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Helaman 13–16 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource · Scripture Central

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  Hello there, I'm Tyler Griffin and this is Scripture study
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  Insights by Scripture Central today Helaman chapters 13
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  through 16 and this section of chapters contains one of my
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  favorite scripture characters, Samuel Lamanite.
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  And it's so ironic because we were this close to not getting
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  his record. We find out in 3rd Nephi 23 when
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  the Lord has a conversation with Nephi that Nephi had not
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  included Samuel's prophecies in his plates that he was passing
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  on. Through that prophetic line and
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  at the Lord's direction, Samuel's prophecies were then
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  included. Interestingly, the the one
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  prophecy that the Savior mentions to Nephi is the fact
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  that at his resurrection many graves would be opened and many
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  people who had passed on would be resurrected and seen of many
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  that that was the one. The one verse that got specific
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  mention it happens to be chapter 14 verse 25.
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  So if you want to go in and circle verse 25 and and make it
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  kind of stand out. So here we we now have Samuel's
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  story. So one of the things we want to
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  do is figure out how to take His story and liken it unto us so
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  that it can become more fully our story or your story, however
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  you want to word this. So.
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  There are principles, there are things that he experiences that
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  are going to be very different historically and in in the
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  context where he lives his life, very different from our life
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  setting. But there are other principles
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  and other experiences that that are easier to directly apply to
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  our life circumstances and the situations we're passing
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  through. In fact, you'll notice there's a
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  a scriptural pattern that keeps emerging, keeps repeating to 1°
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  or another. None of them is perfect.
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  This pattern doesn't doesn't completely or perfectly describe
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  anyone individual's experience for their life.
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  But again, they're principles that can be likened to then help
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  you with this part of the process.
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  That likening that seeing yourself in the scripture page
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  so that you're not reading scriptures or studying scripture
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  chapters just to check the box to say, well, I studied my
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  scriptures today. I don't know how it really is
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  going to help me, but I I did it.
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  This helps deepen and broaden your experiences with those
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  scripture pages. The pattern is quite simple.
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  It usually starts with a prophet or an individual.
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  It doesn't need to be a prophet, but they they receive a calling
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  of some sort and it's this Commission to go and do
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  something. Then they embark on that mission
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  and they face at times often some major, sometimes minor, but
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  often major opposition. It doesn't just flow, It doesn't
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  just happen. Now before I get any further
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  into this pattern, some of you are probably thinking hopefully
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  of your own life, of your own challenges, of your own
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  circumstances, of your own callings, whether they be
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  official church callings or callings in life or or
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  opportunities with relationships or with work or with education
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  or with family members, whatever it may be.
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  And you, you begin that work and there's often opposition, Lehigh
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  told Jacob. There must needs to be an
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  opposition in all things. Then you receive some sort of
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  divine reassurance. It's this propping up when
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  you're discouraged. You feel, you feel like giving
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  up. You feel like everything that I
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  tried to do just failed. I'll never, I'll never get this
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  right. Somebody else who's more capable
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  or smarter or more gifted, talented, they should do this
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  because I can't do it. Well, that divine reassurance
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  never comes and says you're right, you're not good at this
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  and I don't want you to try anymore.
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  The divine reassurance always comes and brings hope.
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  It brings that desire to try again, try a little harder to be
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  a little better and move forward with faith.
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  So I've already tried the things that I can do.
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  They didn't work. Now the divine reassurance leads
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  me to move forward a little differently with a little more
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  faith in the Savior, a little more trust in His power and in
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  His inspiration, which causes me to turn heavenward more than I
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  did before. Because at the beginning, I
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  think I've got all the answers. I think I know what to do.
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  I've, I've got this figured out. And it's only after some
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  failures that I realize, oh, this didn't work.
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  Well, that faith in the Lord causes me to do things in a
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  different way. I'm inspired by God.
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  He he helps me figure out how to move forward in the face of that
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  opposition. And usually miracles in one form
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  or another follow this pattern. You see something happened that
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  shouldn't have been able to happen on its own or or wouldn't
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  be able to be explained away by logic or reason alone.
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  And then the individual or the character in the story moves on
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  to their next test, their next calling, their next adventure.
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  And it begins again. But it's a spiral staircase now.
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  Their capacity, their their abilities are increased,
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  sharpened, intensified. And the Lord then sends them on
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  a new mission. The next level of their their
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  progression thus begins. Now some of you who are into
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  literary structures are noticing that there's a lot of crossover
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  here between something called the hero's journey where
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  somebody embarks and then they face that opposition and they
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  get the help from outside and resources and people and tools.
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  And they, they re embark on that, that epic journey that
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  they're they've been called to do.
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  And they work themselves and their way through that process.
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  And at the end, the whole point of this scriptural pattern or
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  the hero's journey, the whole point isn't just the miracle
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  that is accomplished by that individual.
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  The real point to me is what that person has become.
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  Because you see, it's the Lord who's doing this work through
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  you, through these these people in the scriptures and through
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  the people in your life. It's God who's doing his work,
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  his miraculous work even in shaping you and me into becoming
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  who we were intended to become. And he does that through these
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  opportunities, these missions, these, these jobs, these
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  callings that he gives us. So we jump into the story with
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  Samuel, the Lamanite and watch this, this pattern repeat.
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  You've seen it with Lehigh. You've seen it with Nephi.
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  You saw it with Jacob. You saw it with, to a degree,
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  Enos and you just keep working your way through the Book of
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  Mormon and almost every single character, King Benjamin,
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  Abinadi, Alma Amulek, the Ammon, Aaron Amner Hymni, the list just
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  keeps going on and on. If it is a disciple of Jesus
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  Christ, somebody who's who's striving to become more Christ
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  like, you will see elements of this pattern in their life.
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  And that's what's significant to me is that now we can take his
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  story regardless of who the his might be in, in this context,
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  and we can better analyze our story.
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  So let's jump in verse one. It came to pass in the 80 and
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  6th year. The Nephites did still remain in
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  wickedness. Yeah, in great wickedness, while
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  the Lamanites did observe strictly to keep the
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  commandments of God according to the law of Moses.
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  So it was this, this grand inversion of those two nations.
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  For all those hundreds of years previous, the Lamanites had been
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  considered the bad guys and the Nephites had been considered the
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  good guys. And now it's flipped on its
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  head. So it came to pass.
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  In that year, there was one Samuel A Lamanite.
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  Now, here's the irony. That is all you know about this
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  man, pretty much. You don't know who his parents
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  were. You don't know what city he
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  lives in. You don't know at what point he
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  was taught and accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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  We don't know anything about his prophetic calling initially, his
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  Commission to go and preach. We just know all of a sudden
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  there's one Samuel Lamanite who showed up not just among the
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  lands or among the Nephites in their land, but in their capital
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  city, Zarahemla. And he began to preach unto the
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  people. So his calling is pretty clear.
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  Go, go and cry repentance under these people.
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  So it says that he did that for many days and they did cast him
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  out and he was about to return to his own land.
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  So he faced that intense opposition.
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  He's he's kicked out and he's about to return to his own land,
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  probably cast down. We've seen this with many other
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  scripture characters before. God let Samuel get to the point
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  where he had exhausted all of his own resources.
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  He had tried everything that he knew might possibly work to
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  fulfill his calling. And the opposition mounts up to
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  the the degree to where he is no longer allowed to be in the
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  city. They've cast him out and it's
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  there where God meets him. There is an educational model
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  that I think is is applicable to this part of the story and more
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  importantly to our story today. There are three levels of our
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  understanding and our ability. So let's just let's just label
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  these for a moment here in the middle.
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  This area represents all of those things that I am fully
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  capable of doing. I know what to do.
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  I know how to do it. I know when to do it.
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  I know where to do it. I I got it.
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  So these are abilities that I have mastered out here are
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  abilities that I, I do not have. There is no way I am capable of
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  doing those. They're they're out of my reach
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  in that third tier. So the bullseye, I can do those
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  out here in the third ring. No way.
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  I don't, I don't have the strength, the knowledge, the
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  ability, the tools, the the assistance, whatever it may be,
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  it's it's impossible to me right now.
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  And here in the second ring, this is called the zone of
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  proximal development. This is the, these are the
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  things, the callings, the tasks, the the missions that I'm not
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  yet capable of doing on my own. I need help.
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  I need, I need those resources from either people or, or tools
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  or additional education or learning, but they're within my
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  reach. With some help, with the proper
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  assistance, I'm going to be able to do those things in tier #2
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  the zone of proximal development.
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  You could look that up if you, if you want to study this more.
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  It's it's an invitation for us to analyze this part of our life
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  right here and to not get too comfortable staying firmly in
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  the middle of what we're perfectly capable of doing
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  without any help. It's to push these boundaries
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  because it's out there on that border with the zone of proximal
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  development that the greatest growth and learning and pushing
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  the, the, the bounds of our capacities.
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  That's where it's to be discovered.
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  And more importantly, that's where we have to rely on the
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  Lord Jesus Christ more than ever before if we hope to then
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  expand. And the beauty is that this
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  process creates an expanding border of what you're capable of
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  doing as God helps you grow and develop and become.
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  We see that with Sammy the Lamanite here.
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  So he preached many days, he was cast out.
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  He's about to return to his own land.
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  And then the Lord comes and meets him right here on that
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  border of what he's capable of doing on his own and where he
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  absolutely needs to rely on the Lord to accomplish the the next
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  task. It says verse 4.
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  But behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him that he
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  should return again and prophecy unto the people, whatsoever
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  things should come into his heart.
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  I love this because here's Samuel.
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  And he could come up with probably a, a fairly lengthy
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  list of good reasons, earthly reasons, why it would be a bad
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  idea for him to go back to Zerahimla right then and right
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  there. But the Lord gives him this
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  calling. He's tried it, faced the
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  opposition. Now the divine reassurance gives
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  him the hope to go back. Samuel the Lamanite is going to
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  return to the city of Zahrahemlah.
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  But I'm going to suggest to you that he returns differently that
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  second time than he went in the first time.
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  The second time he's going to go in with incredible footsteps of
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  faith, trusting alone in God. Now as you're listening to this,
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  I hope that you're able to think through your own story, through
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  your life, through your callings and the opposition you faced.
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  And I hope you can sense areas where the Lord is giving you a
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  verse 3. But behold, the voice of the
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  Lord came unto him or her and said, return again, go try
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  again. And some of you are thinking it,
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  it works great for other people in history.
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  It works great for prophets, but not for me.
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  Brothers and sisters, the principles of the gospel of
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  Jesus Christ are universally applicable.
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  What he says unto 1, He says unto all.
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  And there are times when you you have to move forward with
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  footsteps of faith alone because you've literally tried
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  everything else. But that's the point.
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  You keep trying because it's there where you're getting
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  further and further out, closer to that zone of proximal
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  development where you're the most likely to experience the
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  greatest growth, not when you're in the in the very core of what
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  you're already capable of doing. It's that trial of your faith
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  that that comes here for Samuel Lamanite.
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  So he goes back, look at verse 4.
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  It came to pass that they would not suffer, that he should enter
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  into the city. He doesn't tell us the details
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  here. Mormon doesn't.
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  But apparently he went back and just tried to go in and they
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  wouldn't let him in. And I would imagine they
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  probably said some pretty negative things to Samuel, which
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  could cause him to walk away and say, wait, I thought, I thought
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  I was on the Lord's errand. I thought he was going to
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  somehow open up this inspired capacity for these miracles to
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  occur, and it didn't happen. Strike two.
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  And how many of us at that point bow our heads in frustration and
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  in weakness and walk away and say, fine, you're going to have
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  to get somebody else to go in and share this message with them
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  because I've tried and they clearly are not going to take it
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  from me. I love Samuel, he's been such an
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  inspiration to me my whole life. Somebody who who finds a way.
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  You can picture him walking away from the city, looking back and
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  thinking, I don't know how exactly I'm going to get in
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  there, but I've got to get in there to teach these people to
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  be able to fulfill this mission given to me by the Lord.
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  I know it's going to happen, I just don't know how.
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  So he keeps trying to find the entry point.
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  And some of you have relationships that you've been
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  trying to mend for years, maybe even decades, and you've tried
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  entering in multiple passageways into that relationship and have
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  been rejected. Don't give up.
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  Keep turning to the Lord as you let go of your own capacities of
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  your own best ideas and turn heavenward and say, what would
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  thou have me do next? Now you can see this this
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  pattern that that we've seen many times before Nephi being
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  told to build a ship. He's never built a ship before.
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  So he went up into the mount OFT to commune with the Lord to
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  figure out how to build that ship.
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  Well, you and I can do the same thing.
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  We can follow the same principle.
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  We can make Nephi's story our story.
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  We can go up into a proverbial mount often and plead with God
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  to show us how to build our ship or our relationship with
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  somebody. And He will show you from time
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  to time how that is to be done after His manner, not after the
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  manner of men. Here you've got Sammy the
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  Lamanite. He's standing there, looking at
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  the city from afar probably, and thinking, where there's a wall,
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  there's a way. So he goes.
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  And he climbs on top of the wall, and it says he stretched
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  forth his hand, and he cried with a loud voice, and
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  prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put
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  into his heart. I don't know what his prepared
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  speech was the the parchment notes curled up in his tunic
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  that day. I don't know what he would have
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  shared had it just been him giving a pre packaged lesson to
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  the people. But I do know what we did get.
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  And what we got was Sam the Lamanite standing up there,
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  stretching forth his hand, speaking the words that the Lord
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  gave him directly and in the moment.
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  And it turns out that this is one of the most profound and
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  deep and doctrinally significant talks or speeches ever given in
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  the history of the scriptures in in my opinion.
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  Samuel. Becomes one of the most
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  incredible prophets in the entire Scripture Canon because
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  he shares so many prophecies that are laser focused and
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  specific. Many of the prophecies that we
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  see in scriptures, they're they're general.
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  They'll, they'll give a general idea of what's going to happen
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  in the future with Samuel. He, he zeroes in on specifics
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  constantly. One thing that you could do with
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  your personal or your companionship or your family
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  scripture study this week is to mark every prophecy that comes
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  to us from Samuel Lamanite and notice the specificity.
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  Notice how particularly clear his prophecies are regarding
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  timing, regarding exact events, what's going to happen and in
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  what order. He is a remarkable prophet and
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  I'm so grateful that the Lord Jesus Christ told Nephi to
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  include his record because there are some some scriptural gems
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  here in chapter 13 through 16 that we would have seriously
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  missed out on had had the Lord not encouraged Nephi to include
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  this record. So let's jump in.
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  He begins in verse 5 and if you go from verse 5 through 9, it's
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  fascinating to me that he opened his speech inspired by the Lord
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  with a an incredible chiasmus. It's a short 1, so it it's a
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  little easier to see the pattern, but if you start in
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  verse 5 and have somebody else follow along in verse 9 and then
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  work your way towards verse 7, you will see these repeating.
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  Concepts. And repeating ideas and patterns
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  and what's at the core, what's at the point of his, of his
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  chiastic introduction to his message to the people?
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  It's that an Angel of the Lord hath declared it unto me.
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  Why, He did bring glad tidings to my soul.
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  And behold, I was sent unto you to declare it unto you.
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  So sent unto you, declare unto you.
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  The unto you is this central feature.
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  In other words, what Samuel Lamanite is teaching these
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  people is it's not about my experience as the messenger, as
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  the prophet. It's about God's love for you,
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  because he sent an Angel unto me to declare glad tidings unto me,
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  so that I could give them to you.
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  And then he comes back out of that central part by saying, I
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  declared unto you that ye might have glad tidings.
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  But. Behold.
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  You would not receive me, so the Angel delivered them to me.
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  I received the glad tidings to be declared unto you.
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  Now I've come sent to you and declared to you these glad
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  tidings, but you won't receive me.
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  You won't listen. And so now he launches into the
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  rest of this chapter where he's crying repentance to the people.
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  Notice a couple things when you're studying Samuel's speech.
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  Notice the prophetic tone his voice.
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  It this is. Coming from a Lamanite who's
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  standing on a wall looking down into Zarahemla, a wall, very
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  ironically, that had been constructed by Nephites to
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  defend against and keep Lamanites out of their capital
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  city. And now the irony is thick
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  because you have a Lamanite standing on top of that
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  defensive wall. Crying.
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  Repentance into the city, telling them about a destruction
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  that is awaiting them, that is so much more significant than
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  any war kind of destruction could have have created for them
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  or presented to them. So they were trying to defend
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  themselves against the Lamanites, and now a Lamanite is
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  trying to defend them against the powers of the devil, the
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  real war that is being waged, the war for their souls.
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  So I think there's some incredible literary and, and
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  symbolic significance to Samuel standing up on that particular
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  wall in that particular city at that particular time with those
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  people. And now we figure out how we can
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  liken that unto ourselves. And we say, has God provided
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  Watchmen on a tower or, or prophets on a, on an elevated
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  wall, so to speak, who have a little different vision than the
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  rest of the people? And what is their voice of
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  warning to us? And what is their voice of hope
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  and, and their voice of, of prophecy and revelation?
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  And notice that Samuel doesn't stand up there and speak in
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  veiled phrases. He doesn't say, he, he doesn't
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  speak tentatively. He doesn't say things like,
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  well, I, I know this is a little awkward for everybody and I've,
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  I've got to share some really rough things with you.
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  He just jumps in and he's speaking in first person voice
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  for the Lord for much of this section.
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  He's not saying the Lord is angry with you.
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  He's saying thus saith the Lord, behold, I and he's using
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  personal pronouns, speaking for the Lord.
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  In fact, you could mark the pronouns if you if that's
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  interesting and insightful for you of when he switches between
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  speaking for himself versus speaking for the Lord.
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  And there is a deeper power when he shifts into that prophetic
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  first person speaking for the Lord voice.
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  Look at the sum of this in verse 32.
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  And in the days of your poverty, you shall cry unto the Lord, and
• 29:42
  in vain shall you cry, for your desolation is already come upon
• 29:47
  you, and your destruction is made sure.
• 29:50
  And then shall you weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of
• 29:56
  hosts. So again, he he's reminding
• 30:00
  them, this isn't just me making this up.
• 30:02
  This is these are the words of God that he's inspiring me to
• 30:06
  share with you here in this setting.
• 30:09
  I'm not acting on my own, on my own volition air.
• 30:14
  So their destruction and desolation will be made sure,
• 30:16
  but he's speaking prophetically of that day because they have
• 30:20
  rejected his message. They have rejected the glad
• 30:24
  tidings of great joy which are usually in scriptures attached
• 30:30
  to the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, the
• 30:35
  condescension of God the Creator coming down.
• 30:39
  Those are glad tidings of great joy, and yet if you keep
• 30:44
  rejecting them, then you don't get the glad tidings of great
• 30:49
  joy, because you get desolation and destruction made sure, which
• 30:55
  could be seen as the polar opposite of calling an election.
• 30:59
  Made sure would be this desolation and destruction made
• 31:04
  sure. So Mormon tells us.
• 31:07
  And now it came to pass that Samuel the Lamanite did prophecy
• 31:11
  a great many more things which cannot be written.
• 31:15
  We have a. Very long list of prophecies,
• 31:18
  very specific prophecies made by Samuel the Lamanite.
• 31:21
  And yet Mormon tells us there were a great many more things
• 31:25
  that he prophesied which cannot be written.
• 31:28
  So his his ability to make himself an instrument in the
• 31:34
  hands of the Lord seems to be a little bit off the charts in his
• 31:39
  capacity. What an amazing example for us
• 31:42
  to apply in our story to simply move forward in faith, not
• 31:47
  comparing ourselves to Samuel, not comparing ourselves to
• 31:50
  anybody else, but figuring out what it is that God wants us to
• 31:54
  do and then to turn to him. Especially when we have failed,
• 32:02
  when it seems impossible, when we've tried everything we know
• 32:07
  that we can try in in the zone of our capacity.
• 32:12
  This, this middle part of the bullseye and and it's still not
• 32:15
  working. That's the time to then turn to
• 32:19
  God humbly and meekly out here on this borderline with the zone
• 32:24
  of proximal development and say, dear God on high, I need thee.
• 32:30
  I can't do this alone. Please bless me, inspire me,
• 32:35
  strengthen me, give me the tools, the resources that the
• 32:38
  people, the encouragement, the inspiration, whatever is needed.
• 32:43
  So that I can. Move forward in faith, and when
• 32:47
  you do, you're likely to start getting ideas and start building
• 32:55
  things or performing tasks in ways that you've not been able
• 32:59
  to do them before. You're going to learn new
• 33:03
  capacities. God is going to shape you and
• 33:05
  mold you and help you to fulfill His promises.
• 33:11
  This reminds me of one of the the most powerful prophecies I
• 33:15
  have seen in my own lifetime. Very, very similar to these more
• 33:21
  specific and and laser focused prophecies from Sam, the
• 33:25
  Lamanite that comes from President Russell M Nelson in
• 33:29
  October 2022. Overcome the world and find
• 33:32
  rest. Most of you will recognize this
• 33:35
  prophecy, this quote, but it's powerful and it comes to us from
• 33:41
  a watchman on the tower who who sees things from afar and he's
• 33:47
  not speaking for himself, he's speaking for the Lord, he says.
• 33:53
  But my dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful
• 33:58
  things are ahead. In coming days we will see the
• 34:03
  greatest and the italicized, the word greatest that emphasis the
• 34:09
  greatest manifestations of the Savior's power that the world
• 34:14
  has ever seen. And the word ever is italicized.
• 34:19
  Between now and the time He returns with power and great
• 34:22
  glory, He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and
• 34:28
  miracles upon the faithful. Now, if you follow the Scripture
• 34:33
  pattern, those incredible miracles and privileges and
• 34:38
  powers and blessings probably aren't going to flow initially.
• 34:44
  They're probably going to flow as people have tried to do what
• 34:49
  they felt like God wanted them to do and they felt some
• 34:52
  opposition. And they've run up against their
• 34:56
  the the extent of their knowledge of their capacity of
• 35:01
  their talents and abilities to where they now need to turn
• 35:05
  heavenward and reach for the Savior's all powerful hand to
• 35:12
  guide them and to walk that path with them moving forward as
• 35:16
  these incredible prophecies from President Nelson are going to
• 35:21
  increasingly be made manifest. And isn't it fascinating that
• 35:26
  the closer we get to the coming of Jesus Christ in the Book of
• 35:30
  Mormon to the fulfillment of those glad tidings of great joy,
• 35:34
  the more people are being warned about and taught about Jesus
• 35:40
  Christ and his role and his mercy and His grace and His
• 35:44
  coming? Same thing applies to His second
• 35:48
  coming. As we get closer and closer, we
• 35:51
  will see prophets. We will see inspired people
• 35:56
  pointing us more and more to Jesus Christ and recognizing his
• 36:02
  miracles, that these manifestations of his power are
• 36:05
  going to become more clear than they've ever been in the history
• 36:10
  of the world. And we've seen some pretty
• 36:12
  incredible manifestations of God's power through the Old
• 36:15
  Testament, the New Testament, and throughout the Book of
• 36:17
  Mormon and church history. And yet the greatest is yet to
• 36:21
  come. And these are our days, so we
• 36:24
  can move forward with absolute faith and trust.
• 36:28
  It doesn't necessarily mean that things are going to work out
• 36:31
  when and how we had assumed. But as we turn our life and our
• 36:38
  our trust over to the Lord, He will shape that future for us
• 36:44
  and perform those miracles through our little efforts as we
• 36:48
  see happening with Samuel Lamanite as an instrument in the
• 36:51
  hands of the Lord doing an amazing work.
• 36:54
  Which now brings us to chapter 14, which is on my shortest of
• 36:59
  short lists of favorite chapters of Scripture all time anywhere.
• 37:04
  This is a mountain peak of doctrinal clarity and revelation
• 37:11
  regarding God's plan regarding Jesus Christ, His role, His, His
• 37:16
  birth, His death, His His incredible sacrifice.
• 37:22
  So what we get here is in verse one through 7, you get the
• 37:26
  prophecies of Christ's coming of his birth.
• 37:30
  And Samuel gives us very specifics in these prophecies.
• 37:36
  He says, I give unto you a sign for five years more cometh.
• 37:41
  So there's a a time stamp that is given and behold, then cometh
• 37:46
  the Son of God to redeem his people, basically to redeem all
• 37:53
  those who shall believe on his name.
• 37:57
  That phrase is just as applicable today as it was five
• 38:03
  years before Jesus was born in Zahrahemlah.
• 38:07
  If we will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, if we will more
• 38:11
  fully turn our thoughts, our attention, our our intentions
• 38:18
  towards Him, He will redeem. Notice He then gives another
• 38:24
  sign. This will give unto you for a
• 38:25
  sign of the time of His coming. Behold, there shall be great
• 38:28
  lights in heaven, and there will be a day, or there will be a
• 38:32
  night before He cometh that there shall be no darkness.
• 38:36
  These are very specific prophecies that people can't
• 38:40
  mistake, and nobody can make this up.
• 38:44
  Nobody can fake these prophecies.
• 38:47
  And he talks about the day, the night, and the day in verse four
• 38:51
  with no darkness, and then a new star arising in verse 5 and many
• 38:56
  signs and wonders in the heaven. All these.
• 38:59
  Incredible cosmic signs that he's come.
• 39:06
  The God of creation is now on the earth.
• 39:11
  And then he invites them to to understand his purpose as a
• 39:18
  prophet. Samuel on the on the wall that
• 39:21
  day, look at verse 11. You shall hear my words.
• 39:25
  For for this intent have I come up upon the walls of this city,
• 39:30
  that you might hear and know the judgments of God, which do await
• 39:34
  you because of your iniquities. So it's this.
• 39:37
  Warning so that when bad things happen, you don't just assume
• 39:41
  it's just a random event that occurred, but it's an effect
• 39:47
  that was caused by your choices. You brought this upon yourself,
• 39:52
  and I'm warning you so you don't have to experience this if you
• 39:55
  choose to, to believe and to repent, which isn't that a
• 40:00
  beautiful concept? The prophet Samuel, who's been
• 40:04
  working through this pattern of discipleship, he's now inviting
• 40:11
  the people to go through their own version in their range.
• 40:17
  He's meeting them where they are.
• 40:19
  And he's pushing them into the zone of their proximal
• 40:22
  development. They are incapable of repenting
• 40:25
  on their own. They're incapable of fixing
• 40:27
  their sins and their problems. They can't do it.
• 40:31
  But the Lord can. Help them and wants to help them
• 40:35
  and is offering to help them if they'll turn to him.
• 40:39
  And that's that's his invitation.
• 40:42
  That's what prophets do. They don't just stand up and
• 40:45
  teach things to to answer curiosity questions.
• 40:52
  They teach doctrine so that they can then deliver inspired
• 40:56
  invitations and give inspired prophecies to help us, to help
• 41:01
  motivate us to turn to the Lord. So there's going to be this this
• 41:06
  calling of the people to repentance and they will face
• 41:10
  opposition. The devil and mortality is not
• 41:15
  going to give them a free pass in this process, but it doesn't
• 41:20
  change the fact that if they'll persevere, endure through this
• 41:25
  pattern, they will get divine aid.
• 41:29
  The Lord will not leave them helpless or comfort us.
• 41:34
  He will come to them and he will bless them.
• 41:36
  As we're going to see some of them at least respond in that
• 41:39
  way. So number one, I the intent for
• 41:43
  why I'm here is to help you understand the judgments of God
• 41:47
  which do await you because of your iniquities.
• 41:49
  Second reason, and also that you might know the conditions of
• 41:55
  repentance. This is such a powerful concept
• 42:00
  that he's saying it's not just the judgments of God, it's that
• 42:08
  you can know what are the conditions.
• 42:12
  That will. Prevent those judgments from
• 42:20
  falling upon my head. What can I do?
• 42:23
  I don't want to be a victim of my past.
• 42:26
  I don't want to be a victim of my society or my circumstances.
• 42:29
  I I want to be able to have some control to prevent those
• 42:34
  judgments from coming. So he says, I'll give you those
• 42:36
  conditions. And then the third is in verse
• 42:39
  12. And also that you might know of
• 42:44
  the coming of Jesus Christ. This is the.
• 42:52
  Third reason, and we would probably say it's the
• 42:58
  cornerstone reason that everything is rooted in Christ.
• 43:04
  I want you to know of the coming of Jesus Christ.
• 43:06
  Now if if you want to mark your scriptures, you could put a
• 43:11
  little parenthesis opening right before the name of Jesus Christ
• 43:17
  in verse 12. And what you're.
• 43:20
  Going to get is 20 words word for word quoted by Samuel from
• 43:27
  Mosiah chapter 3 verse 8 from King Benjamin's speech.
• 43:33
  The words are Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven
• 43:39
  and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning.
• 43:44
  And close your parentheses. Those are the 20 words.
• 43:46
  That's the direct word for word, verbatim quote from Mosiah 3
• 43:51
  verse eight, brothers and sisters.
• 43:54
  Those are significant 20 words because he just gave you the
• 43:59
  name of Jesus Christ. And then all of these different
• 44:03
  roles and titles and functions of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
• 44:11
  the Father of heaven and of earth, and the creator of all
• 44:17
  things from the beginning. It's this pretty
• 44:21
  all-encompassing, all inclusive description of who it is that's
• 44:27
  going to be coming five years from now when you get all of
• 44:30
  these signs and prophecies fulfilled that he's been talking
• 44:33
  about back in verse one through 7.
• 44:35
  We're not talking about just another little baby being born,
• 44:39
  as beautiful and miraculous as that is.
• 44:43
  This is a birth unlike any other because the God of creation, the
• 44:50
  Father of heaven and earth is going to come down and be born.
• 44:55
  And then he goes on to say there's there's another kind of
• 44:58
  a fourth reason and that you might know the signs of his
• 45:02
  coming to the intent that you might believe on his name.
• 45:09
  So. He's trying to get them to
• 45:13
  strengthen their belief in because that's the next step for
• 45:17
  them in their journey as a disciple, hopefully to move
• 45:22
  forward in, in their faith. And then he qualifies this by
• 45:28
  saying. And.
• 45:30
  If you believe on His name, you will repent of your sins.
• 45:37
  Faith, true faith, will drive you to action and the action
• 45:42
  that faith will always result in when it's faith centered in
• 45:45
  Christ, centered in God, is it will cause you, drive you,
• 45:53
  compel you, even at times to say I cannot stay who I am, I've got
• 45:58
  to be better. And it will bring us to that
• 46:02
  repentance, that turning to Him, we will repent of our sins, that
• 46:06
  thereby ye may have remission of them through his merits.
• 46:13
  This isn't Samuel saying if you'll just, if you'll just be a
• 46:18
  perfectionist, if you'll just make 0 mistakes moving forward,
• 46:24
  then you can be saved, you can be redeemed.
• 46:28
  He doesn't do that with these people.
• 46:30
  And our prophets don't do that with us today.
• 46:33
  They point us to the exact same pattern as Samuel was doing
• 46:37
  here. They point us heavenward.
• 46:40
  They try to get us to increase our belief in Jesus Christ, to
• 46:45
  turn to him more purposefully, more intentionally, more
• 46:48
  faithfully, knowing that the Holy Ghost will help bring about
• 46:54
  those conditions of repentance. And if we meet those conditions
• 46:58
  of repentance, we will be forgiven.
• 47:01
  As President Nelson has said on multiple occasions, truth is
• 47:04
  truth. And there are certain laws that
• 47:08
  they are always going to be followed.
• 47:10
  When you do certain things, the outcome is is certain.
• 47:14
  And this is one of the most certain things that when we have
• 47:19
  faith in Christ and repent, we will be forgiven through his
• 47:23
  merits, meaning through the price that He's going to pay.
• 47:28
  He's the one who purchases our salvation and we're the ones who
• 47:33
  give Him our heart. And ironically, we can't even do
• 47:37
  that alone. We need His help in the process
• 47:41
  of giving over our heart to Him so that He can heal it and seal
• 47:46
  it to be his. So he goes on to now say, behold
• 47:52
  again, another sign I give unto you.
• 47:54
  Yay, a sign of his death. So we just got through.
• 47:59
  Talking about his signs of his birth.
• 48:01
  And now he shifts to talk about his death.
• 48:06
  But before he gives you the signs of his death, he gives
• 48:10
  this little interlude up until about verse 19.
• 48:14
  That is, in my opinion, one of the most significant doctrinal
• 48:19
  discussions about the conditions of repentance that I know
• 48:25
  anywhere in all of Scripture. This is phenomenal.
• 48:28
  Watch what he does here. Verse 15 He says, For behold, he
• 48:34
  this, this being that he introduced in verse 12, Jesus
• 48:37
  Christ, and all those titles and roles, he surely must die, that
• 48:44
  salvation may come. Why?
• 48:47
  To bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that
• 48:51
  thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord when
• 48:58
  Adam and Eve fell. They.
• 49:01
  Introduced into humanity 2 deaths.
• 49:07
  They introduced the physical death and they introduced a
• 49:13
  spiritual death. Death obviously in a gospel.
• 49:20
  Is this in a gospel sense? Is this separating of things?
• 49:24
  So a physical death is my spirit being separated from my body and
• 49:30
  there's nothing I can do about that.
• 49:34
  There's when I die, I can't say, oh, don't worry, I'll just, I'll
• 49:40
  fix that death. I'll resurrect myself.
• 49:43
  Nobody can do that. There is a sting attached to
• 49:46
  death up until the resurrection of, of Christ.
• 49:50
  So that is a permanent condition once it it finally takes root.
• 49:57
  Spiritual death is to be separated from God's presence.
• 50:02
  Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in Eden, and as one of
• 50:07
  the effects of the fall, they are separated from his presence.
• 50:11
  There is a spiritual death. They are no longer in the
• 50:15
  presence of God, but driven out of that garden where they can
• 50:21
  then learn from their own experience all of the things
• 50:25
  that they needed to learn through mortality.
• 50:27
  So with this context, let's look carefully again at verse 15 and
• 50:32
  notice the wording here. Sammy Lamani says he dies to
• 50:37
  bring to pass the resurrection of the dead.
• 50:41
  Now everybody would look at these two effects of Adam and
• 50:44
  Eve's fall and say, oh, well, good.
• 50:46
  Jesus Christ had to die so he could be resurrected, so that we
• 50:51
  could overcome physical death. Check.
• 50:55
  We've come out of the grave, we've been resurrected, so to
• 50:58
  bring to pass the resurrection of the dead.
• 51:03
  And then he doesn't stop there. There's not an end of the
• 51:07
  sentence. It continues that thereby.
• 51:14
  The. Antecedent or the the word that
• 51:16
  it that the word thereby might be pointing to here seems to be
• 51:21
  the word resurrection of the dead, that that that phrase that
• 51:26
  thereby, because of the resurrection of the dead, men
• 51:30
  may be brought into the presence of the Lord.
• 51:36
  The resurrection of Jesus Christ seems to be solving both deaths
• 51:43
  brought into humanity by Adam and Eve, a separation of the
• 51:48
  Spirit and the body, and a separation of us from God's
• 51:51
  presence. Both are overcome by Jesus
• 51:55
  Christ's resurrection. By the power of His
• 51:57
  resurrection, you and I will be brought out of the grave and
• 52:02
  brought into the presence of God.
• 52:04
  Can you see the need now that we recognize the sickness, the
• 52:08
  disease, the, the, the need now, Perhaps now we enter a zone of
• 52:16
  spiritual development where we recognize more than ever before
• 52:21
  those things that we can't do alone, but that the Lord will
• 52:26
  empower us to do through his through his mercy and his grace.
• 52:30
  I love this, this next part, verse 17.
• 52:34
  But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind.
• 52:39
  He's going to do that through His power.
• 52:43
  Yeah, even all mankind. That's 100%.
• 52:52
  It doesn't matter what you do or what you don't do, He is going
• 52:55
  to bring you out of the grave and He is going to bring you
• 53:02
  back into the presence of God. Now that experience may be
• 53:09
  joyful and it may be sorrowful, but He will redeem all mankind
• 53:16
  into the presence of God. But it might not last.
• 53:21
  Watch what He says here. Bottom of verse 17 The
• 53:24
  redemption that comes upon all mankind it says it bringeth them
• 53:28
  back into the presence of the Lord.
• 53:31
  He doesn't seem to leave the that experience as an option for
• 53:36
  people. We will be brought back into the
• 53:39
  presence of the Lord. We will be redeemed on that
• 53:43
  instance or in that instance. But now watch the the qualifier
• 53:48
  here verse 18. This is critical because if
• 53:52
  we're not careful, if we stop teaching of verse 17, then some
• 53:57
  would understand our doctrine to be that of nihor that eat, drink
• 54:02
  and be merry basically for tomorrow you die and and if you
• 54:05
  be guilty, then God might beat you with a few stripes, but in
• 54:08
  the end you'll all be saved because God loves everybody.
• 54:11
  So it doesn't matter what you do, just live it up and you'll
• 54:15
  be redeemed because everybody is going to be redeemed.
• 54:20
  Samuel. Qualifies this initial
• 54:23
  redemption, and he qualifies it in a way that ties in perfectly
• 54:29
  with what President Nelson has taught so powerfully in his
• 54:34
  incredible conference address. Think celestial when he talks
• 54:40
  about the kinds of decisions we make determining what kind of a
• 54:43
  judgement, what kind of a body, what kind of an eternity we're
• 54:47
  going to face. Watch this unfold in Samuel's
• 54:53
  words, verse 18. Actually, I, I misspoke there.
• 54:58
  Samuel is not speaking for himself.
• 55:01
  He's speaking the words that the Lord has given him and he told
• 55:04
  us words that an Angel is given to him.
• 55:08
  Hence you can see this beautiful crossover even where he was
• 55:12
  quoting directly from Messiah 3, verse 8.
• 55:17
  Messiah 3 was that chapter given to King Benjamin by an Angel to
• 55:22
  deliver those words, those those words of glad tidings of great
• 55:25
  joy to those people back then. And the pattern continues with
• 55:30
  Samuel and it continues with us today.
• 55:32
  These are heavenly words coming to to us from the the quarter of
• 55:39
  time in the this incredible passage, verse 18.
• 55:43
  Yeah. And it bringeth to pass the
• 55:46
  condition of repentance. So what are the?
• 55:50
  Condition of the condition. What is rather the condition of
• 55:54
  repentance? That whosoever repenteth the
• 55:58
  same is not hewn down or cut down and cast into the fire, but
• 56:05
  whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire, and
• 56:11
  there cometh upon them again a spiritual death.
• 56:15
  Yeah, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things
• 56:21
  pertaining to righteousness. So for some.
• 56:24
  Additional context here. It's always nice to triangulate
• 56:27
  these doctrines. In Alma Chapter 11, verse 44, we
• 56:31
  learned that it the judgement, everybody is going to be brought
• 56:36
  to the judgement, 100% are going to stand there in the presence
• 56:41
  of and then Alma 1144 says in the presence of the Father, the
• 56:45
  Son, and the Holy Ghost, we will be standing there.
• 56:49
  It was President Ezra Taft Benson who said this.
• 56:53
  Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the
• 56:57
  veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our
• 57:02
  Father and how familiar His face is to us.
• 57:09
  So we will. Stand in His presence to be
• 57:12
  judged. And we stand there redeemed by
• 57:17
  Jesus Christ, by His merits, not by our own.
• 57:22
  We're standing there because of the blood that He shed, because
• 57:27
  of the price that he paid, not because of the sacrifices we
• 57:31
  made, not because of the missions we accomplished.
• 57:34
  We stand redeemed initially, this initial phase on Jesus
• 57:40
  Christ's merits, mercy and grace alone.
• 57:43
  He paid a price to eternal justice that you and I could
• 57:47
  never have paid. So we stand there in that moment
• 57:52
  and the true judgement then becomes to what degree did we
• 57:58
  choose to meet or choose to not meet the condition that the
• 58:04
  Savior put forward to us called the condition of repentance.
• 58:09
  There are a lot of names for this.
• 58:11
  There are a lot of titles, a lot of models, a lot of ways to
• 58:15
  diagram and describe the condition of repentance.
• 58:19
  Perhaps the the simplest visualization is the one that
• 58:24
  President Nelson has repeatedly used the covenant path.
• 58:29
  Because you see, in a Book of Mormon context, the word repent
• 58:33
  is to turn it's to. Turn.
• 58:36
  To God, it's to turn away from the world, turn away from
• 58:40
  myself, turn away from the devil, turn away from the
• 58:44
  natural tendencies of life, and to turn to God and then do those
• 58:50
  things that the Savior has outlined for me to do because
• 58:53
  He's already paid a price I couldn't pay.
• 58:56
  He's already redeemed me back into the presence of the Father
• 59:00
  out of the grave. He has overcome both deaths that
• 59:05
  were introduced into our lives by the fall of Adam and Eve.
• 59:10
  Those are freely overcome for us.
• 59:13
  But my own. Fall.
• 59:15
  That one is conditional. The condition is to what degree
• 59:20
  did I choose to turn my life to the Lord, to believe in him, to
• 59:25
  follow him, to trust in Him, and to keep pressing forward even
• 59:31
  when life gets really hard, even when it's frustrating, even when
• 59:34
  you feel like a failure, even when it feels like you're never
• 59:37
  going to get this, you're never going to be good enough.
• 59:40
  But if we keep pushing through those those adversarial
• 59:45
  oppositions, whether they come from the devil or from natural
• 59:50
  sources on on the earth, we keep moving forward meeting those
• 59:56
  conditions that Samuel here is calling the condition of
• 1:00:00
  repentance, walking that covenant path with the Lord,
• 1:00:04
  then we don't suffer a second. Separation.
• 1:00:09
  From God's presence. It's important to note that in
• 1:00:13
  the Book of Mormon, they didn't have Doctrine and Covenant
• 1:00:17
  Section 76. These people are not living in
• 1:00:20
  the dispensation of the fullness of times.
• 1:00:22
  We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now
• 1:00:26
  reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal any great and
• 1:00:30
  important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom
• 1:00:33
  of heaven. These people are understanding
• 1:00:38
  the gospel to the best of their ability with what God has
• 1:00:40
  revealed at that time. Gratefully, if you read
• 1:00:45
  President Dalanay Choke's talk, The Kingdoms of Glory, and if
• 1:00:49
  you read again President Nelson's talk, think Celestial
• 1:00:53
  in tandem those two talks together with this concept, you
• 1:00:58
  realize that and as we study section 76, that a true
• 1:01:03
  spiritual death would be separation completely from all
• 1:01:08
  members of the Godhead. That would be outer darkness.
• 1:01:12
  And. Telestral, terrestrial, and
• 1:01:15
  celestial kingdoms are going to have varying degrees of glory,
• 1:01:21
  but can you see that from Samuel the Lamanite's perspective, what
• 1:01:25
  he understands of the plan and how he's teaching these people
• 1:01:29
  that he's not teaching them so that they can become terrestrial
• 1:01:34
  candidates? Samuel is not teaching
• 1:01:37
  terrestrial doctrine, nor is he teaching telestral doctrine.
• 1:01:41
  As wonderful and as merciful and grace filled as the telestial
• 1:01:46
  Kingdom is going to be for those who end up there based on
• 1:01:50
  section 76. And by the way, the list of
• 1:01:52
  people who end up there, they didn't do good things.
• 1:01:56
  They broke the Thou shalt not commandments.
• 1:01:59
  These aren't what you would call good people.
• 1:02:03
  And yet God has a Kingdom of glory held in in preparation for
• 1:02:09
  them. But Samuel isn't focused on
• 1:02:11
  that, nor on the terrestrial. He is focused on abiding with
• 1:02:19
  God the Father. Now some of you might be
• 1:02:21
  thinking to yourself, wait, I thought earlier in the Book
• 1:02:24
  Mormon and and if I were told that no unclean thing can dwell
• 1:02:28
  in the presence of God, so how can everybody be brought into
• 1:02:31
  his presence for this judgement experience?
• 1:02:35
  It's a really good. Question and I don't know the
• 1:02:37
  ultimate answer, but I think there's some significance to the
• 1:02:40
  word dwell. No unclean thing can dwell in
• 1:02:44
  the presence of God is different than coming into his presence.
• 1:02:51
  And according to Samuel, if we haven't met the condition of
• 1:02:54
  repentance, we will not abide or dwell in his presence.
• 1:03:00
  We will be hewn down and cast out of his presence.
• 1:03:05
  Thus, according to Samuel suffering to a degree from his
• 1:03:10
  perspective, a second separation from God the Father a a
• 1:03:15
  spiritual death from Samuel's perspective, which now brings us
• 1:03:19
  to this realization and keep in mind, keep this in its
• 1:03:24
  historical context first and then bring it forward to our
• 1:03:27
  story. Samuel teaching wicked Nephites
• 1:03:30
  in their capital city these lofty doctrines.
• 1:03:35
  He is helping them to think celestial.
• 1:03:38
  He is painting a very eternal picture for them, and he doesn't
• 1:03:44
  end by saying so. Just thought you wanted to know.
• 1:03:48
  He finishes with a call to action, Verse 19.
• 1:03:55
  Therefore repent ye, repent ye. It's a double.
• 1:04:01
  Repent ye lest by knowing these things and not doing them, you
• 1:04:06
  shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are
• 1:04:10
  brought down unto this second death.
• 1:04:14
  So that little doctrinal insert from verse 15 through 19, in the
• 1:04:20
  middle of all of these prophecies about the coming of
• 1:04:23
  Christ and the destruction that awaits them and all of these
• 1:04:26
  incredible prophetic roles, that Samuel's feeling, it's amazing
• 1:04:33
  to me that he would give such a powerful discourse on why the
• 1:04:38
  coming of Jesus Christ is so significant and what eternal
• 1:04:43
  difference it makes to us. And now how we can tap into that
• 1:04:48
  power, how we can access it. And it's not rocket science.
• 1:04:54
  It starts with heeding that call from the Holy Ghost to believe
• 1:05:01
  in Jesus Christ, to trust in His name, to have faith in Him, to
• 1:05:06
  turn our life to Him. Now many of you might be
• 1:05:09
  watching this and you have been through so many struggles, so
• 1:05:14
  many difficulties, opposition and and adversity off the
• 1:05:20
  charts. The message is the same for you
• 1:05:25
  as it is for somebody who has just begun the journey on the
• 1:05:30
  the covenant path as a disciple of Christ or somebody who's
• 1:05:34
  contemplating whether or not to get onto that path.
• 1:05:38
  Samuel's invitation for everyone in that group, wherever you may
• 1:05:43
  be, his invitation to all of us would be there for repent ye,
• 1:05:49
  repent ye. Which means whether you're one
• 1:05:52
  step away from him or whether you aren't even sure where the
• 1:05:58
  path is going to ultimately lead and you have to move forward in
• 1:06:01
  faith alone, His invitation is the same.
• 1:06:04
  Take one more step forward towards the Lord and trust that
• 1:06:09
  there's going to be opposition. Trust that they're going to
• 1:06:12
  probably be some twists and turns and some ups and downs and
• 1:06:15
  highs and lows. They're going to be successes
• 1:06:18
  and struggles. But you're not on that journey
• 1:06:21
  alone. You're walking that path with
• 1:06:24
  the Lord Jesus Christ as your traveling companion.
• 1:06:29
  Those words from the Call of Enoch therefore walk with me.
• 1:06:37
  So where we are? On the path or if you haven't
• 1:06:39
  even gotten onto the path, the invitation is get on the path or
• 1:06:43
  get back onto the path and press forward with that steadfastness
• 1:06:48
  in Christ, knowing that the day will come when all will be
• 1:06:53
  brought out of the grave, brought into the presence of God
• 1:06:56
  and judged according to the the degree to which we met the
• 1:07:01
  condition of repentance. Now Samuel shifts back into his
• 1:07:06
  specific prophecies, and he. Says now let me.
• 1:07:09
  Tell you what's going to happen when this grand atoning 1 is
• 1:07:16
  going to die, he tells them. Specifically how their city's
• 1:07:19
  going to to meet its ultimate destruction at the death of
• 1:07:23
  Christ and this darkness covering the whole face of the
• 1:07:27
  earth for three days again so that these people will know when
• 1:07:33
  this happens in 38 years from this time, many of these people
• 1:07:39
  are still going to be alive if they're in the younger
• 1:07:41
  generations that they can cast their mind back to this prophecy
• 1:07:47
  and recognize God told us what he was going to do.
• 1:07:51
  Samuel's address to these people is, for me, one of those most
• 1:07:57
  incredible parts of Scripture that motivate me to connect more
• 1:08:02
  than ever before, to believe more than ever before, to trust
• 1:08:07
  in the Lord more than ever before, and to strive with all
• 1:08:12
  that I have to turn to Him and say life is hard.
• 1:08:17
  This mission you've given me, it's not easy.
• 1:08:21
  There's opposition and I'm not as good as I need to be.
• 1:08:25
  And it invites me to go out to that borderline on that zone of
• 1:08:30
  proximal development or spiritual development that I'm
• 1:08:33
  that I'm needing help with. And it's there in that
• 1:08:37
  borderland where I come to know the Lord better than staying in
• 1:08:43
  squarely rooted in the center of my comfort zone where I've got
• 1:08:47
  everything figured out. So as you you study the rest of
• 1:08:52
  these chapters, you can see the outcome.
• 1:08:53
  You can see the people's response.
• 1:08:55
  Some believed, some got baptized, most did not.
• 1:08:58
  They tried to kill him and he escapes miraculously and we
• 1:09:04
  never hear from him again. He came out of nowhere and he
• 1:09:09
  leaves and fades into nowhere. But brothers and.
• 1:09:13
  Sisters, at the end of the day, these are real people.
• 1:09:18
  Samuel Lamanite is not just a fictitious character.
• 1:09:22
  He's not just a a person who who taught incredible doctrines and
• 1:09:27
  then becomes a nobody. He's a real person and he
• 1:09:31
  fulfilled a mission given to him by God.
• 1:09:34
  And because of that, many people in his day were blessed.
• 1:09:38
  But because. He was willing to move forward
• 1:09:41
  in the face of intense adversity in opposition.
• 1:09:45
  My life has been richly blessed today through the quarter of
• 1:09:50
  time. Consequently, decisions I make
• 1:09:54
  today, things that I do today, can have effect on my children,
• 1:10:02
  on ward members, on stake members, on my students for
• 1:10:07
  generations to come. And that's how God builds up His
• 1:10:11
  Kingdom, using each of us as instruments in His hands to do
• 1:10:15
  His work according to His will and according to His timing.
• 1:10:20
  And that is my ultimate prayer for all of us, is that
• 1:10:25
  individually and collectively, we will turn to the Lord.
• 1:10:29
  We will tune our ears to His prophets more than ever before,
• 1:10:34
  that we will move forward in greater faith than ever before
• 1:10:37
  and accomplish those missions, those divine callings that have
• 1:10:41
  been given to us to fulfill so that we can build up that
• 1:10:45
  Kingdom of God on the earth in preparation for that glorious
• 1:10:50
  day when one day He will bring us out of the grave and into the
• 1:10:55
  presence of God in heaven to be judged according to our works.
• 1:11:00
  How I love the Lord Jesus Christ, how I love His prophets,
• 1:11:06
  both ancient and modern, and how desperately I want to follow
• 1:11:13
  those teachings and give my life to to him.
• 1:11:17
  And that's my prayer for all of us in the sacred name of Jesus
• 1:11:20
  Christ, Amen. Know that you're loved.