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

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I'm Taylor. And I'm Tyler.
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Mormon one through 6 today, with additional insights from Mormon
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7 and the Words of Mormon. We will be talking about Mormon
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today. And if you want to learn more
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about Mormon as a person, Scripture Central has a fabulous
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short little essay and video about Mormon, and you can look
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up know why #226 you'll find the link below.
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This is an interesting set of chapters today, and I'll tell
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you of all the times I read the Book of Mormon when I get to
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this part, I just think maybe this time it'll be different.
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Maybe this time the people will finally listen to Jesus, to his
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words, to the scriptures, to the prophets.
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And I had to laugh at myself every time I read the Book of
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Mormon. I just hope it'll be different.
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I hope that the people will really listen.
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And sometimes it can be extremely discouraging to read
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these chapters of Mormon and just watch what happens as
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people suffer the consequences for a lack of faithfulness to
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God. But despite all that, I find it
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fascinating that despite the incredible discouragement that
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Mormon must have seen in the world around him, leaving us at
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difficult times, here's what he says to his son Moroni in one of
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his letters. Now, this comes from Moroni
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chapter 925 and 26. My Son, be faithful in Christ,
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and may not the things which I have written grieve thee to
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weigh thee down unto death. But may Christ lift thee up.
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And may his suffering a death, and the showing His body unto
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our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of
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his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.
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And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in
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the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right
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hand of his power until all things shall become subject unto
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him, be and abide with you forever.
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Amen. I find that absolutely powerful.
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Actually, in some ways, those are the very last words we get
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from Mormon, at least according to Moroni.
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Is that phrase, after everything that Mormon has written,
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including the difficulties of his own lifetime, what does he
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focus on all these beautiful truths.
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And so we invite all of us, we live in a world of difficulty
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and challenge to remember the words of Mormon echoing through
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the centuries, preserved lovingly and faithfully for us,
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and our day revealed now that we like Mormon.
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As he told us, Son Moroni, focus on Jesus Christ, focus on all
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that he did to show love and salvation.
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His long-suffering, the hope of his glory is eternal life is
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grace. So even though what we're about
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to talk about might be hard in some cases to listen to,
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remember that ultimately it's the love and grace of God that
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gives us hope. And that is one of the main
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purposes of the Book of Mormon. To provide a second witness to
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that idea in Moroni, Chapter 9, notice chapter 5 in Mormon.
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So Mormon 5, verse 8. Now behold, I, Mormon, do not
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desire to Harrow up the souls of men in casting before them such
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an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before mine
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eyes. But I knowing that these things
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must surely be made known, and that all things which are hid
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must be revealed upon the housetops.
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And also that a knowledge of these things must come unto the
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remnant of these people, and also unto the Gentiles, who the
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Lord has said, should scatter this people, and this people
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should be counted as not among them.
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Therefore I write a small abridgement, daring not to give
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a full account of the things which I have seen because the
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wickedness and the sorrow is just overwhelming is basically
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what he's telling us now as Taylor has already introduced
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the the difficulty that you have this week with these chapters
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1234 all the way up to chapter 6 in the book we call Mormon.
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This is painful. It's very sad to watch a people
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who you know we've watched their trajectory.
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They've had their UPS, they've had their downs.
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They've struggled with secret combinations and wars and and
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bad things before with a lot of a lot of tragedies.
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And then Jesus came in 3rd Nephi and he establishes Zion among
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them, and they get 200 years of absolute perfect society and
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everything's wonderful. And then the second-half of 4th
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Nephi, you watched this decline, pretty serious decline away from
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Zion. And then you pick up the book
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called Mormon and starting in chapter 1 and 2:00 and 3:00 and
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4:00 and 5:00 and 6:00, that's what we get for our scripture
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block today is it's the ultimate destruction of these people who
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are called the Nephite nation. Traditionally, when I'm teaching
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a class on the entire Book of Mormon, I'll spend maybe 3
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minutes or 4 or 5 minutes in these chapters because of the
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heavy nature of them. It's important for us to know
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about this. The Book of Mormon is written
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for our day, President Benson said, and made that very clear.
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And Mormon who saw our day, and he gave us the reason why he
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wrote it. All things must be revealed upon
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the housetops, he says. I'm not going to give you a full
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depth of detail of everything that I'm seeing, but it's
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important for us to know what can happen to a Society of
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people, even a people who has at one time been so enlightened and
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so filled with with goodness and truth that you can't take that
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for granted and say, oh, all is well in Zion.
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Zion prospers. I can, I can relax in my faith.
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We have to keep finding ways to connect and stay connected with
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heaven and move forward. With that background, let's jump
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in to Mormon chapter 1 to the beginning of the story and we're
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going to go on this little journey through the life of
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Mormon, who, by the way, is one of my all time heroes in
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scripture. I love Mormon because he's an
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unsung hero. There are a lot of times in my
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life when I've actually thought I want to be more like him.
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Why? Because here's a guy who is
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surrounded by opposition. He's surrounded by wickedness.
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He's surrounded by tribulation and trials and bad things going
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on everywhere he looks. And yet he stays faithful.
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He never lets the the bad stuff in his environment become bad
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stuff inside of him. He's able to stay on the
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covenant path and press forward faithfully in the face of
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incredible opposition. Second reason I want to be more
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like Mormon is because he quietly does what God asked him
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to do without drawing attention to himself, without having you
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walk away from the book focusing primarily on him.
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He tells you the stories of Jesus among the Nephites.
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He tells you the stories of, of King Benjamin and Abinadi and
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Alma and all the way down even Samuel.
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He, he's, he's including all these stories, but they're
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coming to us through the, through the lens of Mormon.
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And I love that being able to be a window to the heavens, a
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window to God's love and his goodness without drawing
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attention to the window. I want to be more like that.
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So notice how his story begins, chapter one, verse 1.
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He tells you he's going to make a record of the things which I
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have both seen and heard and call it the Book of Mormon.
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Up to this point, he's been writing in third person
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predominantly. Now it's his turn to tell his
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own story. So he shifts into everything now
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first person. About the time that Ameron hit
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up the records under the Lord, he came unto me, I being about
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10 years of age in the quick timeline of Mormon's life, the
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the elements that we know about starting at about 10 years of
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age. You'll notice by the time he's
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writing this, he's going to be quite a bit older.
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And it's not exact. And I love the fact that it's
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not exact because for us, when you think back to your early
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teenage years and your 891011 year old years, it's kind of
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fuzzy. And I love that this early part
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is kind of fuzzy for him as he's going back in time using words
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like about. So we're going to go from about
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10 years old until the last battle at Kimura when he's about
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73 years old. That's the lifespan that we're
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going to be covering and looking at different elements that are
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going on. Not so you can be experts on
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Mormon's life, but so that you can see a very real person, a
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son of God, who is doing the best he can to fulfill his
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life's mission. But he didn't understand his
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life mission here, nor here, nor here.
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His life mission just kept unfolding as God brought more
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and more and more responsibilities, commandments
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and requirements and opportunities into his life as
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he pressed forward on the covenant path, line upon line,
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precept upon precept. I like that pattern.
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So we started age 10, Ameron coming to him.
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This is odd because if you look at the scenario, Ameron is the
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keeper of the entirety of the Nephite records and all the
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other things associated with those records, armaments,
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treasures that we're told in some of the accounts that this
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huge repository of everything that represents all of the
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history of the Nephites and the Jaredites down to this time.
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Now here's this guy, he's getting to the end of his life.
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He looks around at his society and says, Who am I going to turn
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these records over to this, this huge repository in The Cave in
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the Hill, Shim in the land? Anton, who am I going to turn
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these over to? Look what he says.
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I being about 10 years of age, and I began to be learned
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somewhat after the manner of learning my people.
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And Ameron said unto me, I perceive that thou art a sober
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child and art quick to observe. Therefore when ye are about 20
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and four years old, I would that you should remember the things
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that you had observed concerning his people.
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And when you're of that age, go to the land anthem unto a hill,
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which shall be called Shem. And there have I deposited unto
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the Lord all the sacred and grieving concerning his people.
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That's bold. Turning all of that over to a 10
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year old saying wait until you're about 24 years old, then
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go get them. This is where they're hidden.
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The amount of trust placed in a 10 year old.
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Notice the two qualifying factors.
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You're a sober child and you're quick to observe.
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I think it's pretty clear that what he's saying is you're not a
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typical 10 year old Mormon. You're very, very mature.
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You're, you're thinking clearly, you're thinking deeply.
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You're not like the other, the other families and the other
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kids in this, in this wicked society.
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And I believe that God inspired Ameron obviously, to go to this
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particular kid who was raised up for this purpose.
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Notice also, thou art quick to observe.
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That tells us that Ameron didn't just walk down the street one
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day and say, oh, there's a kid. He looks different.
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Boom. It seems that Ameron had some
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association with this family. He knew what kind of a kid
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Mormon was. And this phrase quick to observe
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probably does mean he was very good at seeing the world around
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him and understanding to be able to explain and interpret what
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was going on. We see that throughout his text.
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I wonder if there's also a secondary meaning of quick to
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observe. What about observing the
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commandments, judgments, and statutes of God?
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If you actually look throughout scriptures the way the word
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observe is used, it's often in relation to faithfulness,
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covenantal faithfulness of how well people do at keeping God's
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commandments. And even at this young age,
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there may be something going on here that Mormon was quick to do
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the word of God. It's a beautiful insight because
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for for us as latter day readers of this record, I don't know
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that it's as applicable to us to think, oh good Mormon was an
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observant kid. He he was, he was bright,
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brilliant, picked up on things very quickly versus saying he
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was probably some of that. But also he was quick to observe
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the commandments. He kept his commitments even as
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a 10 year old. And we can all try to follow
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that same example. Look now at verse 4.
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Behold, you shall take the plates of Nephi unto yourself,
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and the remainder you shall leave in the place where they
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are, and you shall engrave on the plates of Nephi all the
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things that you have observed concerning this people.
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You'll notice Ameron didn't say, kid, when you get older, you're
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going to be the one who needs to go into this repository with all
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these records. Look at this image from our 3D
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Mormon's cave. Look at this huge collection of
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plates. Now, if you look here at this
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particular, what you might call a large bookshelf, it's an
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artistic representation. We don't know what it actually
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looked like. We don't know how many were
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actually there. But you, you look at this large
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collection right here, this is called the plates of Nephite,
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large plates of Nephite. Ameron simply told him go to
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that collection and they're towards the end where I have
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written my last section, which was the finishing part of 4th
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Nephi. You pick up there where I left
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off, and you keep writing the history of the Nephite people
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that you have and will observe in your own lifetime.
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That was the command. That's it.
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So it's later on when Mormon has been working through this
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process of writing down the record that the Lord would have
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given him the command or the direction to say, OK, the end is
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near for these people. So I need you to go and now read
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all of that record and make new plates, no longer called the
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plates of Nephi, this time called the plates of Mormon.
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This new record that is going to be the means whereby all of this
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is going to get translated in the latter days and carried
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forth into all the world as the instrument for the gathering of
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the House of Israel. Wow, that's a bit overwhelming.
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But you'll notice Mormon wasn't given that at age 10.
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What he was given probably felt overwhelming to a 10 year old to
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look forward to when he was 24 down the road.
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But God's going to give him those instructions line upon
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line, precept upon precept. Notice the next event, verse 5I.
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Mormon being a descendant of Nephi and my father's name was
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Mormon, so it's interesting we often overlook this.
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This is Mormon the younger. Do you remember one of the
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defining features of Nephi physically back in first Nephi
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chapter one, 2-3 and four it he used on a couple of occasions
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this phrase being exceedingly young.
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Nevertheless, being large in stature, he's a big strong kid
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for his age. Well, what do we know about
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Mormon here? We know some pretty interesting
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things are going to come to him at a very young age.
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So it's it's as if he's taking after physically his ancestor
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way up the line, Nephi. This is going to be a a large
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kid, very, very big for his age. Notice the next event came to
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pass, that I, being 11 years old, was carried by my father
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into the land southward, even to the land of Zarahemla.
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So at 11 he leaves the land northward because his dad has to
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relocate the family. Probably a war ready to start.
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If you jumped on to verse eight came to pass and this year there
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began to be a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites and
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it breaks out in the land where they'd just gone to and later
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he's fifteen 16th year he becomes the chief captain.
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But could you imagine today our chief military leader being some
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15 or 16 year old kid. Now I wonder if Mormon's father
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had been the chief captain had died in the war and as heredity
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Mormon got that position. We actually have lots of stories
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throughout the ancient world like Alexander the Great.
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His dad had been the king of the Macedonians and when when Philip
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was assassinated, Alexander the Great became the next king.
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And we have lots of evidence in the Book of Mormon where father
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to son, the responsibility passes from father to son.
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So in addition to him being this mighty man, it may have also
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been a family duty. But the most important thing is
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who he is as a person, both physically and spiritually.
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He stood out among his people physically, but because of his
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spiritual capacities and the gifts and the.
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The mission given to him by God is His name now will never be
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forgotten in in any future time moving forward, because this
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book bears His name. Notice verse 13.
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Wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land in so
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much the Lord to take away his beloved disciples, and the work
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of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of
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the people. This is an important concept for
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us to understand in our day and age when there aren't miracles,
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when there aren't healings, when there aren't wonderful things
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happening. It's not always because of the
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the reason skeptics give that God doesn't care.
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God's not powerful, God's not there, God's not capable of of
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doing these things. You'll notice the reason they
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weren't there is because of the iniquity and the wickedness and
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the unbelief of humanity. At this time, verse 14, there
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were no gifts from the Lord and the Holy Ghost did not come upon
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any because of their wickedness and unbelief.
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And I being 15 years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind,
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therefore I was visited of the Lord and tasted and knew of the
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goodness of Jesus. Notice he's 15 when he sees the
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Lord. He's in a society that is so
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wicked, that is so bad that there are no miracles, the Holy
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Ghost isn't coming upon any, and it's widespread, rampant sin and
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iniquity. And yet, in the midst of that
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darkest of times, the Lord appeared to this young 15 year
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old, and He tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.
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When I hear this word tasted of the goodness of Jesus, it
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automatically gets me to think way back to first Nephi chapter
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8 and the tree of life with that beautiful, delicious fruit that
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Lehigh called his family to taste of.
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And we encourage you to look at the scriptures, how they use the
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phrase to taste, particularly when it comes to tasting the
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love of God. And I also wonder if there might
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be some beautiful word play going on because in Mormon
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chapter one verse 15 where it says he knew of the goodness of
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Jesus, the word Nephi, our best understanding is that is an
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Egyptian word that means good, lovely, beautiful or desirable.
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And so when Mormon says I tasted of the goodness of Jesus.
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If we translate this back into Egyptian, he would have used a
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variant of the word or the word itself, Nephi, to talk about the
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love of God. If you go back to first Nephi
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chapter 8, when Nephi is describing the fruit of the tree
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of life, he uses such words as beautiful and desirable.
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And all of these in Egyptian would have just been Nephi's
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name. So imagine for Nephi how lovely
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it would have been for him to be able to describe the love of God
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using the meaning of his own name.
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And here is now Mormon, centuries later, experiencing
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that same love, but identifying himself as a descendant of love,
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or Nephi the descendant of goodness.
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Or Nephi, the descendant of beautiful things, Nephi.
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And he talks about tasting of the powerful love of God, and he
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uses that lovely phrase of goodness.
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And we invite you again, two things to look at how the word
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taste is used in the Book of Mormon, particularly when it
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comes to partaking in the atonement of Jesus Christ.
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We also invite you to think about when have there been times
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in your life you have tasted of the goodness of Jesus?
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When have you experienced the lovely, beautiful, desirable
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truths that come from God? And most importantly, one of you
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tasted the beautiful, desirable, lovely, good love that comes
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from God to each of his children.
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So here's the grand irony of all of this, verse 16.
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I did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth was
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shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them.
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For behold, they had willfully rebelled against their God, and
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the beloved disciples were taken way out of the land because of
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their iniquity. He's trying to spread the
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goodness, the desirable, the beauty.
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He's trying to say, look, just I have tasted.
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I know how good this is. I know how wonderful life can
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actually be, not this misery that you're living through.
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And his mouth is shut. He can't give them this
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desirable message, this good news, the glorious news of the
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gospel because of their iniquity and their rebellion.
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And notice they had willfully rebelled.
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This wasn't something that they accidentally fell into, that
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they, they're sinning in ignorance.
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This is a willful rebellion, which is very different than
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somebody who who sins in ignorance.
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Notice he's among them. But the gadiant and robbers are
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now rising up and infesting the land, so treasures become
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slippery. Lords cursed the land.
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They couldn't hold them nor retain them.
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Again, they can't hold on to anything.
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The very things that the devil entices them with become
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slippery. All of the treasures and the
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power and the glory of the world is so fleeting that it's not
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just that they lose it at death. In this case, they've gotten to
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the point where they can't hold on to it at all.
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They're living in this constant fear of death and being robbed
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and iniquity surrounding everything that they're doing.
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Look at chapter 2. It came to pass that in that
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same year there began to be a war again between the Nephites
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and Lamanites. And notwithstanding I, being
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young, was large in stature. Sounds a lot like First Nephi.
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Therefore the people of Nephi appointed me that I should be
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their leader or the leader of their armies.
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He clarifies. I'm not the government leader,
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they just put me in charge of the armies.
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Possibly, if not probably because it's a family legacy, a
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family line. Look at verse 2.
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Therefore it came to pass that in my 16th year I did go forth
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at the head of an army of the Nephites. 16th year means he's
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still 15 years old and he's going to war at the head of an
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army of the Nephites. Look at verse 3.
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It came to pass that in the 320 and 7th year the Lamanites did
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come upon us with exceedingly great power in so much that they
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did market frighten my armies, therefore they would not fight
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and they began to retreat towards the north countries.
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I think perhaps that's one of the reasons we need these these
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difficult chapters, so that we can see these contrasts between
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good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark.
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That we human beings are capable regardless of how strong we've
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been in the past. We're capable of getting to the
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point where we are driven by fear rather than faith, where we
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stop fighting, we stop trying to to overcome and resist
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opposition or temptation or addiction, and we run instead or
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we give up. Notice verse four, they came.
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The Lamanites drove us out of this city.
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Verse five, they drove us also out of the city of David.
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So they're gathering in seven. There's this huge destruction,
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this huge lament. And now you come down to verse
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10. It came to pass.
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The Nephites began to repent of their iniquity and began to cry
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even as had been prophesied by Samuel the prophet.
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OK, So what we have here is Mormon looking at the people
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thinking, OK, we're good because remember the pride cycle.
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Pride leads to deeper sin, which leads to destruction, which
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leads to sorrow and lamentation, which leads to humility.
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And that humility will lead us to repentance, and repentance
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leads us to blessings, and those blessings will mount up and
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build up to lead us to great prosperity.
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And unfortunately, prosperity often leads us to pride.
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And we talked about this back in Hedelman a few months ago.
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Where are we in the pride cycle in Chapter 2?
27:52
They began to repent. They began to cry.
27:55
Verse 11. Thus there began to be a
27:58
mourning and a lamentation of the land because of the things,
28:02
these things, and more especially among the people of
28:04
Nephi. So he's thinking wonderful.
28:08
The destruction has LED them to this intense sorrow and now
28:12
they've begun to repent. They're getting humble.
28:16
They're going to turn to God, and because he's so
28:18
long-suffering, he's going to forgive them and he's going to
28:22
give them blessings and we're going to end up prospering
28:24
again. Verse 12, It came to pass it
28:26
when I Mormon, saw their lamentations in their morning
28:29
and their sorrow before the Lord, my heart did begin to
28:32
rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering.
28:35
The Lord, therefore, supposing that he would be merciful unto
28:38
them, that they would again become a righteous people.
28:41
But behold this my joy was vain. For their sorrowing was not unto
28:48
repentance because of the goodness of God, but it was
28:51
rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would
28:55
not always suffer them to take happiness and sin.
29:00
Brothers and sisters, this is one of the saddest moments in
29:02
the entire Book of Mormon where you see that this entire
29:06
population of people has gotten to the point where they've been
29:10
built up in their pride and their sin and iniquity, to the
29:13
point where the Holy Ghost can't even be given to any.
29:17
According to what he says there, they've experienced incredible
29:21
destruction. They're sad.
29:23
And what did it do? It LED them to deeper pride and
29:29
deeper sin, which is going to lead to deeper destruction.
29:32
So we talked about back in human the fact that the pride cycle
29:37
can actually turn into a destruction cycle if you're in
29:43
the bottom of despair, the pit of despair because of
29:47
destruction, and you don't choose to turn to God, but
29:50
rather become more prideful. This is the pattern that happens
29:55
in the Book of Mormon. Look at verse 14.
29:59
They did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite
30:04
spirits, but they did curse God and wish to die.
30:08
Nevertheless, they would struggle with the sword for
30:10
their lives. Notice 15 came to pass, and my
30:14
sword did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace
30:17
was passed with them both temporally and spiritually, for
30:21
I saw thousands of them hewn down an open rebellion against
30:24
their God and heaped up his dung upon the face of the land.
30:28
So notice what he does to try to get his people ready to go fight
30:34
the the Lamanites again. Here's this righteous leader
30:37
Mormon, surrounded by all these people who are who are cursing
30:42
God, but they're willing to fight for their lives.
30:45
That's about it. Notice how he rallies them and
30:49
gets them ready for battle. Verse 23.
30:52
It came to pass that I did speak unto my people, and did urge
30:54
them with great energy, that they would stand boldly before
30:58
the Lamanites and fight for their wives and their children
31:03
and their houses and their homes.
31:07
If you like writing cross references in your scriptures in
31:10
your margins, you could write Alma 46 verse 12 next to that
31:15
verse. Because if you look at Alma
31:17
4612, you'll remember that that was the incredible passage that
31:23
talked about Mormons hero named Captain Moroni, his title of
31:29
liberty, where he said in memory of our God, our religion, our
31:36
freedom, our peace, our wives and our children.
31:46
Remember that? Notice the difference here?
31:49
That's how Captain Maroni got his men to fight.
31:52
It's worth fighting for these things.
31:54
People. Let's go.
31:55
And it worked back in 73 BC. Now here we are with Mormon,
32:01
with a group of people who have cursed God, totally turned their
32:06
back on God. They've lost all sense of a
32:09
connection with heaven, which what religion, what religion
32:12
means to reconnect. They have no more freedom.
32:16
Once again, Satan keeps enticing everybody with this idea of get
32:22
rid of liberty and have freedom to express yourself and to live
32:27
your life and do whatever you want, whenever you want, however
32:30
you want, and with whomever you want.
32:31
That's his plan, That's his idea, and that leads to bondage,
32:37
not freedom. You ask these people, how free
32:40
do you feel right now? They're on the run.
32:44
There's no freedom and there's no peace in all of their cursing
32:51
of God and doing what they wanted to do.
32:54
Notice what they've gained for it.
32:56
You know, brothers and sisters, when one serves the devil, 1
33:00
needs to be ready to receive wages from the devil.
33:05
And what you're seeing in Mormon chapters one through 6 are the
33:09
wages of sin, the wages of iniquity.
33:13
This is the paycheck you receive when you turn your back on God,
33:18
when you when you reject connections with heaven called
33:22
religion, true religion, not the world's definition of, of
33:26
organizations. And you lose freedom and you
33:29
lose peace. What do they have left?
33:30
They have their wives and their children.
33:33
And notice what else he added to the list, Your houses and your
33:37
homes. And how long is it going to be
33:40
until they lose those? Once again, you give up God, and
33:45
it's just a matter of time before you lose all of these
33:48
things on the list. So in chapter 3, notice how he
33:54
addresses this issue in chapter 3, verse 2.
33:58
It came to pass, the Lord did say unto me, cry unto this
34:02
people, repent ye, and come unto me, and be baptized, and build
34:06
up again my church, and ye shall be spared.
34:11
Come unto me, build up again my church.
34:15
You'll be spared it. It's not too late, brothers and
34:19
sisters, it's never too late. If if you're struggling, if
34:24
you're wrestling with addiction or with a major faith crisis, or
34:28
with issues with people and trying to forgive, or you trying
34:32
to repent and overcome sin in any degree, it's never too late.
34:37
If you repent, come unto him, be baptized, build up again His
34:42
church, ye shall be spared. So verse three, I did cry unto
34:47
his people, but it was in vain. And they did not realize that it
34:52
was the Lord that had spared them and granted unto them a
34:54
chance for repentance. And behold, they did harden
34:58
their hearts against the Lord their God.
35:00
So we begin another cycle of this downward destruction, that
35:06
is, that is pending notice. They have this little victory
35:11
the Nephites do in chapter 3. Look what it did verse 9.
35:15
Because of this great thing which my people the Nephites had
35:18
done, they began to boast in their own strength and began to
35:23
swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of
35:26
the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies.
35:29
And they did swear by the heavens and also by the throne
35:32
of God that they would go up to battle against their enemies and
35:36
would cut them off from the face of the land.
35:38
It's no longer a defensive war for them.
35:42
Now they say because of this, we, we've proven we're so good
35:46
and we're so strong, we're going to go down among the Lamanites
35:49
and totally destroy them, which you can market.
35:53
This is the ultimate turning point in the war.
35:59
And we we begin our final descent starting at this point,
36:04
verse 11. It came to pass the time.
36:05
Mormon did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a
36:09
commander and a leader of this people because of their
36:12
wickedness and their abomination.
36:14
And now Mormon starts to lament a little bit.
36:18
Verse 12. Behold, I had LED them
36:20
notwithstanding their wickedness.
36:22
I had LED them many times to battle and had loved them.
36:26
Is this sounding like an echo of how the Savior might feel about
36:32
us, his love, regardless of our of our deserving that love, it's
36:40
it's always there. Notice it says I had loved them
36:44
according to the love of God, which was in me with all my
36:48
heart and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God
36:52
all the day long for them. Nevertheless, it was without
36:55
faith because of the hardness of their hearts.
36:57
And He delivered them three times before.
37:00
And then He finishes chapter 3 with some beautiful invitations
37:04
to us. He kind of shifts away from the
37:07
carnage in the bloodshed and the wickedness and the iniquity of
37:10
His day, and He turns His attention forward in time to us.
37:15
Look at this. This is beautiful.
37:16
Verse 17. Therefore I write unto you,
37:18
Gentiles, and also unto you, House of Israel, when the work
37:22
shall commence, that you shall be about to prepare to return to
37:24
the land of your inheritance. Yeah, behold, I write unto all
37:29
the ends of the earth, ye unto the 12 tribes of Israel.
37:33
He basically says this message is for everybody in the latter
37:37
days. Verse 20.
37:40
These things does the Spirit manifest unto me.
37:42
Therefore I write unto you all, and for this, 'cause I read unto
37:45
you, that ye may know that ye must all stand before the
37:49
judgment seat of Christ, yet every soul who belongs to the
37:53
whole human family of Adam, and you must stand to be judged of
37:57
your works, whether they be good or evil.
38:00
And he wants us to believe the gospel, and He invites the Jews,
38:04
the covenant people. Look at verse 22.
38:06
I would that I could persuade all ye ends of the earth to
38:10
repent and prepare to stand before the judgement seat of
38:14
Christ. And then he goes back into the
38:18
awful scene that was playing out before him.
38:22
Now, have you ever thought about this as Mormon is working his
38:26
way through his life, He's fighting all these battles with
38:31
the Lamanites. He's trying to defend the
38:33
people. He's trying to preach to the
38:35
people as the prophet role that he's taking.
38:39
And not only that, he's raising a family.
38:42
We know he's got Moroni coming along, so he has all these hats
38:46
that he's wearing and he's trying to be good.
38:49
Have you ever had the experience and mortality of pausing and
38:56
realizing that you have more on your plate to accomplish then
39:01
you have energy or time or resources to to actually get
39:04
through? Have you ever had one of those
39:06
sickening moments where you you realize it just kind of hits
39:10
you? I'm not doing anything really
39:14
well. I'm doing a million things.
39:17
Partly I I'm chipping away at a whole bunch of things, but I'm
39:21
not doing anything really, really well.
39:24
I love Mormon's story for when I have those experiences, and I
39:28
have them more frequently than I should, because Mormon's story
39:33
shows me that I can be surrounded with incredible
39:38
opposition and have really important things to do.
39:41
Not to the level of Mormon's mission to accomplish, but if I
39:46
stay focused on that which matters most, which is God, and
39:50
I stay humble and I keep going to him, He facilitates all of my
39:55
time and energy resources to be accomplishing the things that
39:59
need to happen for his Kingdom to roll forward.
40:03
And for me, that's my biggest take away from Mormon chapter
40:07
one through 6 is watching this one guy.
40:11
And we know that it's not just one guy, even though she's not
40:15
mentioned. We know he's married.
40:17
We know he has a sweetheart. And we know that there's a
40:21
partnership here as those two are moving forward,
40:24
accomplishing things in the face of great adversity.
40:28
It gives me hope for when I'm struggling to do the things that
40:33
I'm asked to accomplish in life. Look at chapter 5.
40:39
He's leading them to battle again.
40:42
We're getting closer to the end. Look at verse 12.
40:46
Now these things are written unto the remnant of the House of
40:49
Jacob, and they are written after this manner because it is
40:52
known of God that wickedness will not bring them forth unto
40:56
them. And they are to be hid up unto
40:59
the Lord, that they may come forth in his own due time when
41:04
he seeth fit that they come forth.
41:07
So you'll notice Mormon saying, I don't know for sure when this
41:10
is going to happen, but God does.
41:13
And I love the fact that you get this other prophet in our day,
41:17
Joseph Smith, who is also surrounded by a lot of iniquity,
41:21
not to the level of Mormon, but he now gets the opposite
41:25
responsibility to translate the record that was written by
41:29
Mormon and Nephi and Jacob and later on Moroni in the face of
41:34
incredible adversity, having to move from place to place.
41:39
Keep in mind, if you look in Mormon's cave at that whole set
41:42
of records, he doesn't just have to read all of those records.
41:46
He has to decide what to include, what to leave out.
41:48
He has to abridge that record onto these plates that are going
41:52
to end up in our hands today. And I love the fact that God did
41:57
his work through an instrument in the face of such great
42:02
adversity that gives me hope in my own life.
42:05
Now we go to chapter 6, the last battle.
42:09
We're at the Hill Comora he lists here.
42:12
His numbers probably aren't exactly down to the individual
42:15
person, but they're rough rough guesses that are probably pretty
42:19
close. He's talking about the different
42:21
groups of 10,000 of his men who died.
42:24
If you do the math here, it's over 230,000 Nephites killed at
42:29
this last battle, and only 24 of them survive.
42:32
Which, by the way, Mormon is one of them that survived.
42:36
He was wounded so badly on that last battle that the Lamanites
42:40
passed over him thinking he was dead.
42:42
And then he's writing chapters 6 and seven.
42:45
After that point, we don't know how far after.
42:48
Is it days? Is it weeks?
42:49
Is it months? Is it years?
42:51
We don't know because he doesn't tell us.
42:54
But if he was wounded so badly that they thought he was dead,
42:57
it's possible while while he's writing these words, he's
43:01
feeling the pains of those wounds from that battle.
43:06
And that adds context to what he says here as he laments over his
43:10
people. Notice verse 16.
43:13
My soul was rent with anguish because of the slain of my
43:18
people. And I cried, O ye fair ones, how
43:23
could you have departed from the ways of the Lord?
43:26
Remember what Taylor was telling you about Nephi.
43:28
Fair, beautiful, goodly blessed, O ye Nephites, how could you
43:35
have departed from the ways of the Lord?
43:38
How could you have rejected that Jesus who stood with open arms
43:42
to receive you? Behold, if He had not done this,
43:45
you would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I
43:49
mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye
43:51
fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is
43:56
it that ye could have fallen? This is such a sobering set of
44:02
passages. As I said earlier, every time I
44:05
read the Book of Mormon, I just hope it'll be different this
44:08
time. Now there is hope that we all
44:12
get to look at our own lives and say, am I willing to receive the
44:17
embrace of Jesus who stands open and willing to fully receive us
44:22
and we don't have to repeat what we see in the Book of Mormon?
44:27
And I think there's some beautiful literary things going
44:31
on in this very sorrowful passage.
44:34
We have the word Nephi, which proposals recommend means fair
44:39
in Egyptian. And there's another word in
44:41
Hebrew, Nephil, and it means to fall.
44:45
And I just think it's interesting here that Mormon,
44:47
who's this very capable writer, may also the same time be
44:52
creating literary beauty in the original languages.
44:55
He's talking about how the the Nephi have Nephil, the Nephites
45:01
have fallen, the fair ones have fallen.
45:03
And so he's actually playing almost as if he's but like
45:07
Shakespeare or in Isaiah, with words to make the case that even
45:14
if you are named fair and beautiful, it's not much of A
45:18
change to do this if you walk away from God in their own
45:23
lives. We want to ask ourselves, do we
45:27
want to be fair like the Nephites, or do we want to get
45:30
puffed up in the pride of all that God has given us or all
45:33
that we believe that we have accomplished with our own own
45:36
hands and experienced the fall? And that's the lesson that's
45:40
here is that we can learn from these people what not to do.
45:45
Now, as he finishes Chapter 6, he ends with Chapter 7, which
45:50
we'll cover in much greater detail next week.
45:53
But you'll notice his audience the primary target for Chapter
45:58
7. In fact, you could just label
46:01
your Chapter 7. Dear Lamanites, love Mormon.
46:06
It's a letter to them directly. He talks to them in loving, kind
46:12
ways. These latter day descendants of
46:16
the very people who are going to kill him.
46:20
Ultimately, he knows that and who have who have given him
46:23
wounds to the point where he was on the battlefields half dead.
46:27
They passed him over this group of people who's killed off all
46:31
of his family and people ultimately.
46:34
And yet what does he do? He writes to them with arms of
46:38
mercy and love, extending this beautiful message to them.
46:43
There's something beautifully Christ like about that.
46:47
Now, we started by talking about Mormons desire not to Harrow up
46:54
the souls of men and casting before them such an awful scene
46:57
of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes.
47:00
And so we hope that as we've gone through here, the focus
47:03
isn't in on all of the bad of the Nephites, but rather that it
47:08
gives you a sense of hope in your own life that regardless of
47:14
what the opposition is surrounding you, you have great
47:17
capacity to be humble. Turn to God, repent, plead for
47:23
His help and His guidance, and receive His blessings and
47:27
ultimately His salvation. In closing, I want to share with
47:32
you a story from the Old Testament that many of you may
47:34
be familiar with, but it's worth repeating here because it's so
47:37
applicable. There was a Kingdom of Syria
47:43
that was making war against the northern Kingdom of Israel.
47:47
And every time the king of Syria would move his men to a certain
47:52
place to make the perfect attack, the Kingdom of Israel
47:57
would have their armies perfectly positioned to stop the
48:00
attack. And this happened multiple
48:02
times. Eventually this king of Syria,
48:05
who may not have been the the sharpest guy, but he was smart
48:09
enough to figure out this isn't normal.
48:13
So he sat down with his his generals, his captains of his
48:18
army, and he said, who is it? That's the spy?
48:22
One of you is giving our secrets to the king of Israel because
48:24
it's impossible that he would know everything we're doing.
48:27
And one of his captain said, none of us is a spy.
48:32
There's a man in Israel, he's a prophet.
48:34
And he tells the king of Israel everything you say, even in your
48:39
bed chamber. At which point this king thinks
48:43
that through and says, well, let's secretly find out where
48:47
this guy lives so we can go and surround that city or village
48:52
and capture him so he'll stop telling the king of Israel
48:56
everything I'm saying. Well, they said he lives in
49:00
Dothan. So the Syrian Army goes and
49:04
surrounds the city of Dothan, where Elisha, this great
49:08
prophet, lives. The next morning, Elisha's
49:11
servant comes out of the house and sees the entire village
49:15
surrounded with Chariots and soldiers waiting for the word to
49:19
come and take Elisha. The servant's really nervous.
49:25
Elisha comes out of the house and he's not really nervous,
49:29
He's calm. And the servant doesn't
49:31
understand. And Elisha says, basically,
49:35
can't you see? And the servant's wondering,
49:37
can't you see? And Elisha, praise Lord, open
49:41
the eyes of the lad, that he might see, and he tells the boy,
49:46
They that be with us are more than they that be with them.
49:52
At which point the lad's eyes are opened, and he sees the
49:55
mountain of the Lord, the the whole sky filled with flaming
49:58
horses and flaming Chariots. Brothers and sisters, Mormon and
50:03
his little family were completely surrounded by sin and
50:09
iniquity. They had no worldly reason or
50:14
earthly reason to hope. But Mormon had eyes to see.
50:20
He knew that when you're on the Lord's side, when you're doing
50:24
the best you can, even though by worldly standards it doesn't
50:27
look like a lot, it doesn't feel like it's making a difference.
50:31
If you put the very best you have on the altar and say, Lord,
50:34
this is the best I can do today, He is so powerful that He will
50:42
take our best effort and magnify and multiply it and bring us the
50:48
victory in the end, not just in this life, but in the
50:52
eternities. Brothers and sisters, as you
50:55
face those those Chariots in all of their forms today in your
51:02
life, please plead with the Lord to have eyes to see and ears to
51:08
hear. And as you do so, and as you
51:11
cast your eyes upward, you will be reassured that they that be
51:15
with you are more than they that be with them.
51:20
And we leave that with you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
51:22
Amen.