Latest / Scripture Central / Alma 17–22 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource

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Alma 17–22 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource · Scripture Central

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  Hello there, my name is Tyler Griffin.
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  And I'm Kinley. Griffin and this is Scripture
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  study insights by Scripture Central today, almost 17 through
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  22. And I am so excited to welcome
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  another one of my beautiful daughters, Kinley to join me for
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  these incredible chapters that we're going to discuss today.
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  And this is this is a privilege to be able to share this time
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  with, with Kinley as we go through these these stories.
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  And before we dive in and before I say anything that's on my
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  mind, I just wanted to to ask for Kinley's opinion, Kinley's
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  thoughts on what did you gain from reading Chapter 17 through
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  22 in preparation for coming and filming with with your dad?
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  What stuck out for you in these chapters?
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  You know, of course, there's so, so many things that that these
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  chapters have in them. I think one big theme that I
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  kept noticing, I guess the best way to share this would be
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  President Nelson's words. He and his talk overcome the
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  world and find rest. He talked about how important it
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  is to learn to love God more than anything else as part of
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  being in a covenant relationship with Him, being willing to give
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  up anything, being willing to do whatever he asks.
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  And I feel like in these chapters I kept noticing again
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  and again it's story after story of people coming to know the
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  Saviour and being willing to give up everything they have to
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  follow him and to become like him and to live his.
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  Gospel. That's beautiful.
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  And that ties in very closely with one of the lifelong
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  learning overlays that I wanted to share, which is this notion
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  of a sacrifice. So, so we'll use an altar here
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  as the symbol, the object lesson, the question being what
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  am I willing to sacrifice or lay down on the altar as a sign of
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  as an expression of my love for the Lord, Because he already
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  laid down on the altar an infinite sacrifice for us.
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  He he gave everything for us. And now as we go through these
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  stories, we see multiple people willing to give up all kinds of
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  things to better come to know the Lord and to serve him more
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  completely and to, as you said, build that connection, that
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  relationship with him. So as we dive into Chapter 17,
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  we, we begin these, these verses with Ammon, Aaron, Amnor and
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  Hymni, these four sons who they didn't exactly have the ideal
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  gospel childhood or, or youth years because they had rebelled
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  against everything their, their father, King Mosiah had taught
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  them. And they've really struggled.
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  And now after their conversion experience, they're on the
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  covenant path. But I love what we see in
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  chapter 17 in these beginning verses about what they're
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  they're willing to sacrifice on an ongoing basis.
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  Amen. I think too, it's interesting.
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  In verses two and three, it talks about who they've become
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  from that troubled past, I guess, where they struggled with
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  a lot of things. And this is this is powerful to
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  me because this is something I can do every day.
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  It says they searched the scriptures diligently that they
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  might know the word of God and that they gave themselves to
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  fasting and prayer. These are simple gospel concepts
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  that we can live every day of our lives, every every week,
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  every month, every year. It's just one day at a time,
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  striving to connect with God, striving to to sacrifice a
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  little bit of our time here and there to give the word his
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  Fisher, right? I think that's beautiful.
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  That is beautiful. So as we jump in, I love the
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  fact that you've pointed out, Kinley, that Ammon, Aaron, Amner
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  and Hymni, they spent all this time searching the Scriptures so
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  they could become men of sound understanding, as well as this
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  fasting and prayer, gaining the spirit of prophecy in
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  Revelation. It's almost as if you could
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  cross reference verse two and three with Doctrine and Covenant
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  Section 8, verse two and three as well, where it says, behold,
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  I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the power of
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  the Holy Ghost. And in verse two, they seem to
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  have focused on preparing their mind, and in verse 3, preparing
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  things of the heart. And what a powerful combination,
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  as they prepare to serve the Lord, to have both revelatory
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  instruments engaged in this sacrifice.
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  And that's also something you can see in all the different
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  stories in these chapters, is the Lord working with people to
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  prepare their mind and heart to receive His Spirit, His Word,
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  even His His character and countenance.
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  So in verse four, we shift gears from the mind and heart
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  preparation. Two, they had been teaching the
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  word of God for the space of 14 years among the Lamanites,
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  having had much success in bringing them to the knowledge
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  of the truth. Yeah, by the power of their
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  words, many were brought before the altar of God to call on his
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  name and confess their sins before him.
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  So we learn here is we're picking up this story on the
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  back end. It's 14 year mission is complete
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  and Alma runs into them in in verse one by the land Manti when
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  they're coming back into the land of Zarahemla from their 14
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  year mission. So now piercing some things
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  together, you would say they served a 14 year mission.
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  It tells you that they prepared a lot more than their mind and
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  their heart. They have what might be called
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  grit. This stick to itiveness, this,
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  this tenacity to say we are going to keep working hard.
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  This was a very difficult mission.
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  We would call it lasting and enduring discipleship, and it's
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  inspiring. Absolutely.
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  And in Speaking of of missions, all of our lives are each a
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  mission. There are things that we
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  promised we would do. We were sent here for a reason
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  and so developing that that grit in our covenant relationship,
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  that determination come what may, to stay on the covenant
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  path and to invite others to join us, that is also part of
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  life's mission. I love that, Kinley.
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  There's so many different ways we can serve.
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  Let's look at verse 5, for instance.
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  Now these are the circumstances which attended them in their
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  journeyings, for they had many afflictions.
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  They did suffer much both in body and in mind, such as
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  hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labour in the spirit.
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  To me, that's one of the most amazing parts of this story is
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  we love in in chapter 17 through 22.
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  We love to to focus on the successful parts.
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  We love to focus on the triumph of this story, but I'm not sure
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  we would ever be able to read about the triumph if it weren't
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  for them choosing to stay strong in the face of many afflictions,
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  many sufferings and their labor in the spirit.
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  This is stretching every part of their being.
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  It's trying them. It's refining them.
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  It's like the the song how from a foundation, their gold is
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  being refined in the furnace of affliction in the in these fiery
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  trials that they're passing through.
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  And it's inspiring because for me, the message is, Tyler, your
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  discipleship is not determined by the blessings the Lord gives
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  you. It's it's not defined by what
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  happens at the end of the road. Your discipleship is defined by
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  what you choose to do today, whether today happens to be a
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  mountain peak of Revelation Day or a valley of the shadow of
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  death and sorrow and despair and pain and anguish kind of a day.
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  My discipleship isn't to find on where where these outward
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  influences may be coming into my life.
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  It's my inward commitment to the Lord, regardless of what happens
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  outwardly. That reminds me of President
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  Nelson's talk. Think celestial.
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  It's like we all, we all have afflictions.
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  We all have that refiners fire that we need to go through to
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  become who the Lord wants us to be.
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  And if we could just keep that perspective in those struggles
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  of of God's hand being there, especially in the struggles of
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  him walking with us through those fires, through those
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  valleys where it's dark, and making us an instrument in his
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  hand through those very difficult things.
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  Isn't it amazing how easy it is to recognize God's hand when
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  we're in one of those mountain peaks of Revelation, when
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  everything is working out, when the success is flowing and and
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  you're filled with joy? It's so easy to be grateful and
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  to thank the Lord. Much harder is to see His hand
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  in those, those verse five moments of our life when we feel
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  like we've been forsaken, left alone, prayers perhaps not
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  answered the way we would have intended them to be or or
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  preferred them to be answered. I love this story because it it
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  gives us, in my mind of a very real look at mortality, a very
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  realistic view of our own discipleship, that it's not all
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  perfect and the sacrifices are substantial and they're real.
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  What we're seeing in chapter 17, verse two, all the way down
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  through 1617 are these preparatory elements that are
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  coming into play for the four sons of Mosiah before they go
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  serve this mission. And in every case it's intense
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  sacrifice. And then in verse six, they
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  sacrifice something that is extremely tangible and desirable
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  in the world in which we now live.
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  We're six now. These were their journeyings,
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  having taken leave of their father Mosiah in the first year
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  of the judges, having refused the Kingdom which their father
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  was desirous to confer upon them.
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  And also, this was the minds of the people.
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  Now most of you watching or listening probably aren't
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  thinking to yourself, Oh I I can see how this applies to me
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  because I gave up a throne as well or I've been offered a
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  throne. Brothers and sisters.
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  That's not usually how scriptures are best applied, by
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  taking the exact scenario and and putting it into our own
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  life. Because the fact is, is most of
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  us, 99.9% of us will never be offered this kind of political
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  or government leadership position.
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  But there are a lot of Thrones, there are a lot of kingdoms that
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  this world is offering us in different forms.
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  And there's part of us, the natural fallen nature inside of
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  all of us, that would desperately like to have that
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  Kingdom of the world granted to us, that power that comes with
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  it. But they're willing to sacrifice
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  that and put that on the altar. I love looking down in verse 9
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  next talks about their their immediate preparation right
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  before they they split up for their missions.
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  They had fasted and prayed much that the Lord would grant into
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  them a portion of His spirit to go with them.
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  It's that idea of of setting aside the Thrones or the the
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  crowns or the kingdoms the world offers and accepting what the
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  Saviour offers. That is his spirit to be with us
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  through a covenant relationship. That's beautiful to me.
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  I love that. And and in fact, what if Ammon
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  were standing here? What if Ammon the the man were
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  teaching us his own story? What would he say?
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  Do you think he might say, let me tell you what a terrible
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  sacrifice it was to give up that Kingdom and to spend all that
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  time reading the scriptures and memorizing them and praying and
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  fasting? Do you think he would lament any
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  of the elements, the time, the possessions, anything at all
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  that he had sacrificed from the story?
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  Or do you think if he were standing here today, he would
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  look at us and say, oh, I wish I had 10,000 lives to give the
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  Lord to sacrifice for him because the sacrifices that I
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  made were so small in comparison to what Jesus Christ gave me in
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  return. Brothers and sisters, we will
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  never, and I mean ever, walk away from the altar of the Lord
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  poorer than we walked up. God, who holds worlds without
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  number in His hand, is so loving and so kind and so all knowing
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  that when we're willing to make any sacrifices for Him, He
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  richly rewards us in abundance. And we're going to see that in
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  this story, all of these sacrifices are going to bear
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  fruit. These are all seeds that these
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  these faithful disciples are planting that are now going to
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  bear fruit in miracles in the benefit of other people.
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  Now as we get ready to to go into the land of Nephi with
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  them, I love this promise that that comes in the second-half of
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  verse nine. That the Lord had had given them
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  this assurance that they would be an instrument in the hands of
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  God to bring, if it were possible, their brother and the
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  Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of
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  the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not
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  correct. So there's this promise that
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  that they're going to be an instrument in, in the hands of
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  the Lord, that they're not the ones who are going to be doing
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  the work. The Lord isn't saying to them,
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  go on the mission, good luck, hope it goes well for you.
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  It's the Lord who's already on that mission saying, Will you
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  come and allow me to take you into my hands as an instrument
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  to do this work? It doesn't matter what you're
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  calling in the churches. It doesn't matter what your role
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  in your family is. There's something powerful about
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  turning your time, your talents, your devotion, your energy, your
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  abilities, your intelligence, your feelings, turning it all
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  over the Lord saying, here I am, take me into thy hands and use
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  me as an instrument and shape me so that I'm the right, right
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  type of instrument for thee to do the work that thou needs to
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  be done, because it's His work and we are invited to assist in
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  it. It's not our work.
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  We're not doing it in isolation. And that is so powerful because
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  who of us, who of us is perfectly qualified or capable
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  in whatever mission we're called to?
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  But the beauty of the gospel is that we know we don't have to do
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  it by ourselves. It's not a one man job, a one
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  person assignment. It's always two.
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  You and the Saviour. That's your covenant
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  relationship, right? You never, ever have to tackle
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  something with your own strengths or your own wisdom or
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  your own knowledge, having that be the foundation for how
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  everything's going to turn out. Your foundation is Jesus Christ.
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  That's where you're built. He is.
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  He is the rock, He is the strength, and it is through Him
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  we are enabled to participate in that work and enabled to become
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  an instrument in the Lord's hands.
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  And without that assurance, I'm not sure they would have been
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  able to even begin that mission. Look at verse 14's description
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  of where they're headed and assuredly it was great for they
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  had undertaken to preach the word of God to a Now if you
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  start noticing the the descriptive words for the the
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  group of people that they're now going in to teach.
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  This is not a group of words that you would want on on any
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  list of of transfer papers given to you as a missionary to say,
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  OK, now you're going to go and serve among these people.
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  They were a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people, a people
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  who delighted in murdering many fights and robbing and
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  plundering them and their hearts were set upon riches and upon
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  gold and silver and precious stones.
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  Yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and
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  plundering that they might not labor for them with their own
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  hands. And then verse 15 tells you that
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  they're an indolent people who did worship idols and they have
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  the curse of God that has fallen upon them because of the
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  tradition of their fathers. So here's here's this incredibly
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  difficult scenario that's given to you.
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  And they now begin this mission among that group.
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  And Ammon in verse 18 was the chief among them.
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  And he administered unto them. And then they departed and they,
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  they spread out among the Lamanites, trusting completely
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  in the Lord, which isn't exactly how I would have done this if I
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  were, I would want to stay together with my group.
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  But you sense that they've prepared so well and they
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  recognize that they are completely in the hands of the
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  Lord, not the hands of the Lamanites.
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  And by the way, these four, they've, they've got some
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  companions with them, but at least these four, they're all
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  heirs to the Nephite throne. They, they could have been, they
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  could have been Nephite kings. So now look at this comparison.
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  They could have had the Nephite throne as a king, but they give
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  up the throne to condescend, to come down and serve.
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  A mission, a mission of mercy, a mission of.
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  Reclaiming souls in a place that does not like the Nephites and
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  they're going to dedicate and devote their entire life to
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  these people in order to then deliver them to a a new kind of
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  salvation that these people didn't even know about.
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  This whole story is for me a beautiful comparison between
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  Ammon and Jesus Christ. Not really a comparison, more a
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  type and a shadow of how Ammon reflects this Christ like
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  pattern of giving up things. A life of ease and comfort and
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  power to condescend. And in the process is going to
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  suffer is going to labor is going to have a very difficult
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  time, but in the process is going to end up helping God save
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  an entire group of people. It's the plan of salvation in in
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  symbolic overview form. And again, think of your own,
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  your own life and your own missions.
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  Look for the Savior there too. What have you been called to do
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  that he's going to help you with that you can become become a
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  Christ like figure for someone in your life that is that is
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  lost in the dark somewhere that needs a hand to reach out to
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  invite them back into a covenant relationship.
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  We're back into that, that happy state of keeping the
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  commandments of living the gospel.
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  It's. Beautiful.
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  So as you go through these chapters, some technique that
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  you could use to deepen your scripture study would be to look
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  for types, shadows, and symbols of Jesus Christ, things that
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  reflect his attributes, his characteristics and perfections
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  in the life and the ministry of Ammon and his brethren later on.
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  It's beautiful. In fact, verse 20 is is a great
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  place to start. In verse 20.
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  And as Ammon entered the land of Ishmael, the Lamanites took him
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  and bound him, as was their custom, to bind all Nephites who
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  fell into their hands, and carried and carry them before
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  the king. And thus it was left to the
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  pleasure of the king to slay them, or to retain them in
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  captivity, or to cast them into prison, or to cast them out of
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  his land according to his will and pleasure.
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  I I do find it interesting the words will and pleasure.
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  Bear with me for a moment in the whole in the beginning, right,
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  the Saviour was willing to sacrifice his will for God's
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  will to make God's pleasure, God's desires, his own desires.
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  That's still the story today for us.
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  Are we willing to to sacrifice our desires or our current
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  pleasures for God's will and God's desires?
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  I just think that's an interesting, an interesting lens
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  through which which to view view life and view our covenants
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  because that is embodied in the Saviour.
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  He was always willing to say, thy will be done, not mine.
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  I love this Christ like reflection that Ammon's showing
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  us here is that just like when Jesus comes to the earth, the
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  earth doesn't welcome him with open arms.
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  They don't make his entrance into this world easy for Mary,
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  his mother, and Joseph, his stepfather.
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  It's very difficult and he he's born in in less than ideal
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  circumstances, but it doesn't change who he is.
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  It doesn't change his intent based on how people treat him.
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  He's going to continue to maintain his identity and
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  maintain his dignity to carry out his mission, regardless of
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  how his mission is received or perceived by the people around
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  him. Isn't it powerful that that that
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  Christ like love, the willingness to forgive and to
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  keep reaching out, that has the power to change hearts, to
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  soften them, to allow room for the Spirit to come?
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  Ramona I specifically watch through the story as his will
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  and his pleasures and his desires change because of what
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  Ammon teaches him and shows him, and because of the love that
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  Ammon demonstrates for him and his people.
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  It's very Christ like. In fact, if if we were to to
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  show a simple measuring meter here, we'll call this the the
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  readiness O meter. And it can it can go from not at
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  all ready. We're running on empty all the
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  way to full and wherever, wherever this theoretical meter
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  happens to be pointing somewhere in this area, you're not at all
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  ready to hear the gospel somewhere in here in this middle
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  section. Depending on the situation, you
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  could be receptive and somewhere over in this upper third part of
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  this readiness O meter gauge, you're ready to believe and and
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  the teacher can be ill prepared and you're still going to
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  benefit from it because you're tuned into the spirit.
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  I love this story because Ammon comes in and he doesn't lead out
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  with Lamoni. You're wicked, your people are
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  terrible, and I've come to preach repentance to you and to
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  baptize you and to help you be saved.
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  He doesn't do that because he recognizes that Lemona is not
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  ready for the gospel. He's one of the attributes that
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  he's clearly developed is this attribute of patience and
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  long-suffering and an attribute of willing submission to be that
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  instrument in God's hand, to wait for things to develop until
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  situations will occur that will cause Limoni's heart and mind to
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  be softened and turned heavenward.
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  And only then will he teach the gospel in in a beautiful way
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  later on in this chapter. Yes, so jumping in with the
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  story, then watch for for the Savior's character in this
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  through like we had on the board there.
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  This is beautiful. Jesus Christ is all over in this
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  chapter, so pay attention. Yeah.
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  So he begins by saying that the king asks him in verse 22 if it
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  was Ammon's desire to dwell in the land among the Lamanites or
• 27:25
  among his people. I love Ammon's Christ like
• 27:29
  response. This this heir to the Nephite
• 27:32
  throne, how he responds to this question?
• 27:35
  And Ammon said unto him, Yeah, I desire to dwell among these
• 27:38
  people for a time, yeah, perhaps until the day I die.
• 27:42
  So the Saviour was the kind of leader that didn't dwell aloof
• 27:48
  or apart from the people. He walked their soil, He
• 27:53
  breathed their air, He took their infirmities upon him,
• 28:00
  their flesh and the struggles of of mortality upon him.
• 28:05
  And then the king, being so pleased with Ammon, says, hey,
• 28:10
  do you, do you want to marry one of my daughters?
• 28:14
  He he wants Ammon to be his son-in-law.
• 28:17
  And Ammon's response is pretty simple here.
• 28:21
  No, but I will be thy servant. I love that Christ like
• 28:25
  response. I want to be thy servant.
• 28:29
  He who could have had all this ruling power among the Nephites
• 28:34
  takes on this servant role among the Lamanites.
• 28:39
  It's it's a beautiful principle. Once again, every time you get a
• 28:45
  calling in the church, brothers and sisters, those callings are
• 28:50
  not intended to hurt you or to be a a major infliction of pain
• 28:59
  or disruption of your life. Those callings are an invitation
• 29:05
  for each of us to become a little bit more like Jesus
• 29:08
  Christ by sacrificing our time, our energy, our talents to
• 29:15
  benefit other people and to try to connect them with the Lord,
• 29:17
  to become their servant. Not so we can get something from
• 29:21
  them, but so we can give things to them.
• 29:24
  I love this part. That that is so Christ like.
• 29:29
  His whole mission was never to get something out of us or to
• 29:32
  take things from us. His whole mission is to invest
• 29:36
  everything he has in us. That is powerful.
• 29:40
  So then the assignment he receives is to go and watch the
• 29:46
  flocks of Limoni. I can't think of too many other
• 29:50
  symbol symbolic assignments he could have received that are
• 29:54
  more Christ like than I want you to be a shepherd.
• 29:58
  Go watch over the flocks because he's not just a shepherd.
• 30:04
  He becomes a Good Shepherd, one who is willing to to lay down
• 30:08
  his life even for the flock. And in this case, verse 26 tells
• 30:14
  us after he had been in the service of the king three days,
• 30:18
  he was with the Lamanitis servants going forth with their
• 30:22
  flocks to the place of water. And it makes me wonder, Kinley,
• 30:25
  what would, what would it be like at the end of day one as
• 30:31
  your Ammon serving among the flocks?
• 30:34
  What would it be like on day two?
• 30:36
  What, what would the the feelings of discouragement, or
• 30:41
  maybe the temptations from the devil be that are placed in his
• 30:46
  mind and his heart, as he's a a lowly servant among the flocks?
• 30:55
  I think that many of us feel that way often, right?
• 30:59
  And you have an assignment, you have a mission, so say, and you
• 31:04
  feel like maybe you're not making that much of a difference
• 31:08
  or like maybe you don't, you're not where you're supposed to be
• 31:11
  or you you came on this mission and you're not converting people
• 31:16
  right off the bat. You're not seeing the fruits
• 31:19
  right away. That is that is so relatable, is
• 31:23
  it not? And yet it's kind of like Elma
• 31:27
  teaches about faith. Those, those seeds that you
• 31:30
  plant, they take time to grow. You can't expect to, to put that
• 31:36
  seed in the soil and have a tree and eat the fruit the next day.
• 31:41
  And it is interesting to me that that Ammon seems to understand
• 31:45
  this. He is willing to to wait.
• 31:50
  He's willing to work on those small things as he waits.
• 31:54
  There is a good lesson there for all of us, rather than being
• 31:58
  frustrated, you know, maybe beating yourself up when things
• 32:03
  don't go exactly a plan, or when A+B doesn't equal C when you
• 32:08
  think it should. Trust the Lord, let God prevail.
• 32:12
  Keep doing the things you're supposed to be doing.
• 32:15
  Keep doing the small things. Keep putting yourself in those
• 32:18
  places where you can minister to people, where you can continue
• 32:23
  to work even if you don't see the fruits.
• 32:26
  And if you have to wait, you're in good company.
• 32:30
  I loved what you said earlier about Jesus Christ.
• 32:34
  Think of his, his mortal ministry.
• 32:37
  How many people were so quick to believe him and to stay with
• 32:41
  Him? He, He was the perfect teacher,
• 32:45
  the perfect missionary, the perfect disciple.
• 32:49
  And yet maybe there weren't as many fruits as one would expect
• 32:53
  right then. And yet you look far down the
• 32:57
  quarters of time at all the fruits, and they are numberless.
• 33:03
  So again, just keep that eternal perspective.
• 33:06
  Think celestial trust that God sees what's going to come of
• 33:11
  those little seeds that you're planting.
• 33:14
  So keep planting them. So now the story accelerates,
• 33:20
  verse 27. So he's been in the service of
• 33:23
  the king for three days. Back in verse 26 and 27, says
• 33:26
  therefore, his Ammon and the servants of the king were
• 33:28
  driving forth their flocks to the place of water.
• 33:31
  Behold, a certain number of Lamanites who had been with
• 33:34
  their flocks to water stood and scattered the flocks of Ammon
• 33:38
  and the servants of the king, and they scattered them in so
• 33:42
  much that they fled many ways. So this group who's already
• 33:45
  there, they scatter the flocks of Ammon and the Lamanite ish
• 33:49
  servants. And now we get a a beautiful
• 33:54
  insight into this story as you watch Ammon interact with these
• 33:59
  servants who are with him. Verse 28.
• 34:03
  Verse 28 Now the servants of the king began to murmur, saying,
• 34:07
  Now the king will slay us as he has our brethren, because their
• 34:11
  flocks were scattered, scattered by the wickedness of these men.
• 34:14
  And they began to weep exceedingly, saying, behold, our
• 34:18
  flocks are scattered already. They, they're in this position
• 34:22
  where they can't save themselves.
• 34:24
  They've lost something and they can't, they can't reclaim it,
• 34:28
  right? They they're in this very
• 34:31
  upsetting position. It sounds like many groups of
• 34:35
  servants have have been killed before for losing the flocks and
• 34:39
  they don't know what to do. They can't deliver themselves.
• 34:42
  We learned back in chapter 17, verse 15 that they did worship
• 34:48
  idols. So this is a people who have
• 34:53
  devoted their their religious devotion to idols, which means
• 35:00
  in the moment of struggle, in the moment of desperate need, if
• 35:06
  you turn to your God or your gods, these idols, I think the
• 35:12
  reality is, is stark for these servants is there's nothing our
• 35:19
  God can do to deliver us, to restore these flocks.
• 35:24
  We now become a victim of this circumstance that life has
• 35:30
  thrown at us. We're stuck.
• 35:32
  There's nothing, as Kenny said, there's nothing I can do to
• 35:34
  deliver myself and the God that I worship with the gods, in this
• 35:38
  case the idols, they can't deliver me.
• 35:42
  Isn't it fascinating that whatever you worship, like truly
• 35:49
  worship, you end up emulating or becoming more like that object
• 35:56
  of your worship? Well, if you worship an idol,
• 36:00
  then what you're going to do is become more idol spelled IDLE.
• 36:07
  That's exactly what's happening here is they're sitting down,
• 36:09
  giving up, saying life just got really complex and really hard
• 36:14
  and I can't fix it. So now I'm going to lament the
• 36:17
  fact that I've become a victim of this circumstance.
• 36:21
  Whereas on the opposite side, when you worship God, when you
• 36:27
  worship Jesus Christ, then you engage by using your agency to
• 36:35
  try to reflect that Christ like those Christ like attributes
• 36:40
  that he showed us throughout his life.
• 36:43
  You become more anxiously engaged in a good 'cause you
• 36:46
  deepen your faith. You don't lessen it you, you
• 36:51
  serve more, not less in this moment of of deep need.
• 36:56
  And he reflects that beautifully here.
• 37:00
  And in verse 29, this is this is Ammon's response to the
• 37:04
  situation. His heart was swollen within him
• 37:08
  for joy. For he said, I will show forth
• 37:11
  my power unto these my fellow servants.
• 37:13
  Pause and think of the Saviour and his power and what his
• 37:18
  mission was. As we read this next part, he
• 37:21
  says My power unto these my fellow servants, or the power
• 37:24
  which is in me in restoring the flocks to the king, that I may
• 37:29
  win the hearts of these my fellow servants, that I may lead
• 37:34
  them to believe in my words. I love the last word of that
• 37:38
  verse because if you take the S off, it's another name for Jesus
• 37:43
  Christ. This is the To me, this looks
• 37:48
  like the role of of all prophets through the ages.
• 37:52
  I love this connection between the Saviour, between his
• 37:56
  prophets in the past and especially his prophets today.
• 38:00
  Especially if you look at verse 31, I think this should sound
• 38:05
  very familiar from our current prophets and apostles.
• 38:10
  My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the
• 38:16
  flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back
• 38:20
  into the place of water, and thus we will preserve the flocks
• 38:24
  under the king. Is that not the message of of
• 38:28
  our prophets today? It's beautiful.
• 38:31
  You have the layers of of symbolism here, of course, Ammon
• 38:34
  teaching Jesus Christ, picture him offering these words with
• 38:39
  our heavenly king being the one he's restoring the flock to, and
• 38:43
  then the living prophets and the past prophets inviting us to
• 38:48
  come into that folk to be part of that flock.
• 38:52
  Beautiful. I love this, this gathering
• 38:55
  Israel on both sides of the veil.
• 38:59
  Those waters of Cebus could be the waters of baptism for
• 39:04
  missionary efforts on this side of the Vale, and they could be
• 39:08
  the waters in a baptismal font in the temples of our God that
• 39:13
  dot the earth. And we're being invited by the
• 39:19
  Lord to be servants or instruments in his hand, to go
• 39:23
  out and gather those flocks back into this place of water, the
• 39:29
  place of safety, where those covenants can be established and
• 39:34
  people can enter into this covenant community of
• 39:38
  discipleship jointly and and collectively with the Lord.
• 39:44
  It's such a, a beautiful symbol. Now, most of that group of
• 39:48
  Lamanites, they assume that there's a Nephite.
• 39:53
  Any one of us could beat him, and all of a sudden rocks start
• 39:57
  coming into their group and some of their number begin to die.
• 40:02
  He's hitting them with such force and with such accuracy
• 40:06
  that he's killing them. So halfway through verse 36, it
• 40:10
  tells you that they began to be astonished at his power.
• 40:13
  Nevertheless, they were angry because of the slain of their
• 40:15
  brethren, and they were determined that he should fall.
• 40:20
  So now they they say, let's go get him.
• 40:22
  So they rush him with their clubs.
• 40:25
  Their swords with their weapons and I love this.
• 40:29
  It says everyone who lifted his club to smite Ammon, he smote
• 40:33
  off their arms with his sword for he did withstand their blows
• 40:37
  by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword in so much
• 40:40
  that they began to be astonished.
• 40:42
  This is the second time they began to be astonished.
• 40:44
  Their little little slow on the uptake here and then it tells
• 40:48
  you in verse 38 that he had slain 6 of them by the sword and
• 40:54
  or by the sling and their leader he slew by the sword.
• 40:58
  I don't know about you, but if I were one of the Lamanite ish
• 41:03
  servants who is huddled down near the flock trying to keep
• 41:07
  them together and I'm watching this take place.
• 41:12
  I think my readiness to learn, my willingness to listen to this
• 41:19
  guy is going to go up significantly.
• 41:22
  I'm noticing something. He's not acting in in normal
• 41:28
  human capacities. There's something different
• 41:31
  about this guy. And when he finishes, he doesn't
• 41:38
  gloat. He doesn't say, did you all see
• 41:42
  that? He simply says, what was the
• 41:46
  next thing that the king had asked us to do as his servants?
• 41:50
  He continues serving. He he doesn't draw attention to
• 41:54
  what he's accomplished. Beautiful.
• 41:57
  And that conclusion in verse 39, again with the image of our Good
• 42:03
  Shepherd. They watered their flocks and
• 42:06
  returned them to the pasture of the king.
• 42:09
  Just just remember, whatever the struggle, whatever the
• 42:13
  difficulty being faced, in the end, if Jesus is the shepherd
• 42:18
  for you, then the story will end peacefully.
• 42:22
  Ultimately, everything will be made right.
• 42:24
  The flock will be watered with living water and returned to the
• 42:29
  pasture of their heavenly King. I love that now in chapter 18,
• 42:36
  they take these these arms before King Lamoni and Ammons
• 42:41
  out in the stables getting the the horses and the Chariots
• 42:45
  ready to go. And there's this amazing
• 42:51
  realization that strikes King Limoni in verse five.
• 42:56
  Here's Limoni who has the first recognition of this influence of
• 43:03
  the Holy Ghost working upon him, causing him to think and feel
• 43:07
  things that he's never felt before.
• 43:10
  Verse five says, Now this was the tradition of Limoni, which
• 43:14
  he had received from his father, that there was a great spirit.
• 43:19
  Notwithstanding they believed in a great spirit.
• 43:21
  They suppose that whatsoever they did was right.
• 43:25
  So he's been raised. Whatever you do, it's right.
• 43:29
  You define rightness or righteousness by your own
• 43:35
  volition, by whatever you choose to think or say or do, you
• 43:40
  define it. It's all good.
• 43:41
  And now for the first time in his life, it says, nevertheless,
• 43:46
  Lamona began to fear exceedingly with fear lest he had done wrong
• 43:50
  in slaying his servants. So his readiness starts creeping
• 43:54
  up after he sees the the evidence.
• 43:57
  Here's the testimony of these servants.
• 44:00
  Now the Holy Ghost carries a message deeper into his heart.
• 44:04
  None of those servants came in and said, King Lamona, you were
• 44:07
  wrong to kill the servants before us.
• 44:09
  They didn't say that they're letting the Holy Ghost do that
• 44:12
  teaching. They're just showing the
• 44:14
  scenario, giving their witness and the Lord's doing the rest.
• 44:20
  And isn't that interesting that one of the first, first steps
• 44:23
  for Lamoni on his readiness, O meteor is recognizing his need
• 44:30
  for help, for for saving, that he's done something wrong, He
• 44:35
  needs help. That's our story too, is
• 44:38
  recognizing that we need Jesus Christ every day, every hour.
• 44:45
  Now the next increase on his, on his willingness to hear the
• 44:50
  gospel, on his level of readiness, we see it in verse
• 44:54
  10. He had asked where, where's
• 44:57
  Ammon now? And they said, well, he's out
• 44:58
  preparing the horses and Chariots.
• 45:00
  And verse 10 says, when King Lemon, I had heard this, he was
• 45:04
  more astonished because of the faithfulness of Ammon saying
• 45:09
  surely there has not been any servant among all my servants
• 45:12
  that has been so faithful as this man, for even he does
• 45:15
  remember all my commandments to execute them.
• 45:20
  I hope that that reminds you of more than just Ammon's story.
• 45:23
  I hope you're hearing reflected there the Christ like example of
• 45:30
  the one person who perfectly remembered all of the
• 45:34
  commandments given to him by God and he perfectly did them.
• 45:39
  In fact, once again, if Ammon were here, I could be wrong, but
• 45:44
  I don't think Ammon would say, see how good and faithful I was,
• 45:49
  see what a great example I was. I think Ammon wouldn't draw the
• 45:52
  attention to himself. I think Ammon might say I was
• 45:57
  simply trying to reflect the divine attributes of Jesus
• 46:01
  Christ. It wasn't about me.
• 46:03
  It was about trying to become more like him.
• 46:07
  That reminds me of just a small insight that a friend of our
• 46:11
  family shared, that rather than holding yourself up as a light,
• 46:16
  you, you hold up a mirror to reflect the Saviour's light
• 46:20
  through you. That through you people don't
• 46:23
  don't see you and think, oh, that's the light.
• 46:25
  They see you and they know the saviour better for having
• 46:29
  interacted with you. And they walk away knowing,
• 46:33
  knowing more about the light in the Saviour's eyes, because they
• 46:37
  could see it indoors. I love that.
• 46:40
  And and that builds. You see that exact scenario play
• 46:45
  out in verses 12 through through 17 when Ammon now comes in for
• 46:51
  that interaction with King Lamoni.
• 46:54
  And you can almost picture Ammon saying, where are we on the
• 46:59
  readiness O meter? And he recognizes that, OK,
• 47:04
  Lamoni is in a better place. We have a little more
• 47:08
  interaction here, this back and forth, give and take in the
• 47:13
  conversation as Lamoni becomes even more amazed as Ammon reads
• 47:18
  his his mind, reads his thoughts, discerns that the the
• 47:23
  thoughts of his mind and the feelings in his heart.
• 47:27
  And then finally Ammon asks him this question.
• 47:30
  Verse 22 Wilt thou hearken unto my words?
• 47:34
  If I tell thee by what power I do these things?
• 47:37
  And the king said, yeah, I will believe all thy words.
• 47:41
  In other words, the King's readiness level is now over here
• 47:48
  now. And only now can Ammon with
• 47:51
  confidence teach the the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ
• 47:57
  and know that it will be received.
• 48:00
  He's not just throwing out random seeds like the parable of
• 48:04
  the sower. At this point, he knows this man
• 48:07
  is ready. He's ready to hear and respond
• 48:11
  to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what a beautiful moment this
• 48:15
  must have been. I love too, that Limona is
• 48:18
  asking so many questions here, but he's not asking in an
• 48:22
  accusatory or a doubtful way. He is asking with a desire to
• 48:27
  believe. I find that when I ask those
• 48:30
  kind of questions, it is like opening opening a floodgate for
• 48:35
  the Spirit. When you ask with a sincere
• 48:39
  desire to believe, even if you have to wait for the answer a
• 48:42
  long time, the Spirit will be there and that answer will come.
• 48:47
  And so now verse 24 that there's a word that sticks out to me.
• 48:52
  It says And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said
• 48:56
  unto him, Believeth thou that there is a God?
• 49:00
  I like the fact that Ammon has prepared the situation in such a
• 49:05
  way that he knows that the Lord is going to be doing the real
• 49:10
  teaching here. And so he can now teach with
• 49:12
  boldness. He's not holding back.
• 49:15
  He's not tentative, he's not testing the water, so to speak.
• 49:19
  He's now speaking with boldness. And he begins with question
• 49:24
  number one, Do you believe in God?
• 49:27
  At which point Lamona is very confused, doesn't know what that
• 49:31
  means. And then Ammon finds him where
• 49:35
  he is in his level of understanding.
• 49:38
  Verse 26, he said, believe it's that there is a great spirit.
• 49:41
  And he said, yeah, shortest verse in the Book of Mormon.
• 49:44
  By the way, verse 27, there are a few of them these these four
• 49:47
  word verses. And he said, yeah.
• 49:50
  And Ammon said, this is God. I love how Ammon doesn't make
• 49:56
  fun of King Limoni for a partial truth belief.
• 50:02
  He doesn't tear down what King Lamoni believes to then say, now
• 50:06
  let me now that I've destroyed your faith, let me build it
• 50:10
  afresh the right way. He doesn't do that.
• 50:13
  He finds King Lamoni where he is and he builds on that.
• 50:19
  It reminds me of one of my all time favorite phrases that
• 50:24
  President Gordon B Hinckley shared on a variety of occasions
• 50:29
  when it comes to this topic of of gathering Israel on this side
• 50:33
  of the veil. His invitation was bring all the
• 50:36
  good that you have and see if we can add to it.
• 50:41
  We're confident that that the Lord will add to your belief.
• 50:45
  So I love that pattern here. And then you look as Ammon, as
• 50:49
  soon as he's got that, that gauge on the readiness O meter,
• 50:53
  what are the first things he teaches?
• 50:56
  I think it's beautiful that you see this in our living prophets
• 50:59
  today as well. They teach the correct identity
• 51:02
  of God and then our correct identity.
• 51:07
  He teaches who God is and then that we are his children.
• 51:11
  Think about what a foundation, just that knowledge is.
• 51:15
  If you understand correctly who God is, then you are so much
• 51:20
  better able to understand correctly who you are and who
• 51:24
  you can become through Jesus Christ.
• 51:27
  It's powerful. So after addressing the identity
• 51:31
  of God, as Kinley said in verse 36, we get the doctrine of the
• 51:36
  creation and then he gives the doctrine of the fall,
• 51:42
  establishing our absolute need for the Savior.
• 51:47
  And then he unfolds the Holy Scriptures in front of King
• 51:52
  Lemoni because he hasn't had them, the access to these
• 51:58
  scripture stories. And he then hits the principle
• 52:04
  of redemption. So he hit creation, fall and the
• 52:09
  atonement of Jesus Christ in verse 39, This plan of
• 52:13
  redemption that requires the coming of Christ.
• 52:18
  And once Limoni has heard this message, his heart, we already
• 52:25
  recognized, was open. Look at his response in verse
• 52:29
  41. And he began to cry unto the
• 52:31
  Lord, saying, Oh Lord, have mercy, according to thy abundant
• 52:36
  mercy which thou hast upon the people of Nephi, have upon me
• 52:41
  and upon my people. And when he had said this, he
• 52:44
  fell unto the earth, as if he were dead.
• 52:47
  God is now going to take this this Lamanite king over the
• 52:53
  people of Ishmael and he's going to give him a three day
• 52:57
  experience where As for all intents and purposes, many
• 53:03
  people think he's he's dead, but he's anything but dead.
• 53:09
  He's dead to the world, but he's now waking up and becoming alive
• 53:15
  in Christ. The Lord is shaping and molding
• 53:20
  another instrument through the the efforts of Ammon's
• 53:25
  missionary efforts among this people.
• 53:28
  And it begins here with with King Limoni.
• 53:31
  It's amazing to watch these real people go through these real
• 53:35
  experiences and make real lasting connections, deep,
• 53:41
  lifelong connections with the Lord and with each other.
• 53:46
  So he's he is in this state of a coma as he's on the spiritual
• 53:52
  reforming journey with the Lord and his wife, King Lamoni's
• 53:57
  wife, is sitting by his bedside when many people are coming to
• 54:03
  her saying he's dead, you need to bury him.
• 54:06
  And she doesn't believe that he's dead.
• 54:11
  But she has nothing to go on. So she calls Ammon in.
• 54:15
  And Ammon, who came on this mission among the Lamanites to
• 54:18
  increase faith among the Lamanites, he now gets this
• 54:22
  interaction with this incredibly faithful woman.
• 54:26
  And I love what he says here. And when he tells her, verse
• 54:30
  eight, he is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the
• 54:35
  Morrow he shall rise again. So Ammon asks her this very,
• 54:39
  very simple question. Believest thou this?
• 54:42
  And she said unto him, I have no witness save thy word, and the
• 54:47
  word of our servants. Nevertheless, I believe that it
• 54:51
  shall be according as thou hast said.
• 54:54
  So Ammon, this great missionary from the Nephites, who came to
• 54:57
  to save the Lamanites from unbelief, he makes this comment,
• 55:02
  Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith.
• 55:05
  I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith
• 55:10
  among all the people of the Nephites.
• 55:13
  I love this he's saying I came to to teach the gospel to you
• 55:18
  people and increase your faith, but I haven't seen your level of
• 55:24
  faith among all of my people who are supposedly that the
• 55:28
  righteous group of people. And it's it's this beautiful
• 55:32
  principle that God has scattered faith in him broadcast.
• 55:40
  And some of those seeds have grown and are have produced
• 55:44
  grapefruit, not just in the church or the fold of God, but
• 55:49
  in other peoples throughout the world.
• 55:52
  And what an amazing thing it is to hear stories and meet people
• 55:59
  who have found the gospel of Jesus Christ from places and in
• 56:04
  cultures and in settings. You would have never thought it
• 56:06
  was possible for them to have any kind of faith, and yet they
• 56:10
  do so. Then the next day at the
• 56:15
  appointed hour, Lamoni rises up and noticed the very first words
• 56:21
  out of his mouth. In verse 12.
• 56:23
  He says he stretched forth his hand unto the woman his wife,
• 56:28
  and said, Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou.
• 56:35
  Because he came closer to the Lord, it now caused him not just
• 56:40
  to see his own relationship with God more clearly, but his
• 56:44
  relationship with the one other person that he's commanded in
• 56:49
  Scripture to love with all of his heart, and that is his his
• 56:54
  wife. So he blesses the name of God,
• 56:57
  and he blesses her. And then he responds, For I am
• 57:01
  for as sure as thou livest, behold, I have seen my Redeemer,
• 57:06
  and he shall come forth and be born of a woman, and he shall
• 57:10
  redeem all mankind who believe on his name.
• 57:14
  And then his heart is swollen, and he falls down again, and so
• 57:17
  does she, and so does Ammon. And it's this incredible domino
• 57:23
  effect for those people, this outpouring Pentecostal levels of
• 57:29
  an outpouring of the Spirit, and they're overcome.
• 57:32
  And I love the word joy. This is they sync with joy.
• 57:36
  It reminds me of of another quote by President Nelson where
• 57:40
  he said the joy we feel has little to do with the
• 57:43
  circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus
• 57:47
  of our lives. And you saw that in the first
• 57:50
  words out of Limoni's mouth. He's talking to his wife about
• 57:55
  about his Redeemer. And this testimony he has, that
• 58:00
  is, that is a joy that all of us can carry in our own hearts,
• 58:04
  that joy that comes from knowing the Saviour, from from learning
• 58:10
  about him and, and being filled with gratitude for everything
• 58:16
  that he has done for us. So in verse 16, we're introduced
• 58:20
  to this incredible disciple of of Christ.
• 58:25
  But once again, this is a disciple that is found in a very
• 58:31
  non conventional place. You wouldn't expect to find a
• 58:35
  disciple here among the Lamanites in the land of Ishmael
• 58:40
  or in the city of Ishmael. It says everyone fell to the
• 58:44
  earth save it were one of the Lamanite ish women.
• 58:48
  There's that word again. Abish isn't a full Lamanite and
• 58:54
  we don't know what Mormon meant by using the label Lamanite ish.
• 58:58
  But she's part Lamanite, part something else.
• 59:01
  Maybe an outsider. She's a servant to the Queen, so
• 59:05
  we don't know her her level of of status in their socio in
• 59:11
  their social levels at that time.
• 59:15
  But she's a Lamanitish woman and her name is Abish.
• 59:19
  She having been converted under the Lord for many years on
• 59:22
  account of a remarkable vision of her father.
• 59:27
  Abish has quietly been worshipping the Lord.
• 59:32
  She's been converted unto the Lord for many years and living
• 59:37
  her life accordingly. And yet, during all that time of
• 59:41
  her conversion, here she is as a Lamanitish servant to the Queen.
• 59:47
  She's not giving up on her conversion to the Lord because
• 59:51
  life isn't all of a sudden becoming prosperous and and rich
• 59:56
  for her. She just keeps moving forward
• 1:00:00
  with what she has available to her and that is her agency to
• 1:00:05
  stay converted to the Lord. I think it's interesting here
• 1:00:09
  that that when everyone else has has fallen down, overcome with
• 1:00:12
  this joy, isn't it kind of interesting that the one person
• 1:00:17
  that doesn't is someone that's been been converted already,
• 1:00:21
  that has experienced the spirit before now I've thought about
• 1:00:26
  this occasionally that she may have, I don't know, it's easy to
• 1:00:30
  compare. She may have thought to herself
• 1:00:33
  and wondered, well, why? Why am I not having this
• 1:00:35
  experience? Why?
• 1:00:37
  Why not me? I've been faithful all this
• 1:00:39
  time. But she doesn't do that.
• 1:00:43
  She she walks around and she sees an opportunity to to invite
• 1:00:48
  others to come and to know the Saviour better.
• 1:00:51
  I think there's a powerful lesson there that comparison
• 1:00:55
  when we look at our own circumstances and our own lives
• 1:00:58
  and we compare them to others and we say, oh, they're more
• 1:01:00
  faithful than I am because of this blessing and this thing in
• 1:01:04
  their lives are all this is going different for them than
• 1:01:07
  for me. I must not have as much faith as
• 1:01:09
  them. Maybe maybe take a step back
• 1:01:12
  from those comparisons and just give the word your best efforts
• 1:01:17
  and don't worry about the results or what comes of it.
• 1:01:21
  Just give your efforts, give your whole soul.
• 1:01:24
  And then what the what the word work miracles through you.
• 1:01:28
  And sometimes those miracles may surprise you in the way that
• 1:01:32
  they come about, as in this setting here where she leaves
• 1:01:36
  and she goes from house to house and she invites all the people
• 1:01:39
  to come and see what the Lord has done.
• 1:01:42
  And then in the in the next page, we get some interesting
• 1:01:46
  responses to this. I think you namely one of them
• 1:01:50
  being that what most of the people see when they first
• 1:01:53
  arrive is that there's a Nephite.
• 1:01:57
  Now that's also interesting to me.
• 1:01:58
  How often do you look at someone and make a quick judgement just
• 1:02:02
  based off of what you see? You don't know anything about
• 1:02:04
  them, but you see, Oh, that's that's in me fight.
• 1:02:09
  Interesting, huh, that they, they look at a prophet of God
• 1:02:13
  and the first thing they see has nothing to do with his
• 1:02:16
  character, his soul, his, his mission, nothing of that.
• 1:02:20
  It's just one quick look at how he how he appears to them.
• 1:02:25
  I love that insight and to the point where the the group starts
• 1:02:29
  to murmur some of them and one of them whose brother had been
• 1:02:35
  killed by Ammon out of the waters of Cibus, he comes
• 1:02:39
  forward and he's angry and he it says verse 22.
• 1:02:44
  Now one of them, whose brother had been slain with the sword of
• 1:02:47
  Ammon, being exceedingly angry with Ammon, drew his sword and
• 1:02:51
  went forth that he might let it fall upon Ammon to slay him.
• 1:02:55
  And as he lifted the sword to smite him, behold, he fell dead.
• 1:03:01
  Now that had to be a shocking moment for everybody who was
• 1:03:04
  standing there, less shocking for Abish.
• 1:03:09
  But I love verse 23, because Mormon jumps in.
• 1:03:12
  He doesn't say thus we see, but he says, Now we see that Ammon
• 1:03:19
  could not be slain, for the Lord had said unto Mosiah his father,
• 1:03:23
  I will spare him, and it shall be unto him according to thy
• 1:03:28
  faith. Therefore Mosiah trusted him
• 1:03:32
  unto the Lord. I love this.
• 1:03:35
  When Scriptures validate and illustrate God's perfected
• 1:03:40
  attributes, and one of God's attributes is he isn't just a
• 1:03:44
  God of power with the ability to protect and save.
• 1:03:47
  He's also a God of truth. He cannot lie.
• 1:03:51
  And he told King Mosiah, if you let your boys go on this
• 1:03:54
  mission, I will deliver them. And no power on earth or in hell
• 1:04:00
  combined can overthrow your boys in in this context, because the
• 1:04:04
  promise has been given by God. That is such a powerful part of
• 1:04:10
  the story for me. We can move forward with that
• 1:04:14
  boldness that comes in Christ, not, not in our own strength of
• 1:04:20
  our own arm, our own ability to deliver ourselves, but in God's
• 1:04:24
  ability. Because you'll notice Ammon,
• 1:04:26
  he's, he's passed out on the ground.
• 1:04:29
  He has no way to defend himself against this sword, but God can
• 1:04:33
  deliver him. And God did deliver him.
• 1:04:38
  And it causes now people who when they first came into this
• 1:04:41
  setting and made that quick judgment, Kinley was talking
• 1:04:44
  about of oh, there's a a terrible Nephite here.
• 1:04:48
  It changes their readiness Ometer from hating him to now
• 1:04:54
  wondering what in the world just happened.
• 1:04:59
  And they noticed that that he can't he can't be slain, causing
• 1:05:05
  their hearts to now start reacting.
• 1:05:09
  You have an interesting contrast here as we, as we move forward
• 1:05:13
  with the story of so Avish comes back and she sees all this
• 1:05:18
  contention. Now that was not her intent at
• 1:05:21
  all. But I think it's interesting
• 1:05:24
  that we are taught that that the devil is the father of
• 1:05:27
  contention. He's the one that stirs people
• 1:05:30
  up to anger. And our saviour is called the
• 1:05:33
  Prince of Peace. And look at what happens as as
• 1:05:38
  Avish wakes up the queen and then the king stands up and
• 1:05:43
  these people listening to their their king and queen now testify
• 1:05:47
  of truth. You get this, this beautiful
• 1:05:51
  feeling of, of peace. There's no longer fighting going
• 1:05:57
  on, at least not in the same way.
• 1:05:59
  It says in verse 31 that as many as heard his words Speaking of
• 1:06:05
  Ammon believed and were converted.
• 1:06:08
  And then verse 32, but there were many of among them who
• 1:06:11
  would not hear his words. And when I first, when I first
• 1:06:14
  read this, I don't know that I I interpreted it as deeply as it
• 1:06:18
  can be because the next line. Therefore, they went their way.
• 1:06:23
  These are all people in the same room.
• 1:06:26
  They're all hearing the same message.
• 1:06:28
  And some of them are opening their hearts to this and others,
• 1:06:33
  others would not hear this is this is not talking about just
• 1:06:37
  sound on an eardrum. They're hearing these words, but
• 1:06:41
  they would not hear in their hearts.
• 1:06:44
  And they went their way. And so the lesson here for me is
• 1:06:49
  again, going back to, to what we talked about at the beginning,
• 1:06:53
  being willing to sacrifice, to set aside our, our will, our own
• 1:06:59
  way, to walk in the Saviour's way.
• 1:07:03
  I think that's that's a powerful lesson.
• 1:07:06
  It's also beautiful to note what the very first words out of King
• 1:07:11
  Limoni's wife's mouth happened to be when a Bush lifts her up
• 1:07:16
  in the midst of all that contention, The very first word
• 1:07:20
  she says, O blessed Jesus, who has saved me from an awful hell,
• 1:07:27
  O blessed God, have mercy on this people.
• 1:07:33
  She, like Limoni, is now turned outward.
• 1:07:37
  The closer you come to God, the more you have the ability to see
• 1:07:44
  other people from God's perspective.
• 1:07:47
  The more you understand them, the more you love them, even if
• 1:07:51
  they're doing bad things. It it reflects that Christ like
• 1:07:54
  statement on the cross. Father, forgive them for they
• 1:07:58
  know not what they do. It's this divine compassion that
• 1:08:04
  becomes more a part of us. We become less offended by
• 1:08:07
  people doing bad things or saying bad things or treating us
• 1:08:12
  poorly. And our prayer becomes
• 1:08:15
  increasingly, oh, bless this people.
• 1:08:18
  So now you come to chapter 20, in the midst of this great
• 1:08:23
  success that Ammon's enjoying in the the land of Ishmael, the
• 1:08:28
  city of Ishmael, with King Lemoni's people there, other
• 1:08:33
  missionaries who came down to the land of or up in this case
• 1:08:38
  to the land of Nephi. All of Ammon's brothers as well
• 1:08:43
  as the companions that came with them, they've run into a little
• 1:08:46
  bit of trouble. And the Holy Ghost warns Ammon
• 1:08:51
  to leave and go to the land of Madonna to get Aaron and his his
• 1:08:58
  brethren, Molokai and Amma, you know, at least two of the names
• 1:09:03
  of these companions that came with them, get them out of
• 1:09:06
  prison as well. When King Lemona hears this, he
• 1:09:10
  says, wait a minute. How did you know that they're in
• 1:09:14
  prison, that they need to be delivered?
• 1:09:16
  And he very simply says, there's there's no other way to know but
• 1:09:20
  by the the Holy Spirit. And so he says, well, I'll go
• 1:09:24
  with you because the king in the land of Madonna, he's he's my
• 1:09:28
  friend Andiamno, and and I'll help you.
• 1:09:30
  And so thus begins this journey, which is interrupted on the way
• 1:09:35
  from Ishmael to Madonnai by running into King Limoni's
• 1:09:39
  father, who happens to be the king over all the land of the
• 1:09:43
  Lamanites. And if you want to consider a
• 1:09:46
  readiness O meter that is really struggling, it would be this old
• 1:09:51
  King's level of of preparedness to hear the gospel.
• 1:09:56
  Because when he first sees him, he does exactly what Kinley had
• 1:10:00
  mentioned before of saying verse 10, Whither art thou going with
• 1:10:06
  this Nephite who is one of the children of a liar?
• 1:10:10
  He's instantaneously judged Ammon to be this terrible person
• 1:10:16
  because of their traditions among the Lane Knights.
• 1:10:19
  It's interesting, his response to Ramona's story of everything
• 1:10:23
  that's happened is is anger, and it says that Lamoni is is
• 1:10:28
  astonished. Later on, later on in this
• 1:10:32
  story, the king is astonished because of Ammon's love for
• 1:10:38
  Lamoni. What an interesting comparison.
• 1:10:41
  There's astonishment on both sides, but on one there's this
• 1:10:45
  hate and anger and bitterness, and on the other there's this,
• 1:10:49
  this love and forgiveness, these open arms.
• 1:10:54
  That's, that's a beautiful pattern of, of the Saviour and
• 1:10:58
  what he offers us. It's beautiful.
• 1:11:02
  I love this because if you contrast for a moment the way
• 1:11:06
  King Limoni's father is looking at Ammon compared to how Ammon
• 1:11:11
  is seeing King Limoni's father. It's this beautiful set of the
• 1:11:15
  Kinley talked about the the contrast between the way God
• 1:11:19
  sees us and the way the devil sees us in that Lamoni is
• 1:11:25
  standing there and his dad is saying, Lamoni, you will kill
• 1:11:29
  this Nephite. And Lamoni says no, no, I'm not
• 1:11:33
  going to do that. He doesn't give his dad the
• 1:11:35
  details, but to say nobody can kill him.
• 1:11:38
  And if you like your arm, I would suggest that you stay away
• 1:11:42
  from him as well. We don't get that part of the
• 1:11:45
  story. But King Lamoni's father, when
• 1:11:48
  he recognizes that his own son won't kill this Nephite, he then
• 1:11:52
  turns his hatred from Ammon to his own son.
• 1:11:58
  So if we were looking at a readiness Ometer for King
• 1:12:02
  Lamoni's father, it's nowhere in this quadrant.
• 1:12:05
  In fact, it's going to very quickly break.
• 1:12:10
  It's going to drop off of the readiness Ometer altogether
• 1:12:14
  because he now comes forth to kill his own son.
• 1:12:19
  At which point where is the Christ like position for Emin to
• 1:12:23
  to take in this scenario? And this is where Emin comes
• 1:12:28
  between Lemonade and this, this threatening danger for this,
• 1:12:35
  this stressful situation. And now, as the story unfolds,
• 1:12:40
  we go back to this first screen of what are you willing to
• 1:12:46
  sacrifice? What are you willing to give up
• 1:12:49
  and why are you willing to give that up?
• 1:12:52
  And we see this play out as King Lamonai's father tries to attack
• 1:12:57
  his own son and and Lamona is defended by Ammon.
• 1:13:01
  Ammon withstood the blows of the king and then paralyzes
• 1:13:06
  basically his the the King's arms and has him on the sword's
• 1:13:12
  edge. He he can kill him and the king
• 1:13:15
  recognizes that. So the king is going to make an
• 1:13:18
  offering. He's going to sacrifice
• 1:13:21
  something in verse 23. 23 Now the king, fearing he should lose
• 1:13:26
  his life, said, If thou wilt spare me, I will grant unto thee
• 1:13:30
  whatsoever thou wilt ask, even to half of my Kingdom.
• 1:13:35
  So the thing he's willing to sacrifice is half of an earthly
• 1:13:42
  Kingdom in exchange for his life.
• 1:13:49
  That's the that's the, the exchange that is being offered
• 1:13:52
  this great exchange. Give me my life.
• 1:13:54
  I'll give you half of my Kingdom, which by the way, not a
• 1:13:58
  great offering because which half of the Kingdom is going to
• 1:14:01
  want to follow an ethite? And even if you do give him half
• 1:14:05
  of the Kingdom, how hard is it going to be to poison him or
• 1:14:09
  kill him in his sleep? This is this is a very Earth's
• 1:14:15
  perspective, offering or sacrifice that King of Mai's
• 1:14:19
  father is making because he has been led to believe that all
• 1:14:23
  Nephites are money grubbing, power hungry thieves who are
• 1:14:29
  willing to do anything to to take away things that that you
• 1:14:33
  have that that's his perspective.
• 1:14:37
  Can you picture the look on Ammon's face as he looks down at
• 1:14:39
  the king? Not with greed in his eyes, but
• 1:14:44
  with love and kindness and compassion.
• 1:14:47
  Not with rebuke, but with charity reflected there as he
• 1:14:51
  says, no, I don't want any of your Kingdom.
• 1:14:55
  I don't want anything that you have to offer me.
• 1:14:57
  I just want two things. I want my brothers released from
• 1:15:00
  prison and I want your son to be able to have some religious
• 1:15:05
  freedom. I want your son to be able to do
• 1:15:07
  whatever he wants to do in worshipping God.
• 1:15:10
  That's all I want. And at that point, the readiness
• 1:15:14
  ometer for this old king starts to go in fast motion.
• 1:15:20
  So after Ammon gets Aaron and his brethren out of prison, they
• 1:15:26
  ask the question, how did you how did you accomplish all of
• 1:15:28
  this? He gives the the examples and
• 1:15:32
  then Aaron goes to meet with this king and you get this
• 1:15:39
  incredible story of in chapter 22 of Aaron coming into this old
• 1:15:46
  king thinking it's going to be like it was for Ammon at the
• 1:15:50
  beginning with Limoni where you're going to have to serve
• 1:15:52
  him first and wait for the Lord to to set up the scenario where
• 1:15:56
  he's ready to be taught. The problem is, is when they
• 1:15:59
  walk in and offer in verse three, we will be thy servants.
• 1:16:04
  The king said unto them, arise, for I will grant unto you your
• 1:16:06
  lives and I will not suffer. You shall be my servants, but I
• 1:16:09
  will insist that you shall administer unto me.
• 1:16:11
  And he goes on to say, I don't need any more servants.
• 1:16:13
  What I need right now is somebody to teach me, and I'm
• 1:16:16
  ready to learn. And so Aaron launches into this
• 1:16:20
  beautiful discussion. And I love in verse three, he
• 1:16:23
  also mentions that his mind has been troubled.
• 1:16:26
  He's been wrestling and thinking about these things because of
• 1:16:30
  the generosity and greatness of their brother Ammon.
• 1:16:34
  Now think of those two words describing our Savior,
• 1:16:38
  generosity and greatness. The beautiful thing here being
• 1:16:42
  that when we try to emulate the Savior, when we we sing with all
• 1:16:46
  our hearts, I'm trying to be like Jesus.
• 1:16:50
  You never know the seeds you might be planting that someone
• 1:16:53
  else might, might come to know the Savior better from watching
• 1:16:58
  and come to desire to know him better.
• 1:17:02
  So keep keep singing that song. So after Aaron teaches the same
• 1:17:08
  lessons that Lamona had learned from Ammon, teaches him about
• 1:17:12
  God and the great Spirit, about the creation, and after the
• 1:17:17
  creation, reading all the scriptures unfolding, the fall
• 1:17:21
  of man and our need for the redemption that comes through
• 1:17:26
  Jesus Christ. It's all there in verses 5
• 1:17:29
  through 13 and our complete need for faith and repentance.
• 1:17:34
  In verse 14, Hammond expounded all the OR Aaron expounded all
• 1:17:39
  these things unto the king. And then you notice the growth,
• 1:17:44
  the deep rooted growth that is happening right before our very
• 1:17:50
  eyes with this old king. Verse 15.
• 1:17:52
  It came to pass that after Aaron had expounded these things unto
• 1:17:55
  him, the king said, what shall I do?
• 1:17:59
  That I may have this eternal life of which thou has spoken.
• 1:18:03
  This is a guy who isn't used to asking these kinds of questions.
• 1:18:06
  He's he's used to giving the orders and being obeyed, telling
• 1:18:09
  people what to do, not asking what do I need to do?
• 1:18:13
  This is so beautiful as you watch him sacrificing now real
• 1:18:19
  things, that these are real offerings that the king is
• 1:18:23
  making at this point, in contrast to what happened back
• 1:18:26
  in chapter 20. You look at the bottom of of 15
• 1:18:30
  there and it says, behold, said he, I will give up all that I
• 1:18:37
  possess. Yeah, I will forsake my Kingdom
• 1:18:41
  that I may receive this great joy.
• 1:18:44
  I'll give up my entire Kingdom for this eternal life.
• 1:18:53
  Can you can hear the echo of the Savior's invitation?
• 1:18:57
  Lay up for yourself's treasures in heaven.
• 1:19:02
  That beautiful, beautiful invitation of learning to care
• 1:19:06
  about things that last forever, for learning to think celestial,
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  of looking forward to what God has to offer us, of what He will
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  put into our hands, is powerful. And and that principle can find
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  manifestations in all aspects of the gospel.
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  It could be in something as simple as paying tithes and
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  offerings. Some would say I can't afford to
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  pay tithing. And I would bring it back to
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  this king of Moni's father principle of I can't afford not
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  to pay tithing because the law of tithing has very little to do
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  with the money I pay. And it has everything to do with
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  the love for the Lord that I have in my heart, that that
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  tithing becomes an outward manifestation of that inward
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  love for Him. And as I lay money on the altar,
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  you'll notice my hand. Is now available and open to
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  receive whatever blessings God has in store for me and His
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  promises. Sure, He will open the windows
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  of heaven and pour you out of blessing so great that there
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  shall not be room enough to receive it.
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  It may come in financial ways. It may come in health ways, it
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  may be be coming in spiritual blessings, but it will come.
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  And it's this beautiful opportunity to let go and just a
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  little bit of what I have that's been given to me by God, by the
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  way, in exchange for now being open to receive whatever it is
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  that God has in store for me. And that principle can be
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  applied to all aspects of the gospel.
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  Now, I love what Aaron did in response to King Almani's
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  father's question. He doesn't say, let me tell you
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  what you need to do. He says that's a really good
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  question, basically. And in verse 18, if thou will
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  bow down before God, yeah, if thou will repent of all thy sins
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  and will bow down before God and call on his name and faith,
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  believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope
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  which thou desirest. And now you get in, in my
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  opinion, one of the sweetest prayers ever, ever recorded in
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  all of Scripture in verse 18. Says, Oh God, Aaron hath told me
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  that there is a God, and if there is a God, and if thou art
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  God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give
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  away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from
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  the dead, and be saved at the last day.
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  And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if
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  he were dead. And thus begins this three day
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  journey of redemption, the process of redemption beginning
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  for this king as well. So we have another layer.
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  The king put on the altar much more than his Kingdom and all
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  that he possessed. He put all his sins on the
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  altar. It seems that it's easier to
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  give your your possessions than it is to give your soul to the
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  Lord. So in exchange for all of his
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  sins, he says, I'll, I'll sacrifice those to come to truly
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  know thee. And in President Nelson's talk,
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  Overcome the World and Find Rest, he talks about some of
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  these things, about learning to care more about what God has to
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  offer and about that celestial life than any earthly thing.
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  I want to read a little part from his talk.
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  He says, what does it mean to overcome the world, to overcome
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  our our desires for certain things right here, right now?
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  He says it means overcoming the temptation to care more about
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  the things of this world than the things of God.
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  It means trusting the doctrine of Christ more than the
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  philosophies of men. You see both Lamoni and his
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  Father trusting in the words of a prophet of God over any other
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  voice. It means delighting in truth,
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  denouncing deception, and becoming a humble follower of
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  Christ. Again, you see it right here.
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  It means choosing to refrain from anything that drives the
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  Spirit away. It means being willing to give
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  away even our favorite sins, to come to know the Saviour, to
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  give up all that I have so that He can give me all that He has.
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  Beautiful. So as this story concludes, the
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  message for us is to figure out in our own families, in our own
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  lives, in the the map of our own discipleship, how we can devote
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  more and more and more of our life to the Lord and focus on
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  Him and be willing to keep working through this process of
• 1:24:20
  growing conversion and discipleship, increasing our own
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  readiness. Ometer to listen, to, receive
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  and live the words of Jesus Christ that come to us from the
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  Scriptures, from the living prophets, and as testified and
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  taught by the Holy Ghost in our own life.
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  Often in Scripture you hear Jesus Christ referred to as the
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  Lord of the outstretched arms, and I often think if you saw
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  that hand reaching out to you, what would be in the very centre
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  of it? It's a testimony of His love, of
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  everything that He has sacrificed for us, of everything
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  He has to offer us. So I suppose the invitation
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  moving forward is to open your arms to Him, sacrifice whatever
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  it is that is that next step for you, the next step on the
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  covenant path to help you to to come more closely into that
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  covenant relationship with Him. And I see this in the name of
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  Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
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  Know that you're loved.