in
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patterns and we actually understand the world when we see
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the patterns around us. And I want to share with you a
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word that you're all familiar with, but may have not seen it
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in the way that we're going to talk about.
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So I do a lot of writing and I use a software called Word.
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And in Word, it actually has templates for types of different
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writing projects I might want to use.
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And those templates are patterns that guide me to do things in a
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certain way and to actually avoid mistakes that might be
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very common in a particular project.
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A template is a pattern that shows us a model for how to do
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something, and I love that the Word template comes from the
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same word, temple. And a temple is a place where we
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go to experience God's patterns for life.
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He shows us how we can live and how we can align our lives to
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what he's expecting so we can find our way back in the
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presence of of him. So when you go to the temple,
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when you think about the temple, think about what is God teaching
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me? What patterns is he revealing?
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How can I put my life into alignment with the template that
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he's putting there? Tyler's going to walk through
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these chapters with us and show how Nephi teaches us the gospel
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through patterns through a temple pattern.
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In second Nephi 31, we are told by Nephi that he's basically
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done. I'm finished, I can only write a
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few more things and everything that I've written up through
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chapter 30 right before this. In our our current version 30.
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He says it suffices me verse two, save it be a few words
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which I must speak concerning the doctrine of Christ.
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You'll notice he says I I'm done.
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I've I've written everything that I need to write except for
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I need to write a few more things concerning the doctrine
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of Christ. Now if you pop down to verse 21,
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turn the page over, you'll notice that halfway through that
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verse he says he's basically given you the doctrine of
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Christ. About 5 lines from the bottom,
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he says, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ and the only
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and true doctrine of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
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Ghost, which is 1 God. Amen.
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So if you connect these, it becomes this, this neat little
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bookend technique that ancient writers used all the time when
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they were giving you definitions or clarifying something.
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So a lot of people are familiar with the word chiasmus because
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Jack Welch made that famous about 50 years ago in the Book
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of Mormon. And it's that literary, ancient
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literary structure that is shaped like this because it's
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shaped like part of an X, which chi is the Greek letter for X.
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So it's chi asmus. Most are familiar with that.
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Here is another one of those kinds of ancient literary
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techniques that's all over the place in the Bible and in the
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ancient world, but you'll also find it all over the place in
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the bookwormon. They call it inclusio, which is
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the same meaning for inclusion. And what that technique is, is
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if you're going to give a definition, make sure that you
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clearly demarcate where you're starting your definition and
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where you're ending it. Jesus is going to do this in 3rd
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Nephi 27. Nephi does it here, You're going
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to find it these these inclusio bookends in all kinds of
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different places where they start things and end things.
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So if you want to know what the doctrine of Christ is, you'll
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look in here ironically. Actually in this particular case
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Nephi is going to give you a little sub extension to the
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closing in chapter 32 verse 6 where he says behold, this is
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the doctrine of Christ. So you get 2 closers and one
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opener. So there you go.
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Now with that foundation, let's dive in and look at the doctrine
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of Christ. But Nephi tells you he's going
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to speak in plainness, so he's he's going to just lay it out in
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plainness. We're not going to cover all of
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the details He describes in chapter 31 Why Jesus, the Lamb
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of God, would have to be baptized because he was holy.
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He gives you that description. You can look for all of the
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reasons that he gives down through verse 10.
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Now something fascinating happens in verse 11.
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And the Father said, repent ye, repent ye, be baptized in the
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name of my beloved Son. That's interesting because
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Nephi's sitting here writing and all of a sudden he says, oh, and
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the Father said so. Does that mean he's quoting the
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Father from some scriptural source?
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Look at verse 12. And also the voice of the Son
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came unto me, saying, He that is baptized in my name to him will
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the Father give the Holy Ghost the opening part of the doctrine
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of Christ? Is Nephi getting words from both
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the Father and the Son. If that's all we got, we would
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say, OK, I think he's listening to both the Father and the Son
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speak to him, But look at what happens as you turn the page
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over. Look at verse 14.
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But behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son
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unto me, saying, So now he's going to hear the voice of the
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Son again. And then verse 15.
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And I heard a voice from the Father saying, yeah, the words
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of my beloved are true and faithful.
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He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
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Brothers and sisters, Nephi has spent his whole life here.
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He is towards the end of his life.
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He's old. He knows he's done writing after
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these these concepts are finished.
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And he's been listening to the voice of the Spirit his whole
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life. And now here towards the end,
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he's being able to distinguish the voice of the Son speaking to
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him, and the voice of the Father and recording those, Oh, and by
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the way, the voice of the Father in scriptures.
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If you look at all of the times when we know for sure that it's
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the Father speaking, and especially when he's introducing
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the Son, there's one word that is more commonly repeated in all
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of those scriptures than any other that I can find.
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And that word is Beloved. He's a God of love, and he, as
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he introduces His Son, he introduces him in every case as
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the Beloved Son. We know that Jesus is fully
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aware of the fact that Heavenly Father loves Him, but how do you
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think it makes even Him feel when he hears the Father
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repeatedly tell people how much He loves the Son of His?
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If we want to be more like the Lord, we might want to spend
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more time verbalizing that love for others.
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That's just a little side note. Let's play a really quick game
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of Pictionary. I'm going to Draw Something on
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the board. I can't play because I know what
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the answer is, right? OK, yeah, you can't give any any
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cheat here. A window.
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Any guesses yet might help if we do that.
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OK, what we have here is the ancient Tabernacle.
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This is an insight that I first heard shared in an in service
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many many years ago up at the Logan Institute by Brother Shank
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and I've loved this ever since and and thought through it and
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and it's just a gift that just keeps on giving.
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Nephi is going to teach us the doctrine of Christ, but he's
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coming out of a context of Jerusalem with Solomon's temple
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up on Mount Moriah. And Solomon's temple is built
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after the manner of the Tabernacle in ancient Israel
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with Moses. So watch what happens, as Taylor
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was saying there. The word temple is a template,
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there's a pattern, and you fit all these symbols into this
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pattern. The Gospel of Jesus Christ fits
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all together. Its teachings aren't different
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than its practices. If you figure out how they're
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they're all coming together, and symbolically, they find
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beautiful manifestations. So watch what happens here just
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really quickly. Orientation wise, the outer
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courtyard is a nice symbol for the telestial Kingdom, the inner
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court, which in the temple is different than the Tabernacle
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because this is a tent. This part right here is an
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enclosed tent. This is called the Holy Place.
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This is called the Holy of Holies.
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So this is a nice symbol representation for a terrestrial
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Kingdom. And here is the presence of God
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with the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat.
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And so you get this progression in the gospel of Jesus Christ
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that is taking you from the world in through progressively
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ascending and increasing capacities until you can walk
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back into the presence of the Father.
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That's the whole point of a temple experience, The temple.
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The template is how to become like God and how to come into
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His presence. Look now at chapter 31, verse
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13. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
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I know that if you shall follow the Son with full purpose of
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heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but
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with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the
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Father that you're willing to take upon you the name of Christ
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by baptism, by following your Lord and your Savior down into
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the water, then you shall receive the Holy Ghost.
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Then come with the baptism of firing of the Holy Ghost.
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And then can you speak with the tongue of angels as you look at
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this, anytime you get into symbolism again it's layered and
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and this isn't intended to close your mind off to only one
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interpretation, and nothing else is valid.
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It's to say this is 1 angle to look at the doctrine of Christ.
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There are many other wonderful and valid angles as well, so
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we're just going to work with this one for a minute.
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The altar of sacrifice is a beautiful symbol in many
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respects of what it means to really repent, to sacrifice
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something and consume it on this altar, the Laver.
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I get it that it's not a A in the Tabernacle context.
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It's not a baptismal font, but it's a place where the priests
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could wash and become clean in order to enter into the Holy
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Place and perform their priestly functions.
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Now you're noticing that repentance and baptism then
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cometh the gift of the Holy Ghost.
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Well, the light of the seven candles on the menorah, the
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Candelabra, is in many respects a nice analogy to the lamp unto
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our feet, the Holy Ghost being this light that is given to us.
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So we can now enter the tent and get that the gift of the Holy
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Ghost. As we've worked through this
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process, you're noticing that we're missing faith in the Lord
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Jesus Christ in the first principles and ordinances.
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I would say there's a nice symbol for that right here.
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Faith in Christ is what brings us to the altar to repent.
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Notice we have faith in Christ. We don't check it at the door.
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We bring it from that outer gate, We repent.
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We get baptized, then we get the gift of the Holy Ghost.
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Notice this. Go to verse 17.
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Wherefore do the things which I've told you that I've seen,
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that your Lord and your Redeemer should do for this cause?
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Have they been shown unto me that you might know the gate by
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which you should enter? For the gate by which you should
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enter is repentance and baptism by water.
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Then cometh the remission of your sins by fire and by the
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Holy Ghost. Often I think we put so much
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emphasis on the cleansing nature of water that we get this idea
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that we are baptized and now we're fully cleansed and we're
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fully forgiven. Nephi seems to be telling us
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here that after we've repented and gotten baptized, then cometh
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the remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.
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It's the two stage cleansing process and you need both of
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them in order to be completely forgiven.
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Now notice verse 18 then Are ye in this straight and narrow path
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which leads to eternal life? Brothers and sisters, I don't
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know about you, but in the English I learned as a kid
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growing up, I would have never in a million years used the
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preposition in when referring to a path.
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If I'm on my way somewhere, I would never say I'm in the path.
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To the why. Up on the mountain here in
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Provo, I'm in the path. I would never say that.
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I would say I'm on the path. So makes you wonder if if
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there's a mistake here, right? Notice verse 19.
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And now, my beloved brethren, after you've gotten into this
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straight and narrow path, so it looks like it wasn't a mistake,
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it looks like Nephi's serious about this word, that it's in
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and into a path, not on and onto the path.
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Now, the only way that in my mind I can reconcile that is if
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the path is symbolized by something that is actually
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inside something. The gate by which you enter into
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the path, Then are ye in the path, brothers and sisters, the
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holy place is the straight and narrow path.
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In this symbolic interpretation, when you get baptized, you are
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entering into a covenant with God, and you're entering into
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the Kingdom of God on the earth. This room right here, it's
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totally enclosed in the Tabernacle.
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You are in the straight and narrow way.
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You're in this path, and when you get baptized today, you
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enter into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the
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Kingdom of God on the earth. This Holy place is a nice symbol
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for the church itself. So people who say no, I can go
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and connect with God better in nature than going and gathering
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with the Saints. It's this idea of there is
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something that takes place in the holy place that is the
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covenant path. It's the straight and narrow
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path. And I have to gather here in
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order to really keep progressing.
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Here's the problem for some they they have faith, they repent.
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They get baptized, they get the gift to the Holy Ghost.
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They come up to the veil. This curtain, this veil is
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covered with angels. It's here at the altar of
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incense, where they pray, They knock.
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You knock on at the veil to try to get in to the presence of
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God. You make your requests.
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The smoke is ascending off of that.
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That altar of incense in front of the veil, symbolic of all of
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the prayers and the desires and the and the heartfelt goals of
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these people ascending in front of the presence of God just on
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the other side of that curtain. Now you've said your prayers,
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you're pleading, you're knocking, you come over to the
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table of showbread, and it's there where you have 12 loaves
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of unleavened bread. Rabbinical tradition says that
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there's also a pitcher of wine there, and this gets replaced
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every week. You feast on the words.
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You, you read your scriptures, you read your patriarchal
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blessing, You listen to general conference.
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You feast on the words of the Lord wherever they can be
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brought into your life. Then you walk by the light of
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the Spirit, seeking His guidance.
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You pray, you read your scriptures some more.
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You go to church and you keep going.
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And after a while, some members of the church feel like they're
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just going in circles and they feel like, Why do I have to have
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another lesson on this topic? Why do I need to go to the
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temple again? I don't get anything out of it.
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Some people will say, what happens if you take your camera
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angle from here and go down to here and watch what's happening.
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People come. They repent with faith.
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They get baptized. They receive the gift of the
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Holy Ghost. They enter into the Holy Place,
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the straight and narrow path, the Church of Jesus Christ of
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Latter Day Saints. They then begin this process.
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And yes, they are indeed going in circles.
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They're definitely going in circles.
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But the point, brothers and sisters, is you're having
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another lesson on faith, or you're having another lesson on
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charity, or you're having another lesson on temple work.
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For the 100th time, you're having a lesson, but you're
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having that lesson now from a higher level, a higher
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perspective, More life experience, more trials and
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tribulations you've passed through and learn from, more
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mistakes you've made and grown through.
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And you can understand them and participate at a different level
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than you could the first few times you had those kinds of
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lessons, and you can help encourage others to stay on the
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covenant path. Look at verse 20.
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Wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfast faith in
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Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of
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God and of all men. Wherefore, if he shall press
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forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the
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end, behold, thus saith the Father, ye shall have eternal
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life, and this is the way. Now notice, as you shift over
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into verse or into chapter 32, he says.
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Now behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that you ponder
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somewhat in your hearts concerning that which you should
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do after you've entered in by the way.
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But behold, why do you ponder these things in your hearts?
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Just because you're in the church?
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You've done all these things. Now you're in the Church, and
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now you're like, OK, now what do I do?
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Do you not remember that I said unto you after you'd received
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the Holy Ghost? You could speak with the tongue
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of angels. How could you speak with the
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tongue of angels? Save it.
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We're by the Holy Ghost. When you are in the Holy Place,
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the Holy Ghost is slowly teaching you the tongue of
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angels. You're learning to communicate
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in a tongue that you weren't born with.
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You're not native, the tongue of angels.
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There are angels all over the veil, separating and guarding
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the way into the presence of God.
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And so he tells you in verse 3, Angels speak by the power of the
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Holy Ghost. Wherefore they speak the words
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of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you,
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feast upon the words of Christ. Now notice this verse. 6 Behold,
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this is the doctrine of Christ. And there will be no more
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doctrine given until after. He shall manifest himself unto
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you in the flesh. If He's manifesting himself unto
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you in the flesh, you're now in His presence.
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You've made it through the holy of holy earth, through the veil
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into the holy of Holies. You're now in His presence.
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Nephi has been talking about all these other things.
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Now we finally get into the presence of God.
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Watch this. There will be no more doctrine
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given until after ye shall manifest himself unto you in the
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flesh. And when he shall manifest
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himself unto you in the flesh, the things which ye shall say
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unto you shall ye observe to do Now.
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Here we go. He's going to describe this holy
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of Holies. Experience verse 7.
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And now I, Nephi cannot say more.
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The Spirit stop with mine utterance.
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And I am left to mourn because of the unbelief and the
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wickedness and the ignorance and the stiff neckedness of men.
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For they will not search knowledge, nor understand great
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knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain
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as word can be. Nephi was apparently ready to
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tell us some things about what it's like to be in the presence
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of the Lord. We know he has been back in
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first or second Nephi. 11 He tells you this and and you see
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the great vision from first Nephi.
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And he was probably ready to share some things, and the
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Spirit stopped him. No, Nephi, don't write that.
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So Nephi's left mourning, saying, Oh no, I I was kind of
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building up and wanting to share this.
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Now I can't. So what is his conclusion?
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Verse 8I perceive that you ponder still in your hearts, and
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it grieve with me that I must be concerning this thing.
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For if you would hearken unto the Spirit which teaches the man
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to pray, you would know that you must pray, for the evil spirit
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teaches not a man to pray, and so then he tells us to pray.
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Always you just keep praying and praying and praying and pleading
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your way through this process until that day comes for you
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that the that the veil opens up. This is a beautiful pattern.
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We hope that as you look at what Tyler's laid out here on the
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board, you can see Nephi's words afresh, and then you can see the
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temple experience and you can see where you're at on this
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path. And I love what we've read here
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in verse 18 of 2nd ephi 31 then are ye in the straight and
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narrow. And it reminds me of Nephi and
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Lehi both seeing the tree of life.
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There's a straight and narrow path that leads to the tree
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where you fully partake of the fruit of the atonement.
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And this is that straight and narrow path.
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The temple is the template or the pattern.
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And so as you read the scriptures, you can see these
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patterns happening throughout scriptures, and this just
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reveals in plainness what Nephi was trying to convince us of.
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Now, one other thing to add to this little over layer.
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This template, so to speak, is a realization of what it means to
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live. I'll just redraw those What it
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means to live in the dispensation of the fullness of
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times in Jesus's day, in Nephi's day, in Moses's day, there are
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very clearly delineated and and marked off boundaries.
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If in the time of Jesus, if you're a Gentile in in Herod's
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Temple, there is a a fenced latticework sore egg that you
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are not allowed to pass. If you're a Gentile, that's as
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close as you can come to the presence of God.
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If you're a Gentile in Jesus Day, if you're a woman, you can
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come into the court of the women.
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That's as far as you can go in Jesus's day.
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If you're a man, you can come into the court of the men, which
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is just a little bit further. If you're a priest, you can come
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into the court of the priest. And if you're assigned to do one
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of the functions inside of the Holy Place, you can go in and do
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that. But only one person gets to go
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into the Holy of Holies one time a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of
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Atonement. Now today, everyone, all are
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alike unto God. Black, white, bond, free, male,
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female, Jew, Gentile, all of these.
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Jesus has broken down all of these boundaries.
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The veil has been ripped open from top to bottom, which means
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heaven ripped the veil. Mankind did not.
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Heaven opened wide the gate and made open the path.
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But there's only one path. There's no back door in.
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There's one path to come in, and it is a straight and narrow way
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that brings us into him. All of these Gentiles, these
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women, these men, these priests, everybody is welcome to come
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into the celestial room of the temple today.
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And that is what we're walking through in a beautiful template
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way at one level when we go and do an endowment session in the
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temple of our God today as we're learning how to walk back into
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the presence of Father. Oh my gosh, this is so awesome.
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So exciting. This is why I love the
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scriptures. I love the gospel.
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I love Revelation. It's just so exciting to see
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that God has a plan and it's just everywhere.
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And sometimes we just need to peel a bit of the layers of our
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fallen world to see the patterns that God has revealed.
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So this is really exciting, Tyler.
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It's really fun to see this. OK, last chapter.
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And then we have to say farewell to Nephi.
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Look at verse one, chapter 33. Now I, Nephi, cannot write all
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the things which were taught among my people, neither am I
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mighty in writing like I'm just speaking.
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Now. How many times have you read the
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books of first and second Nephi and thought to yourself, this is
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so painful. Nephi is such a a bad writer, I
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wish I could listen to him speak because his words are kind of
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kind of weak. How many times have you had that
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experience? If you're like me, you're saying
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man, this guy is phenomenal with words.
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But look what he says here. When a man speaketh by the power
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of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Ghost carries it unto
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the hearts of the children of men, just like back when we were
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talking about the path on versus in.
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Another funny preposition here. If a man or a woman is speaking
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by the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Ghost
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carries it unto the heart of the children of men, he says.
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If you are doing your job as a speaker, the power of the Holy
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Ghost is going to carry it unto the hearts of your listeners.
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The word we would have probably preferred that he used there
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would be into. And this is a fascinating little
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word play going on in English. It it doesn't work in other
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languages, what's the only difference between those?
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You'll notice that it comes down to you and I.
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Let's play this out a little bit further.
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If you do your job as my teacher and I'm sitting in your Gospel
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Doctrine class, we're in a sacred meeting where you're
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speaking. If you've done your job and you
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have prepared by the power of the Holy Ghost, you've you've
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prepared your heart, your mind. You come and you present, he
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says when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost, the
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power of the Holy Ghost carries it unto you did your job.
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I have to do my job as a learner to let it in.
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Now what do you notice? Look at the word heart.
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It begins with hear. You actually have an ear in your
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heart, and it happens to be in the middle of your heart, not on
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the wings. Which means your heart has to be
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softened. It has to be opened in order for
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that ear to hear. And by the way, it is he to whom
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you really listen. Not us, not, not the people at
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the pulpit, not the the people sitting in the couches around
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you. You listen to the to the voice
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of the spirit. And it is somewhat of an art
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form. It'll get easier, like a
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language that is foreign to you at first, an art form that gets
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easier over time the more you soften and ask God to soften and
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open your heart. Then you can actually get to the
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point where even if the speaker is awful and has not prepared,
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you can still have the Holy Ghost come and teach you.
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Because the most important truths that you're going to ever
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learn in life aren't going to bounce off of your eardrums.
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They're going to be truths that are felt deep in your heart.
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That's where lives. Change is down in this level,
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not at the eardrum level and at the retina level of the eyes.
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People don't change because of things they see and hear.
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They make lasting changes because of things they feel, and
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I think Nephi is lamenting the fact that he can't force this
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message in, but if he could speak to us, we would at least
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have the message carried on to. But at the end of the day,
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brothers and sisters, it's our job to open up these scriptures,
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and not just open the scriptures, but open our heart,
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because we've opened the scriptures and let that message
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distill on our on our souls. We're going to invite you now to
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spend time with those that you love looking and pondering and
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searching the scriptures, and listening to Nephi's final
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testimony puts it right here in verse 10.
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If you shall believe in Christ, you will believe in these words,
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for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them
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unto you, and they teach all men that they should do good.
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And after all the things that Nephi has written, that's what
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he wants us to focus on. Tyler and I have spent a lot of
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time studying and teaching scriptures.
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There's a lot of amazing things to talk about, but what really
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matters is Jesus. You know, can we talk about the
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transmission history of scriptures, the translation
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process, symbolism, on and on and on.
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I mean, I spent years in Graduate School.
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In fact, one of the graduate schools I was in had 500,000
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books just on scripture. OK, that's a lot of books.
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In fact, I once did it. I figured out it'd take me years
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just to read the titles, not even the books themselves.
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Nephi's just being really focused.
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Like, look, it's all about Jesus.
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Don't get distracted. Stay on the straight and narrow
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and believe in Christ. If you do those things, you will
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have the joy and the prosperity that He has promised.
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So let me finish with with one other quick concept here, the
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very, very last testimony from Nephi.
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He says, For what I seal on earth shall be brought against
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you at the judgment bar. For thus hath the Lord commanded
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me, and I must obey. Amen.
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If you can think of one phrase that would be the most
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appropriate way for Nephi to sign off, what word would you
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expect him to use in there? I think most of us would think
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obey is a pretty good last word. Besides the word Amen that
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defines Nephi, I must obey. So as you embark on this study
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and you, you keep in mind that all the doctrines you're
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learning tie into the same template as what we've talked
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about with the temple and this journey that we're making back
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to the presence of God. And we do it symbolically every
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time we go to the temple. I just need to share one quick
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experience with you from the temple.
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Years ago, my wife and I were sitting in the bountiful UT
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temple in the ceiling room that we actually had been sealed in a
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few years before, and her sister Tamara was getting married to
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our soon to be brother-in-law, Greg.
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And they walked in and their sealer walked in in front of
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them and stood on one side of the altar while they sat on the
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sofa. And the sealer was right in
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front of me and my wife where we were sitting.
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And he said to us, my wife and I, I don't remember all the
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details because I wasn't paying that close attention.
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At that point he said something like my wife and I just returned
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from the Holy Land. And he, I think he talked about
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some things that they had seen in Galilee and down in Jerusalem
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and how significant that was for him.
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But then he said this part, and I'll never forget this.
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He said it is a holy thing to walk where Jesus walked, but it
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is a holier thing to walk where Jesus walks.
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Welcome to the temple, brothers and sisters.
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He had my attention. Sometimes we wait to experience
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joy and to experience light and and heavenly things for the next
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life. Brothers and sisters, we'd
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invite you to experience the plan of happiness today as you
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dive into the book at deeper levels than you've ever done
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before. Tread on those pages and walk
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where Jesus walks by visiting the temple, and keep keep this
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process moving and growing. And yeah, it might feel like
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you're going in circles, but if you're doing it right, those
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circles are taking you to a pretty, pretty sacred space.