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Alma 5-7 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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Wherever you may be, I'll give you 5 seconds to do this.
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OK, and let's see. Let's see if you can accomplish
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the task. I want you to get your pulse,
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fill your heartbeat ready, set, go.
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You've got 5 seconds, 3210. OK, now I'm hoping that most of
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you were able to to find your pulse.
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If you're if you're sitting with a group and somebody didn't
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quite raise their hand, you might want to reach over and
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make sure you can get their pulse.
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Just just to make sure that heart's still beating.
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Now let's try something different.
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You've got five more seconds. I want you to get a spiritual
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pulse. How's your spiritual heart
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doing? Go 54321 zero.
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Now how did you do with that one?
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With the first exercise, most of you, probably without hardly
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even thinking about it, probably just instantaneously went
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somewhere where you know you could feel your heart beating.
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What did you do with the second one?
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Five seconds isn't a long time, is it?
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Alma? Chapter 5 for me has become the
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answer to that question. I've never found a chapter in
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Scripture with more pertinent questions in an interview format
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than Alma Chapter 5. And it becomes this, this
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incredible opportunity to get a, a spiritual EKG.
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So you go to a a cardiologist and they're going to hook you up
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to a machine. The point being, when you do a
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physical EKG, you can diagnose some things.
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You can see what's going wrong or what's going right with your
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heart. By going into Alma 5, we can
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create a spiritual EKG to see some things that are going
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really well, really right, and some things that are really
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wrong. This, by the way, is a terrible
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exercise to do in a group. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter
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what other people think about you with regards to answering
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the questions that we're going to dive into in Alma Chapter 5.
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All that really matters is you getting a one-on-one interview
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with the Lord through the words of Alma the Younger.
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Here Alma will deliver the questions to you and then you
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can prayerfully consider with the help of the Lord, how am I
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really doing? How is my spiritual heart, my
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spiritual pulse? How is it doing well and where
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is it struggling? And by the time you're done,
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you, you can get all these different questions that he's
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asking. And we'll, we'll cover some of
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these as we go along. And you just rate yourself on a
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scale from 1:00 to 10:00 and you might end up with something that
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looks like like this. And by the time you're done,
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you'll be able to recognize, wow, the Lord has been really
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good to me in some of these areas.
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And oh boy, I need some help. I need to work on this as I go
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in. Now we have to be careful here
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before I jump you into Alma 5 into the specific questions.
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There are some people who are born into this earth life with a
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propensity to beat themselves up and to feel overly guilty and to
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never feel like they're ever, ever, ever going to be good
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enough. So if that's something that you
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struggle with, I would just say CS Lewis gave a really, really
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profound quote regarding this effort to try to be good, to try
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to improve. Listen to this.
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No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be
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good. A silly idea is current that
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good people do not know what temptation means.
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This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist
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temptation know how strong it is.
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After all, you find out the strength of the German army by
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fighting against it, not by giving in.
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You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against
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it, not by lying down. A man who gives into temptation
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after 5 minutes simply does not know what it would have been
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like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one
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sense, know very little about Vadnais.
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They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
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We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us
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until we try to fight it. And Christ, because he was the
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only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man
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who knows to the full what temptation really means, the
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only complete realist. As you work on improving your
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life, don't beat yourself up because of the troughs.
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In this kind of an exercise, recognize that everybody has
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struggles. There's nobody who's EKG looks
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like this except for Jesus himself, and none of us is him
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yet. So we're all going to have
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struggles and it's OK. It's part of the process.
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One other concept to throw out at A at a high level is a an
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idea that President Henry B Eyring shared many years ago in
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a setting where he said, speaking to seminary and
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institute teachers, he said if you want to look for major
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improvement in your life, His recommendation was find little
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things that get repeated often in your life and make minor
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incremental improvements in the way you do those things.
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And over time, whether it's for an individual or a family or an
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organization, he says the result over time will be major
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improvement. Finding things that you repeat
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often, do it a little bit better and you'll find that you can
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sometimes take your strengths to secure the opportunity to
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improve these these low spots of your life and just keep bringing
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them forward. And the other thing we would say
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is don't get overwhelmed with all of that today.
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Just you can try. Some people might be able to do
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that, but if you're like me, I'm going to work on one thing.
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I'm going to work really hard on that one thing and and try to
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improve it. So Tyler and I don't always tell
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each other what we're going to say before we get started.
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So the little exercise that Tyler just gave us, my immediate
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thought, right? So like many of you, I just
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tested my wrist. But as soon as he asked about
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how's your level of spirituality, I realized this is
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a question. And I started asking myself
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questions. And I started thinking about
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temple recommend interview questions.
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And I think about what we have going on here in Alma 5.
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It's just this whole series of questions, and I want to spend
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just a few moments talking about what questions are, why they
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matter, and why they help us on the covenant path.
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So let me begin by using a different word than question.
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It's the word doubt. This word, which unfortunately
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has become a little more popular in our world today, even among
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some members of the church, they've been encouraging that
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doubt is OK. I'm going to offer another idea.
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The word doubt comes from the word duo or two.
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And let me map this out. You come to a fork in the road,
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the pathway branches. You have two options.
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So you stop. You have doubt.
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You don't take either path because you don't know.
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And you just stop and stare and you just keep thinking and you
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never progress because you are stopped.
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Or the word we use in religious language is you're damned in
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doubt. Now, there are times in life
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where the scriptures and the gospel make it very clear which
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pathway to take. And I don't think we need to
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enumerate examples. But there are many times in life
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where we don't always know what the best answer is.
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There are two goods. Some years ago, Elder Holland
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tell the story about his son. They were out driving in the
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wilderness and they got lost and they got to a fork in the road
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and they actually did not stop permanently and just wait for
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revelation. They tried a path and gained
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information. They asked a question on a quest
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and discovered that actually wasn't the right way and they
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went back the other way. So what I want to encourage us
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is to follow the lead of Alma. Instead of encouraging doubt,
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which is a form of stopping or damnation, let's encourage
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questions. That's what Joseph Smith did.
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Joseph Smith had a question and he asked and he pursued and he
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gained knowledge. So when you get to a point in
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your life and you aren't certain about what to do, pursue, right?
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Ask a question and gain knowledge.
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And the power of the atonement can heal us if we happen to go
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down a path that really wasn't the best path and we were making
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our best effort, but we went on a quest.
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So let's now talk about the word question.
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So question comes from an old word that means to ask, but also
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is related to this word, a quest.
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So I don't know about many of you, but I really love good
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storytelling, a great movie that's got this exciting quest.
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Recently I watched Lord of the Rings with my family, right?
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This incredible quest to save the world from this evil ring,
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evil man. And I think many of us get
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excited about quests. And that's what the whole plan
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of salvation is. It's this quest to find our way
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back into the presence of God. And God is asking us to ask
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questions and to pursue paths and learn.
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And again, sometimes we might go down a path and find we've
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learned a lot, but actually we need to be back somewhere else.
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And the atonement actually can guide us in our questing and to
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avoid being stopped in the doubt of a double path and not knowing
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what to do. So as you listen to what Alma is
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encouraging us to think about, there's no need for you to like
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answer right now, every single question.
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Go through maybe number the questions and find some that you
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find particularly useful for you right now and make a quest about
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it and find yourself on the path of adventure of learning and
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spiritual growth. As we begin this quest through
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this interview process, I love that perspective.
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You'll notice that our Chapter 5 has more question marks, more
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questing than any other chapter of scripture.
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You're not going to find a chapter in Bible Book of Mormon
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doctrine covenants Pearl a great price that has more question
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marks than Alma chapter 5. So it lends itself to this self
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interview, self introspection with the help of the Lord.
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Now I get it. Not every single question in
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Alma 5 is applicable to you like Taylor saying so we're going to
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pick and choose the ones that are the most relevant and
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meaningful and insightful for where we are right here, right
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now and where we hope to go on our personal quest.
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Let's begin, by the way, sitting here.
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Keep in mind, Alma used to be the chief judge and the high
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priest of the church. He was the head of both the
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government and the church. He gave the government to Nephi
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Ha, the chief judge seat. So he's no longer the the chief
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judge. Now he's 100% of his time
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focused on working with the people.
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And you'll notice where he begins his efforts in Chapter 5,
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It's in Zara Hemla. I think there's a principle
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there for us as well that he starts in the core.
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He starts by cleansing the inner vessel first the the heart of
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the land, and then he's going to go out to Gideon and then Neelak
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and then Amaniha. He's going to work his way out
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from Zarahemla. But when making improvement
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efforts, it's nice to not worry about other things first.
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But start at the heart, go right to the core first, then we'll
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start going outward is 1 applicable way.
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You could maybe look at the way he's organized his his
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missionary efforts here. He begins in Zarahemla by
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reminding the people about the captivity of their ancestors,
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their fathers, of the different times where their ancestors have
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been in bondage. They've been in a situation
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where they couldn't help themselves and God came through
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and delivered them. And so look at his one of his
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first questions, chapter 5, verse six.
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Now behold, I say unto you, my brother, and you that belong to
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this church, have you sufficiently retained in
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remembrance the captivity of your father's.
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Now for those of us who are sitting here in the 21st century
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reading Alma 5. Our parents weren't in the
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waters of Mormon situation with Alma or in Lim high situation in
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bond. Our parents captivities might
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have been very different than theirs, but the reality is, is
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everybody's family line has experienced captivity and
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bondage and deep intense struggle to some degree or
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another. And he's asking a really
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important question of everybody to say, before we start worrying
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about what you're struggling with, have you remembered how
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good God has been to the people who have come before you, who
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have laid a foundation for your faith today?
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That's an important question. Oh, and by the way, did you
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notice he didn't ask a yes or no question?
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These are questions that have ranges of answers.
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Have you sufficiently retained and remembers the captivity of
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your Father's meaning? It can be a degree to which you
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have retained in remembrance. So you can go through and and
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judge yourself on how much have you actually worried about what
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your ancestors have gone through and seen?
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Look for the hand of God in their lives, which might tie
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some of you into this spirit of Elijah perspective that opens a
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whole new area of revelation for people to have the heart of the
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children turned to the to the fathers to actually think about
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this as an important thing. Now he then goes on to say yeah
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and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his
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mercy and long-suffering towards them.
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So there's the couplet, the struggles that they've had, how
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good God was to them. Have you sufficiently retained
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your remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?
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That's important that it's not just physical release, but from
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from spiritual bondage. There are lots of other
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questions along here, but let's cut down to verse 14.
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Now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye
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spiritually been born of God? Now this is not a question that
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you do in Group settings. You don't ask people, have I
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spiritually been born of God? To what degree do you think I'm
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spiritually born of God? This has nothing to do with
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anybody except for you and the Lord to say to what degree do I
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feel like I've been born of God, not just born of the flesh.
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The next question follow up in verse verse 14.
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Have you received his image in your countenances?
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And the third one, have you experienced this mighty change
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in your heart? There are a lot of times when
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you may have this idea that someday in the next life you're
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going to get to come into the presence of the Savior and see
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him, and that is true every. Everybody's going to get that
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opportunity based on experiences here in this particular set of
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questions. Have you received his image in
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your countenance as an important question because it implies that
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the harder you try to be good, to emulate Christ, to live your
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life the way he lived his life to, to be the kind of person
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that you were really sent here to be, the more that you will
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take on his attributes as his son or his daughter in this
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covenant relationship with him, you will start to look more like
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him. Not physically, but it's a, it's
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a Mother Teresa principle, She said when asked, why do you help
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the poorest of the very poor in Calcutta, India, the the very
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people who are ready to die? Why are you helping them?
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And her answer in in one setting was, I look for the face of
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Jesus in everyone I meet. And she said she was never
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disappointed. She found the image of Christ in
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everyone that she met. Brothers and sisters, this is
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this is really important for us as we move forward.
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Your first view, your first glimpses of the Savior in the
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gospel of Jesus Christ, your first glimpses of the Savior,
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Those fleeting whoa, I, I caught a flash of something there
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probably won't come in vision. They'll probably come in the
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mirror because you will have started to receive more and more
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and more of his image in your countenance.
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And again, you can make these these judgments on how these
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questions are being answered on your own personal spiritual EKG,
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your own pulse, and it keeps going.
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He asks a series of questions about what it will be like for
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these people at the last day when they're standing at the
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judgement seat. What is that going to be like?
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Can you imagine what that's going to be like when you when
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you haven't tried to change because he's speaking to people
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who are kind of struggling in the church in Zarahemla.
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So as you work your way through verse 1617, eighteen all the way
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down through 22. How's that going to feel
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standing before the bar of God? Our invitation to you would be
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don't read this as metaphorical or symbolic theory.
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Answer his question. Engage with it literally to say,
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huh, I am going to be standing before God and what is that
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going to be like? Don't beat yourself up because
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you don't worship a God who's angry and who's vengeful and
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who's who's waiting for you to mess up so we can make a
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permanent mark in a book with your name on it.
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That's not the kind of being he is.
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But picture a God who's willing to work with you through through
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a lifetime of this process of adjusting and adapting.
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And when you slip in some phases or some periods of your life,
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all is not lost because you have a Savior and a Redeemer.
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Look at verse 26. Now behold, I say unto you, my
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brethren, if you've experienced a change of heart, and if you
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have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can
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you feel so? Now there may be some of you who
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are watching or listening, who maybe in the past you felt like
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your testimony was stronger than it is now.
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For some of you, you're just finding your way back into the
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church or back into the the arms of safety of the Savior's
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infinite love and His infinite atonement.
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The question he's asking here is really important.
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Can you feel so now, the spiritual EKG is not a measure
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of how your heart was 20 years ago or 40 years ago.
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This spiritual EKG is a gift that keeps on giving every time
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I come to Alma 5 in my personal study of the Book Mormon.
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I kind of get excited because it's kind of like a temple
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recommend interview. You don't just do one of those
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and then you're done for the rest of your life.
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You keep coming back to those questions and you keep answering
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them again and again and again as you move forward in in your
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life. Verse 27, he asks some pretty
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deep questions when he says, have you walked keeping
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yourselves blameless before God? Now nobody's going to be able to
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answer that question and say yes, 100% I I'm a 10 on that.
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By the way, if you mark yourself at A10 on that, the next
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question is for you. If you were called to die at
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this time within yourselves that you have been sufficiently
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humble. The idea being don't, don't be
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overly hard on yourself and don't be overly generous with
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yourself. Just be honest with yourself and
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humble and recognize you're going to have some ups and downs
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along the way here. Notice the second-half verse 27,
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that your garments have been cleansed and made white through
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the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem His people from
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their sins. You're noticing, I hope, the
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incredible symbolism we've talked about a couple months
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ago, the idea of the blood of Christ making your garments
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white. Your garments are cleansed
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through the blood of Christ. Nothing stains clothing quicker
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than blood, and nothing cleanses clothing more completely and
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more perfectly and more powerfully than the blood of
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Christ. And then 282930 he asked some
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questions. Are you stripped of pride?
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Verse 29 Are you stripped of envy?
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30 Do you make a mock of your brother?
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He's asking some of these really important questions for us just
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in the way we we live our life, in the way we treat other people
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to say, are you really, Where have you arrived?
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Can you stop focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ?
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Can you stop relying on his infinite mercy and his
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atonement? No, Everyone needs him
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desperately in order to try to make any kind of improvement.
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Nobody is going to increase anything on their spiritual EKG
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in isolation from Christ. It just doesn't happen.
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It's impossible. Jumping down.
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He gives some descriptions of what it's like to be in the fold
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of the Good Shepherd, which is Christ.
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I just want to point out one little concept here.
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Verse 38 Behold, I say unto you, that the Good Shepherd doth call
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you, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of
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Christ. And if you will not hearken unto
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the voice of the Good Shepherd to the name by which you are
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called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the Good Shepherd.
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Can we suggest that Alma 5 is a manifestation of the voice of
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the Good Shepherd, calling you to come into his fold more fully
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than we ever have before? It's this kind, gentle shepherd
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who's there to lead the people safely into the fold, not to
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beat them up when they struggle, not to injure them.
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It's to heal. It's to protect.
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Look at verse 39. Now, if you're not the sheep of
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the Good Shepherd, of what fold are ye?
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You have two very opposite voices calling you, enticing you
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come follow me. And Alma here is saying, if
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you're not going to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd,
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then it doesn't end well. We we've got lots of stories
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before and after about people who didn't try to go through
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this process and they they, they don't care about trying to be
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good. They want to hearken to the
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voice of the other, wouldn't even call him a shepherd, the
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other guy who's calling after them, and he leads them down.
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Look at the bottom of verse 39. Behold, I say unto you,
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whosoever denies this is a liar and a child of the devil.
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He's kind of being pretty blunt here.
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Now look at verse 45. And we're skipping some
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questions, obviously, along the way here.
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Look at verse 45. And this is not all.
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Do you suppose that I know of these things myself?
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Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things
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were, if I have spoken or true. And how do you suppose that I
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know of their surety? So here's Elma the younger
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saying, I know with absolute certainty that these things are
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true. How do you suppose that I know
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you? And I might suspect that he
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would say, Well hello, I got to see an Angel and I spent three
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days being racked with eternal torment and and and repenting
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and coming unto to God. Notice how he responds here
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verse 46. Behold, I say unto you, they are
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made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God.
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Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know
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these things of myself. This coming from a guy who saw
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an Angel and he doesn't mention the Angel and the answer why do
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I know these things are true? How do I know of their surety?
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It's because I fasted and I prayed many days and the Holy
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Spirit of God has borne witness to my soul that they're true.
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Brothers and sisters, there will be many times when your heart
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will know things that your tongue cannot tell with with
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exactness. You can't explain everything you
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know to everyone. We want to have a reason for the
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faith that lies within us, and we want to explain why we
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believe what we believe. But there will be times when you
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just know something is true and it's because of a lifetime in
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some cases, where you have fasted and prayed and you have
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kept wrestling and you've kept walking against that wind, that
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opposition or fighting against that army using CS Lewis's
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example. And you've kept data and you've
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gone and you've gone forward and you now know things that can't
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be given to other people until they go through the experience
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that you've gone through as well.
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Pretty powerful. What's interesting about what
26:32
Tyler just taught is none of us can control whether we're going
26:35
to see angels. I remember as a kid, I really
26:38
had this deep desire to see an Angel.
26:40
Partly, I wasn't very mature in my spiritual life.
26:43
And I thought, if I see an Angel, there's proof that God
26:46
loves me. But what can we control?
26:48
And again, it's fascinating. Here's Alma, who had one of the
26:51
most incredible conversion stories ever recorded.
26:55
And most people don't have these experiences.
26:57
How does he talk about what he learned?
26:59
As Tyler was pointing out, it's not because he saw an Angel.
27:02
It's things that he could choose to do and control.
27:06
And like Alma, we all have this choice.
27:09
Back in verse 46, I have fasted and prayed many days.
27:14
You can choose to do that. Earlier we talked about
27:17
incrementally doing good, or more specifically, regularly and
27:23
consistently doing good better. And as you do those things, God
27:27
will reveal himself. We don't need to see angels,
27:30
although I confess I still would love to see an Angel, although
27:34
then I think I'd be a lot more responsible.
27:36
I'm not sure ready for that, but I can control whether I am
27:39
consistent about fasting and prayer and whether I am
27:43
consistently doing the things that God has laid out in the
27:47
Scriptures and with the brethren in our modern day.
27:51
There's many ways of looking at Alma chapter 5, and let me offer
27:56
a covenantal perspective. Let me put up some words on the
27:59
board that will help you help prompt your thinking about the
28:03
covenants that God is trying to remind us of.
28:06
And some of these verses we've already looked at.
28:09
And the reason I'm doing this is twofold. 1 because covenants are
28:12
amazing to talk about and learn about, but also just to
28:15
demonstrate, you can see that when Tyler and I are teaching,
28:18
there are multiple perspectives to gain from the Scripture.
28:22
And we hope that you see that there are many ways that you can
28:26
learn from the Scriptures, not just one right way to understand
28:28
something. And let's go back and take a
28:30
look at what Alma says in verse six.
28:35
Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of
28:39
your Father's? So there's this powerful word of
28:42
remember. This word has covenantal
28:45
contexts that are intended to encourage us to actually
28:49
remember God's covenants. This is an interesting word Re
28:52
means again and member is like an individual or some item and
29:02
God is asking you to put members together again or items together
29:06
again. And I want you to think about
29:08
the One of the main purposes of Scripture is to contain the
29:13
memories or the members of the narrative of God's covenant
29:18
plan. And what God asked us to do is
29:23
to review those stories and to put back again those members or
29:29
those elements of that story into a narrative that we can see
29:33
that the salvation arc of God's love in our lives and in the
29:39
lives of our ancestors. So if we think back to the
29:43
Bible, you have the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
29:46
This is the God you can trust who saves the Israelites from
29:49
Egyptian bondage. And he does this at Passover,
29:53
which later, at the time of Jesus becomes the Last Supper.
29:57
And then we celebrate Easter and now we do sacrament every week,
30:01
which is re enacting in some ways Passover.
30:05
So what I want you to think about from a covenant
30:07
standpoint, you are remembering the whole story of salvation at
30:14
sacrament. You're remembering the great
30:16
deeds of deliverance that God has done for his people.
30:19
And in some ways, this is what Alma's asking.
30:20
Like, are you taking seriously God's plan of salvation?
30:25
Are you remembering the story elements?
30:29
And God doesn't just, like reveal stats, even though I like
30:33
numbers, he doesn't just lay out like stats of salvation.
30:36
He tells you a story of individual people and families
30:42
and nations and his saving acts of grace in terms of how willing
30:48
they've been to accept him and to receive him.
30:51
And again, the Book of Mormon is full of these stories.
30:54
And the Book of Mormon helps us to remember each of those
30:58
salvation elements. That's why the story of Alma the
31:01
Elder going into captivity, of Lemhi's people going into
31:04
captivity. And Alma is saying to be on the
31:08
covenant path, you need to on a regular basis put your mind into
31:11
remembrance of these things. So based on his foundation of
31:16
how he knows these things are true, watch as he no longer asks
31:22
a question in this next segment, but he instead of using question
31:27
marks, he's going to use exclamation points.
31:29
Now I know there are no exclamation marks on the plates
31:33
and any punctuation in the Book of Mormon was added by John
31:35
Gilbert. I get that.
31:36
And there aren't exclamation marks here in verse 48.
31:40
But to me these are exclamation points coming from Elma the
31:44
Younger, saying, here's what I know.
31:46
Verse 48 I say unto you, that I know of myself, that whatsoever
31:49
I shall say unto you concerning that which is to come as true.
31:53
And I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come.
31:58
Yeah, the Son, the only begotten of the Father.
32:01
Did you get that? Three names and titles, Jesus
32:05
Christ, the Son only begotten of the Father, and then he gives
32:09
something else. He says full of grace and mercy
32:12
and truth. One thing that is is kind of
32:17
insightful if you've already gone through the Book of Mormon
32:20
and marked all of the names and titles and references to to the
32:24
savior or to deity. That is a a remarkable exercise.
32:28
And if you haven't done that, we would encourage you to do that.
32:31
Once you've done that, then our next level of recommendation
32:34
would be now go back through and don't just look for the names
32:38
and the titles in the way that he's described, but look for his
32:41
attributes and mark those in a different way.
32:43
Jerry Wilson, who I had for institute many, many years ago,
32:47
he encouraged us to take a particular color.
32:50
In his case it was dark green and mark the attributes of God
32:55
in our Scripture in dark green, this deep, rich living color.
33:00
Because that's who I'm trying to be like.
33:02
I'm trying to emulate his attributes, his characteristics,
33:06
his perfections in my own life. That's the whole point of this
33:10
EKG exercises to, to identify where, where I may be lacking a
33:15
little bit in becoming more like Jesus.
33:17
So as you notice here in verse 48, he gives you the titles, but
33:21
then he gives you the attributes.
33:22
He's filled with grace, He's filled with mercy, He's filled
33:26
with truth. It's a different exercise when
33:29
you go through your scriptures identifying the attributes of
33:32
God, because then it gives you a a more clear target to aim for
33:36
of things that I can start implementing in my own life.
33:40
Now let's turn the page over. Look at verse 54.
33:43
Will ye persist in supposing that you're better one than
33:47
another? Yeah.
33:49
Will you persist in the persecution of your brethren who
33:51
humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God?
33:54
I just have to say that the only person who was perfect didn't
34:00
look down on those of us who aren't with judgement or
34:04
condemnation. His only looking down was with
34:07
compassion, with kindness, with reaching, with trying to sustain
34:12
and, and wrap in the arms of his love and in the arms of his
34:15
safety and mercy and his grace. And so he this this last part
34:20
here that he's giving the people is really focusing them on how
34:24
they it's not just introspective on how you're doing in your own
34:27
relationship with God. It's OK, now you've worked on
34:31
that. Now how are you treating the
34:33
people around you? And look at verse 55.
34:36
Yeah. Will you persist in turning your
34:37
backs on the poor and the needy and then withholding your
34:40
substance from them? So again, if we're really trying
34:44
to be more like Jesus, then we have to emulate how he treated
34:48
people, especially those who are the most vulnerable parts of of
34:53
our of our society and of the population.
34:56
And then verse 60 Now I say unto you that the Good Shepherd doth
35:00
call after you, and if you will hearken unto his voice, he will
35:03
bring you into his fold. And ye are his sheep.
35:07
And he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter
35:10
among you that ye may not be destroyed.
35:13
To finish off this section, I want to I want to share with you
35:18
what has become one of my all time favorite quotes ever.
35:25
This is really profound. It comes from Sister Patricia
35:29
Holland in a book that was published clear back in 1997
35:32
called Portraits of Eve. Listen carefully to what Sister
35:37
Holland says regarding who you are and your sense of self.
35:43
You ready. Our Father in Heaven needs us as
35:46
we are, as we are growing to become.
35:49
He has intentionally made us different from one another so
35:52
that even with our imperfections, we can fulfill
35:55
His purposes. My greatest misery comes when I
35:58
feel I have to fit what others are doing or what I think others
36:02
expect of me. I am most happy when I am
36:05
comfortable being me and trying to do what my Father in heaven
36:09
and I expect me to be. Are you sensing so far that the
36:15
perspective here is I am not doing this spiritual cardiogram
36:21
in comparison to Taylor or my wife or my parents or my
36:25
siblings or my neighbors or my stake members and ward members?
36:28
It has nothing to do with any of them.
36:31
This is between me and the Lord. That's it.
36:33
Notice this. For many years I tried to
36:37
measure the off times. Quiet, reflective, thoughtful
36:42
Pat Holland against the robust, bubbly, talkative and energetic
36:46
Jeff Holland and others with light qualities.
36:48
I have learned through several fatiguing failures that you
36:52
can't have joy in being bubbly if you're not a bubbly person.
36:57
It's a contradiction in terms. Can you picture this comparing
37:02
Sister Holland with Elder Holland and her saying this?
37:06
I have given up seeing myself as a flawed person because my
37:11
energy level is lower than Jeff's and I don't talk as much
37:15
as he does, nor as fast. Giving this up has freed me to
37:19
embrace and rejoice in my own manner and personality in the
37:24
measure of my creation. Ironically, that has allowed me
37:29
to admire and enjoy Jeff's ebullience even more.
37:34
Oh, how grateful I am for this concept that I no longer have to
37:41
beat myself up because I may not be as smart, as engaging, as
37:47
funny, as thoughtful, as good with people, or as as all these
37:52
other people that I see around me.
37:54
What a blessing it is to be able to focus on trying to come unto
37:59
Christ and being perfected in Him with my unique set of
38:04
strengths and struggles, challenges and glorious gifts
38:10
that God has has granted to each one of us as we've come down
38:13
here. As you close off your chapter 5
38:17
experiences, you study this. We would hope and pray that you
38:22
take this chapter very, very personally and that it's very
38:27
introspective and that it will seriously connect you with
38:30
heaven. Now Alma finishes with the
38:33
people in Zarahemla and he sets the church in order and he says,
38:38
OK, finally I get to go out and do some travelling because he's
38:42
been wholly confined to the judgment seat for all these
38:46
years that he's that he's since Alma chapter one.
38:49
And so now for the first time he's going out to the east city
38:53
E, which is Gideon, and he's going to pick up the story in
38:58
Chapter 7. When Alma arrives in Gideon, he
39:01
doesn't quite know what he's going to find regarding the
39:04
church. He's kind of surprised when he
39:07
sees, hey, you're doing better than the people in the church in
39:11
Zarahemla were doing. And it's not to compare.
39:14
It's the fact that here he has come ready to teach a certain
39:18
message and he's saying, oh, wait, you don't need that call
39:24
to repentance quite the same as maybe he had needed to deliver
39:27
in Zarahemla. And So what you get in Chapter 7
39:31
is one of the sweetest sections of the entire Scripture Canon
39:35
that we have available to us, where Alma is able to open up
39:40
and talk about some of the the deep sweet things regarding the
39:45
infinite nature of Christ's atonement and his suffering for
39:49
us. I remember years and years ago,
39:53
more than two decades ago when I was a student up at Utah State
39:56
at the institute, I remember watching a young single little
40:00
fireside or a, a broadcast at the time from at the time Elder
40:04
M Russell Ballard. And he said something there.
40:06
I don't remember his exact words, but it, it left a, an, a
40:10
deep impression on me. He said we could teach you a lot
40:14
more about some of the mysteries of the universe and the
40:18
mysteries of eternity. He said we could talk about
40:21
Kolob more than we do. As general authorities, but he
40:24
said until we as a group collectively figure out how to
40:29
have more faith in Christ and repent of our sins and and keep
40:33
the principles in the ordinances of the gospel, he said, we're
40:37
not going to talk to you about Kolob at any great length.
40:41
That's that's an important principle when it comes to a
40:45
family or a, a, a ward or a stake or a church collectively.
40:53
Instead of getting frustrated that maybe the leaders in your
40:57
local or your general level aren't telling more big and
41:01
grand grandiose doctrines, maybe the message is we're still
41:07
struggling with having deeper faith in Jesus Christ and
41:13
trusting him more and really truly repenting of our sins more
41:18
fully. Look at Chapter 7 as he launches
41:22
into his his speech. This is one of the most profound
41:27
verses in the entire Book of Mormon, Chapter 7, verse seven.
41:32
For behold, I say unto you, there be many things to come.
41:35
And behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than
41:40
they all. For behold, the time is not far
41:44
distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people,
41:48
brothers and sisters, Far more important than worlds without
41:51
number and Kolob and the deep, deep doctrines and all the
41:57
things yet to come in the Millennium, and all the things
41:59
that have happened in the past. Far more important than all of
42:03
those is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth,
42:10
lived a perfect life, performed a perfect, a complete and
42:13
infinite atonement, and now sits enthroned in Yonder heavens on
42:17
the right hand of the Father. That is of more importance than
42:20
everything else we could ever, ever talk about.
42:23
And that's why this book keeps coming back to Christ every
42:27
page, every chapter. You can find ways to to connect
42:32
with him. Now Alma launches into some
42:35
descriptions. Keep in mind, this is still,
42:38
we're about, you know, 80 plus years away from Jesus being
42:42
born. Look at verse 10.
42:44
Behold, he shall be born of Mary.
42:47
So over here in the New World, in the Americas, we have
42:50
revealed the name of the mother of Jesus, Mary.
42:55
He should be born of Mary at Jerusalem, which is the land of
42:58
our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and a chosen
43:02
vessel. I just have to throw this out
43:04
here because some people make fun of the Book of Mormon
43:07
because they'll say, come on, everybody knows Jesus was born
43:10
in Bethlehem, and the Book of Mormon says he's born in
43:12
Jerusalem. Look carefully at Alma's
43:16
prepositions here. He shall be born of Mary at
43:20
Jerusalem at is not in Bethlehem is about 5 miles South of
43:28
Jerusalem, and it is the least of the villages in the region
43:35
round about Jerusalem and probably the least known.
43:39
So here you get this prophet speaking about the coming of
43:44
Christ. He doesn't say that the baby is
43:47
going to be born in Jerusalem. It's born at Jerusalem.
43:51
This won't get you into heaven. But back in chapter one, Nephi
43:55
told you that his father Lehigh having dwelt at Jerusalem in all
44:00
his days, he uses the exact same word.
44:02
He doesn't say in. And that's fascinating because
44:05
later on in the story, Nephi and his brothers are outside of the
44:08
walls of the city of Jerusalem, and they say, let us go down to
44:12
the land of our Father's inheritance and get the gold,
44:14
silver and precious things and bring them back up to Jerusalem.
44:18
In other words, the dad lived somewhere around near Jerusalem,
44:23
in the vicinity, but not in Jerusalem.
44:25
Jesus isn't going to be born in Jerusalem.
44:26
That won't get anybody into heaven.
44:28
It's just, it's kind of sad when some people put up walls and
44:35
barriers of unbelief against the Book of Mormon because some
44:39
person who wants to to throw the the entire book under the bus
44:44
says, see, he wasn't born in Jerusalem, he was born in
44:47
Bethlehem. And instead of looking carefully
44:51
at what it says, they just take that and then discount the
44:54
entire book. When you look at it really
44:56
closely, every attempt to discount the Book of Mormon
45:00
actually becomes a sign of its truthfulness if you just keep
45:04
digging down and looking at the details more fully.
45:07
Now I digress. Here's the important thing.
45:10
Verse 11. He shall go forth suffering
45:13
pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind, and
45:17
this that the word might be fulfilled.
45:20
This word that is really important because it's a
45:25
connector word. So watch in verse 1112 and 13.
45:30
In fact, you if you like marking your scriptures, just circle all
45:34
of the that's there are quite a few of them here and connect
45:38
them. So he's going to suffer pains,
45:41
afflictions and temptations of every kind.
45:43
And this that the word might be fulfilled so that prophecy can
45:48
be fulfilled. Jesus fulfills the prophecies of
45:51
the holy prophets. It's what he does.
45:53
Notice this next part. What is the prophecy that's
45:55
being fulfilled that said He would take the pains and the
45:58
sicknesses of His people? Now look at verse 12.
46:00
He will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of
46:05
death which bind his people, OK. And He will take upon Him their
46:09
infirmities, that His bowels may be filled with mercy according
46:13
to the flesh, that He may know according to the flesh how to
46:16
succor His people according to their infirmities.
46:20
Now the Spirit knows all things. Nevertheless the Son of God
46:23
suffereth according to the flesh, that He might take upon
46:27
Him the sins of the people, that He might blot out their
46:31
transgressions according to the power of His deliverance.
46:34
Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ suffered for not just our
46:39
sins and the consequences of our sins, but the pains and the
46:44
sicknesses, the infirmities. It's almost as if he's saying, I
46:48
want to know according to the flesh how to succor my people.
46:52
I want to know exactly what they're going through to the
46:55
point where the day will come when each one of us will get to
46:58
stand in front of the Saviour and he will not look with
47:02
questioning eyes saying what was that like?
47:06
Really? What was it like to go through
47:08
that combination of of physical, mental, emotional struggles of
47:13
mortality? Jesus will not look at anybody
47:16
with questioning eyes. He will look with knowing eyes
47:21
at every one of you. He's the only one who perfectly
47:25
knows what you're going through and consequently is the only one
47:30
who can perfectly suck or you run to you.
47:34
Provide this foundation for you to be able to endure it well and
47:38
move forward in life. Brothers and sisters, this, this
47:43
life was not intended to be simple.
47:47
This life is intended to be a test.
47:50
It was intended to stretch us, to make us reach and rely on
47:55
heaven because we can't rely on ourselves because of our
47:59
struggles along the way. But we have One who perfectly
48:04
understands us. In fact, He gets you better than
48:08
you get you. He knows why you're doing better
48:11
than you know why you're doing it.
48:13
And He is the only solution we have to move forward and to try
48:19
to become better and to try to treat people around us better.
48:23
It's only through Him that we can have any hope to do any of
48:26
that. I love the Lord.
48:29
The more I read about Him, the more I understand His, His
48:35
perfection. The more I understand His
48:37
perfection, the more I feel of His love, and the more I feel of
48:41
His love, the more I love Him and want to be like him.
48:44
I leave that with you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
48:46
Amen. We hope you feel how joyful the
48:49
Scriptures are. The gospel is so invigorating
48:53
and exciting. We hope that you feel loved,
48:56
that you feel that God knows you and he has preserved these words
49:00
for your benefit. And we really appreciate you
49:03
taking time to explore the Scriptures with us.
49:06
And we encourage you to spread light and goodness throughout
49:09
your life.