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Alma 32-35 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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I'm Taylor. And I'm Tyler.
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Today we'll be discussing Alma 32 to 35.
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So this particular block of scripture, chapters 323334 and
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35 are all taking place down in Antionum, where we left off last
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week's lesson among the Zormites.
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Remember, Alma took the dream team of missionaries down there
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to try to prevent the Zormites from becoming confederate with
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the Lamanites. And so 32 through 35 is the
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things that they were able to preach to these people and watch
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the outcome among the poor class compared to the more popular
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part of the people. The core of this, this teaching
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experience is rooted in the atonement of Jesus Christ, in
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the mercy of God, and having faith in God and faith in
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Christ. So let's begin with that concept
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here because it is such a critical element in our
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understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It is the first principle of the gospel to have faith in the Lord
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Jesus Christ. To illustrate some of the
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elements here, I'm going to begin with a little totally
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made-up story. You might even call it just a
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simple parable of faith to illustrate 1 aspect of faith
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that's that's really important. Once Upon a time, there's a man
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standing on the edge of a Cliff looking at the beautiful sunset
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over the ocean below him, far below.
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And he was enjoying all these beauties of nature when all of a
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sudden, wind, a gust of wind came from behind, knocked him
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off balance. And unfortunately, he lost his
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footing and fell off the Cliff. So as he's falling, he's praying
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to be saved. And there happens to be a tree
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growing out of the Cliff halfway down South.
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Here's this guy and he gets caught in a tree that's growing
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out of the Cliff halfway down this 100 foot fall.
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He breaks through the tree and grabs on to the very last
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branch. He looks down.
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He's got 50 feet of of air beneath him before he would hit
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the beach the the rocky beach below and 50 feet of sheer Cliff
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above him. He, he's stuck.
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He it's an impossible situation. So he cries out for help, and he
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hears a voice that says, do you believe that I could actually
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save you? And his obvious answer would be,
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well, yes, of course. Then the voice in his mind said,
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do you believe that I could actually create a wind strong
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enough to blow you back up to the top of the Cliff?
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He's like, that would be really strange, but yeah, I believe
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that. And the voice said, I will do
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that for you. Go ahead and let go, Brothers
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and sisters. Faith is the act of doing things
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moving forward in the face of a of at least a bit of
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uncertainty, a bit of of leaping out into the darkness, so to
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speak, to trust that God not just can do that, but but will
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do that for us when it's prompted by Him.
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One of my favorite talks on this subject that helped me
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understand this principle, faith in Lord Jesus Christ at a more
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profound level through all of my study of the gospel and the
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Scriptures was given by Elder David A Bednar.
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So Elder Bednar gave this talk. You can look it up and I would
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highly suggest studying it. It's called seek learning by
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faith. In this talk, Elder Bednar
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introduces a powerful concept of from his view, 3 layers of
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faith. He talks about how faith is the
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assurance that we have now. Most people, when they think of
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the word faith, they they translate it into belief.
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It's it's to believe in God or believe in Christ.
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Have have faith in God means I believe in God, which is
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absolutely true, but it's only a part of the overall word faith.
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The the concept, the doctrine, the principle of faith, the
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assurance that God is there that he lives is step one.
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But then there's the part of faith that is action where I'm
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doing something because of my belief, because of my past
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experiences. It leads me to now act to take
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that step out into the dark. President Boyd K Packer used to
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compare it to being on a stage in a spotlight and you can see
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everything within the ring or the circle of the light.
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But he said faith is when you step out of that ring out into
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the darkness and then the light moves.
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Then you can see more clearly as you as you continue to move
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forward. So once you've acted in faith,
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Elder Bednar said that, then it leads to the third phase of
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faith, which is the evidence phase.
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Now, ironically, he didn't stop there.
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He said once you've received the witness after the trial of your
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faith, that then in turn becomes assurance for the next trial of
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your faith, the next experience of your life, the next adventure
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that you that you have facing you in mortality.
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And So what happens is, is this process is simply a spiral
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staircase of faith. We go, we grow, we learn, we
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develop. This is a process.
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Now, there are some events along the way, no question, but it's a
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process of growing in our faith to trust more and more and more
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completely in God. And He will continually put us
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in places where we have to trust Him at a higher level than ever
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before. And if we can just keep passing
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those tests, we'll keep growing and developing greater trust in
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Him. That helps us launch into
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Chapter 32 this concept of moving forward, trusting God,
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even though I don't have all of the answers in front of me very
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clearly seen right here, right now.
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These missionaries went in and we're so shocked to see these
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people standing up on the Ramyamtam and the the manner of
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prayer that they were offering. It was pretty disturbing.
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Now they've started to teach the people and they've realized,
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whoa, we're having great success among the poor part of the
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people and we're not having much success among the rich.
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The more popular part is how he describes them.
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And so then he starts putting all of their focus and attention
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on the poorer class. And they tell Alma and the
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missionaries their frustrations of being kicked out of the
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synagogues and rejected by their people, by their culture because
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of the coarseness of their apparel, because they weren't
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wearing the right brand name. They couldn't afford it because
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they were doing the menial tasks, the the hard labor in the
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society and not getting paid well for it.
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And they couldn't keep up. And Alma goes into a beautiful
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discussion about humility. Some of you will remember that
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President Ezra Taft Benson used to say, speaking a lot about
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pride and humility. He said God will have a humble
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people. We can either choose to be
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humble or we can let Him humble US1 is a use of our agency where
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we choose humility, we choose meekness.
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We choose to to humbly go to the Lord and say what would thou
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have me do next versus waiting for him to send as Mormon is
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going to tell us later on in the in the book of Helaman, he's
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going to jump in and say except he visit them with with famine,
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pestilence, disease, terror, sickness.
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They will not remember him. So for us as a society, it's our
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choice. Are we going to choose humility
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even in the face of prosperity and peace, or are we going to
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force God basically to do things that cause us to be humble?
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Look at verse 15. Yeah, he that truly humbleth
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himself and repenteth of his sins and endures to the end, the
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same shall be blessed. Yeah, much more blessed than
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they who are compelled to be humble because of their
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exceeding poverty. Verse 16.
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Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being
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compelled to be humble. This is a beautiful, beautiful
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principle where he's now set the stage.
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Humility sets the stage for exercising and growing and
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developing faith. Look at verse 21.
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Now, as I said concerning faith, faith is not to have a perfect
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knowledge of things. Therefore, if you have faith,
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you hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
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So all of these different analogies, either the let go or
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step out of the light into the dark, whatever analogy you
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prefer to use, the reality is, is there's something powerful
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about acting in some realm of faith where you don't have all
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the answers. Some people are tempted to sit
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down and say, I have faith in God and so I'm just going to
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pray until he tells me what to do and I'm not going to move
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until he inspires me exactly what to do because I don't know
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what to do. And they think it wouldn't be
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faith, it would be rejecting him if they got up and started doing
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things. God loves effort and he rewards
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that effort, especially if it's a faith filled effort,
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especially if we started by going to him saying, help me, I
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don't know what I'm doing. And if there's a direct answer
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on where to go, please give it to me.
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And if it doesn't come, we still use our mind, we've studied, we
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use our agency. We move forward to the best of
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our ability, knowing that if we're on the wrong path, God
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will quickly help us realize that and we can try something
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else as we move forward in faith.
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So keep in mind, he's talking to a group of Zoramites here who
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are new to this concept of faith, of progressing because
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they've been worshipping in a synagogue where they're taught,
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hey, we're going to be saved because we're Zoramites, right?
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Look at verse 27. Behold, if you will awake and
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arouse your faculties even to an experiment upon my words and
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exercise a particle of faith, yet even if you can no more than
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desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until
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you believe in a manner that you can give place for a portion of
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My words. You notice He's asking us to try
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an experiment to exercise a particle of this faith.
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He's going to give us the details of that experiment in
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verse 28. I think it's safe to say that
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all of us would love to be experts in following Jesus.
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That's what I strive for. I want to get better at being
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like Jesus. I'd like to be an expert
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follower of Jesus. And in order to become an expert
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follower of Jesus, I need more experience.
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And the way to get experience is to conduct by action
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experiments. These words are all related.
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For you to become an expert at anything, you need to have lots
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of experience. And the only way to get that
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experience is to experimenting. And let me just talk briefly
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about a basic approach to experimentation.
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You have a question or a hypothesis, you take an action,
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you gather data, you interpret the data, and you draw
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conclusions. In fact, if we go back to what
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Tyler had written out before about Elder Bednar's message,
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that was a pathway for experimentation.
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You have an assurance, you take an action.
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It gives you evidence, which allows you to have more
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assurance. That is experimentation.
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In fact, this is what we teach at universities and schools is
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people call the scientific approach.
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Well, it's not just scientists that do it.
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It's anybody living who wants to learn something.
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You go out and try something and figure out what you've learned.
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Now you've noticed that I've capitalized a couple of words
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here. The root word that connects all
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these or the baseline word is this word per.
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Now if you want to look up the origin of words in English,
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there's a great online dictionary that I use.
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Just type in edemonline.com. You can type in any word in
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English and likely you'll find a list of references of where the
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word comes from. And what I want to point out
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here is the word per. Now this word, it's root meaning
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and it's actually the foundation for actually hundreds and
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hundreds of words in our language literally means to try
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to risk, to attempt or to press forward.
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Imagine this, if you want to become an expert follower of
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Jesus, you've got to go try something.
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You're going to have to risk being a bit uncomfortable.
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You actually even have to risk the possibility of failure.
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And actually the great thing is the atonement has already
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provided the safety net if in our risk we happen to have a
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failure. Failure is simply data that
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allows us to act better the next time.
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So instead of having fear about failure, we should embrace the
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trial, embrace the risk, go out and attempt.
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And we should press forward in faith.
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This is what the Planet Salvation invites us to do.
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Let me share with you some other words that will show up in these
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chapters that you might want to look at that have at their
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foundation this core idea of attempting, trying, pressing
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forward. I've written down all the words
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in Alma 32 to 34 that actually use a variation of this ancient
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word per. And I'm not going to go through
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them all, but I want you to just look at this list.
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And I want you to notice that one of the core emphasis that
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Alma's driving at is our need in the gospel to act, to try to
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attempt to become experts by experimentation.
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And just look at all these words preaching, permitted
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preparation, perfect, precious profit, perish, prosper,
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prepare, perform, prove, and procrastinate all actually come
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from this core basic word. Now let me share a few other
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words that might help you to sink this little deeper into
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your heart. Why experimenting on the Word of
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God matters. Here's some other words you may
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not realize come from the same root word, pride.
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I'm putting in capital letters, the letters that are related to
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this and this one I find particularly significant.
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I mean, the reason pride there because sometimes you get out in
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front and you think you're better than everybody else.
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So this one I think is super important.
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The word fear also is based on this, why we're afraid of trying
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things. We're afraid of risk.
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We're afraid of tempting. We're afraid of pressing forward
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because we might fail. And in order to become an expert
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follower of Jesus, we have to embrace the fear of the
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possibility of failure. This is back to what Tyler was
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saying. We have this circle of light and
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we have to step out into the darkness.
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We've all done it. We all know how that feels.
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And the only way to progress is to continuously press forward in
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faith. And again, the atonement is what
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makes all of this possible. We don't really have to fear
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failure because in Jesus, if we choose to be with him, we're
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already perfect. He's already arrived and He's
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just asked us to be with Him. So we encourage you to set aside
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fear by action, by planting that seed.
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And this is exactly what the Zormites were dealing with.
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These poor Zormites, They actually had fear like what?
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What can we actually get out of life?
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What's available for us? And they had enough faith to ask
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the question, and they had enough desire to believe that
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that planted the seed in their hearts that eventually they
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found an inheritance with God. Now back into the actual speech
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as we exercise this experiment, as we watch Alma give them the
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formula for carrying it forward. He said, now we will compare the
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word unto a seed. OK, now notice he didn't say
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we'll compare faith to a seed. It's we're going to compare the
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word to a seed, the word of God, the words that allow us to be
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able to grow and develop and create this covenant connection
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with Christ. We're going to compare that to a
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seed. Notice in verse 28 after
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introducing that, he says, now if you will give place that a
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seed may be planted in your heart.
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So there's this incredible comparison in Scriptures, not
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just here in this section, but in the parable of the sower to
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the different types of soils. There's something about hard
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hearts versus soft hearts that really appeal to an agrarian
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society. They can picture it.
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You, you can't go and throw seeds onto hard packed earth.
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It's not going to do anything. You have to work with the soil
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and you have to get rid of the other plants and weeds that
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might be growing there in order for the seeds that you want to
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grow to be able to have a a chance.
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So he starts by saying you have to give place that a seed may be
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planted in your heart. If there's no place for that,
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you're not ready, not ready to hear the gospel.
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Notice the two adjectives here. Behold, if it be a true seed, so
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it has to be a true seed. It can't be a fake, you know,
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grain of sand that's painted to look like a seed.
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It has to truly be a seed, has to have all of the, the DNA or
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the, I don't know, all the biological terms for whatever
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makes a true seed a true seed. It's got to have those or a good
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seed. So it's got to be good and true.
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Otherwise it doesn't matter. Everything else that we're doing
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downstream won't matter if it's not a good and true seed.
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Notice he says if you do not cast it out by your unbelief,
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that you will resist the Spirit of the Lord.
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Behold, now check this out. He says it's going to do 4
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things. I don't think that Alma intended
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for this to be a, a nice play on words in English because he
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doesn't speak English and he's not focused on that.
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But watch how this works out. Here are the four things that
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will happen. It will begin to swell within
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your breasts. So step one, it's going to swell
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within your breasts. Step 2 When you begin to feel
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these swelling motions, you will begin to say within yourself, it
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must needs be that this is a good seed or that the word is
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good. For it beginneth to enlarge my
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soul, and it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, and
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it begins to be delicious to me. Brothers and sisters, he just
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gave us the the nice test to run when we're doing
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experimentation. Whenever you go into a
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laboratory or into any kind of scientific experimentation, it
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doesn't do you any good to experiment.
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And then I'll be able to measure it so that you don't really know
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what the results fully were. He just gave you the
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measurements for our experiment of faith.
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By comparing the word to a seed that gets planted into our
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heart, it will begin to swell. You'll notice he didn't say it
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will just pop up and you'll start eating fruit immediately.
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No, the seed will begin to swell.
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It will feel something will feel right.
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You'll notice some movement, some growth.
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It will begin to enlarge your soul.
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It doesn't cause you to shrink, it'll actually cause you to turn
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outward and upward and notice and see and experience things
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you've never experienced before to the same degree.
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It will enlighten your understanding.
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Notice he's got both revelatory instruments involved here, mind
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and heart combined. So your understanding is growing
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at things start to make sense more.
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You're connecting more dots and it just tastes good.
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It tastes right so that when we're taking those steps of
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faith on that spiral progression, we are able to keep
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moving forward. Now how many of you go to the
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garden, throw in some seeds after preparing the soil, and
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you, you nourish them until you see the seeds sprouting and
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growing and you're like, oh, it was a good seed.
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That's great. Brothers and sisters, We don't
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plant seeds just to see them sprout.
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We plant seeds in order to be nourished or to be, to have some
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final benefit, whether it be flowers or fruits or vegetation
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or shade. We want some end result that
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isn't just, oh Yep, it started to grow.
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In other words, this whole experiment requires a whole
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bunch of that and a whole bunch of concerted and focused and and
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improving effort in order to have this come to fruition, to
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bear the fruit. Notice verse 30.
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He says, but behold, as the seed swelleth and sprouts and begins
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to grow, then you must need to say that the seed is good.
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But then he says verse 32. Therefore, if a seed growth, it
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is good, but if it groweth not, behold, it is not good.
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Therefore it is castaway. I get to interact with and read
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and deal with a lot of a lot of ideas regarding the gospel, some
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of them from prophets, Sears and revelators, some of them from
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from wonderfully inspired people, and some from detractors
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who are trying to destroy faith and tear down faith and cut down
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trees of faith. And I've never walked away from
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interacting with material that is intended to destroy faith.
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I've never walked away feeling better about myself or enlarged
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or enlightened or with a good taste in my mouth.
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It always leaves me with an empty, a hollow, just a sour
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taste in my mouth. It decreases my motivation to
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want to look at other people and ask how can I serve you?
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How can I bless you? It just puts a pall, dark mist
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around me whenever that happens. So it's fascinating that he says
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if the seed isn't growing, if it's not doing these things, you
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know it's not good and you can cast it out.
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We live in a world that is surrounded by all kinds of seeds
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that are being cast onto the soil of your heart.
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There are a lot of weed seeds. They don't need a lot of
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encouragement to grow. They don't need a lot of ground
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to find root. They're really, really crafty
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and they can get in and choke out a lot of good seeds and a
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lot of good growth efforts. Here's the point once again,
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back to our garden analogy. Nobody would ever go plant the
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seeds in their garden, wait for them to just start germinating
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and say, Yep, they're good seeds, and then walk away from
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the garden saying three months from now it's going to be a
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beautiful harvest. At what point can we stop
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nurturing our faith, our seedlings of faith, our seeds,
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our seedlings in our plants of faith?
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It takes an ongoing concerted effort to develop these these
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plants. Look at verse 35.
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Oh, then is not this real? I say unto you, yeah, because it
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is light. And whatsoever is light is good
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because it is discernible. Therefore you must know that it
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is good. And now, behold, after you've
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tasted this light, is your knowledge perfect?
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He says, nay, it's not perfect yet because you just planted the
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seed and it's just started to grow, but you have to nourish
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it. Verse 37, with great care you
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could mark that great care and you could translate that into
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things that we do and that we learn in the gospel of Jesus
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Christ. That takes great care, great
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effort to keep working with that plant and if you nourish it with
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much care, it will get root and grow up and bring forth fruit.
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It will. That is the ultimate act of
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faith is to continually nourish this.
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Now what about the opposite? Look at verse 38.
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But if ye neglect the tree and take no thought for its
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nourishment, behold, it will not get any root.
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And when the heat of the sun cometh and scorches it because
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it hath no root, it Withers away and you pluck it up and cast it
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off. And Alma's point was, you can't
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blame the gospel of Jesus Christ at that point for being not good
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or saying, see, it didn't work because it wasn't the seeds
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fault. It was my fault if I didn't
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nourish it, if I didn't have watchful care over the plant.
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But the the beautiful conclusion is in verse 40.
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Thus, if you will not nourish the word, looking forward with
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an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of
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the tree of life. But if you will nourish the
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word, ye nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow by your faith,
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with great diligence and patience, looking forward to the
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fruit thereof, it shall take root, and behold, it shall be a
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tree springing up unto everlasting life.
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I wonder if he's alluding to the fact that the seed that got
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planted in your heart came out of a piece of the fruit of the
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tree of life. Because he says the thing that
26:28
is growing up, that you're nourishing your whole life long.
26:31
If you keep nourishing it, the day will come when you will
26:34
partake of the fruit that springs up into everlasting
26:38
life. Sounds almost like God is giving
26:43
you a seed from the tree of life to help you grow and develop
26:49
your individualized tree of life.
26:51
That's custom made custom fit for you so that it's not a
26:56
one-size-fits-all, but it's, it's something that the Lord is
26:59
working with you individually on developing over over your
27:03
lifetime. Verse 43 Then my brethren, ye
27:06
shall reap the rewards of your faith and your diligence and
27:09
patience and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring
27:13
forth fruit unto you. Pretty beautiful concept.
27:17
This, this seed analogy that he's, that he's set up for our
27:22
experiment. Now he takes into chapter 33
27:26
where he's going to appeal to three prophets from the brass
27:30
plates, two of which we don't have in our Old Testament today.
27:35
He's going to take us to Zenith and he's going to quote Zenith.
27:38
Then he's going to quote Zenith. Then he's going to take us to
27:42
the experience with Moses and the brazen serpent up on the the
27:46
pole. Look at Zenith's quote is from
27:50
verse four through verse 11. This is, this is significant
27:54
because he's giving you a quoted block of text, a chunk of text
27:59
out of the, the book of Zenith on the brass plates that we
28:03
don't have in our Old Testament. So you combine this with Jacob 5
28:07
and we've got we've got pretty, pretty good collection going
28:11
here of what Zenus wrote. This guy was an amazing prophet.
28:15
You'll notice as you start in verse four, what comes right off
28:19
the page right at the beginning, what Zenus is focusing our
28:22
attention on. For he said quote, thou art
28:27
merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer even when I was
28:31
in the wilderness. Yeah, thou wast merciful when I
28:34
prayed concerning those who were mine enemies, and thou didst
28:37
turn them to me. Yeah, O God, that was merciful
28:40
unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field.
28:44
Taylor, what do you have to tell us about the word merciful?
28:47
So Tyler and I, as we were getting ready for this lesson,
28:49
we're talking about the amazing bookends.
28:52
In fact, actually Tyler used the phrase bookends that we have in
28:56
the Book of Mormon. Let's begin with first Nephi one
28:59
verse 20 and then Moroni chapter 10 verses 3 through 5.
29:05
I like to call this Nephi's thesis statement or his main
29:08
testimony. He has actually a a pretty
29:10
robust testimony. This says, behold, I will show
29:14
unto you, the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom
29:19
he hath chosen because of their faith, and make them mighty even
29:23
under the power of deliverance. So why is Nephi writing?
29:26
He wants to give us evidence of God's tender mercies.
29:31
And then if we go to Maroni 10, three to five, behold, I would
29:35
exhort you that when you read these things, OK, so this is the
29:38
famous promise that missionaries often share with people who are
29:43
seeking greater light and truth. And we actually so often focus
29:46
on verses four and five that we can feel the Spirit teaching us
29:49
truth. We often miss the homework
29:52
assignment that Moroni gives us in verse three.
29:55
I would exhort you that when you read these things, the Book of
29:57
Mormon, everything that Nephi and others wrote, if it is
30:00
wisdom and God, that you should read them.
30:02
And if you have them, just know that God is wise, that you
30:05
should remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children
30:10
of men. OK, so that's your assignment.
30:12
You need to remember how merciful the Lord has been from
30:15
OK, there's a timeline. You need to go review every act
30:18
of mercy that God has ever done in the world, from the creation
30:21
of Adam, even down to the very moment that you are receiving
30:24
these things and pondering them in your hearts.
30:26
Now, I don't know anybody who's actually fully accomplished
30:30
Moroni's homework assignment. I'm not sure there's enough
30:33
hours in a lifetime to record and remember every single act of
30:38
mercy God has ever done. But that is the bookend to the
30:42
Book of Mormon. Remember God's mercy.
30:46
And what's interesting here is an Alma 33, which is almost at
30:49
the center spot of the Book of Mormon.
30:51
You have mercy, the deep focus from this ancient prophet Zenith
30:56
where he is focusing in that the gospel is all about God's mercy.
31:00
And let me tie this into covenants very briefly.
31:03
We've talked about the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic
31:06
covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is what
31:08
God promises to do for us. Let's just call it God's
31:11
actions. And the Mosaic covenant could be
31:14
summarized as what God asks us to do in the relationship, our
31:18
actions. And there's a mutuality in the
31:22
covenant, right? God acts on our behalf, and he
31:25
expects us to respond. And the mercy, we could actually
31:29
say that the Abrahamic covenant is a symbol of God's mercy, that
31:34
God's actions are always about mercy, even in the justice.
31:40
So if we think back to what Nephi says, the tender mercies
31:44
of the Lord are over all those who have chosen because of their
31:48
faith, their actions to make them mighty, even under the
31:52
power of deliverance, God's actions to deliver us.
31:55
So as a lens for understanding the gospel, if we think about
31:58
the Abrahamic covenant, God's promises and actions to provide
32:02
a salvation, and the Mosaic covenant, which has been updated
32:06
by Jesus with the higher law and ongoing prophecy, is our actions
32:10
to show faith. And this mercy encompasses all
32:15
of this. And that's what we're hearing in
32:17
this message in the book of Alma, that as we act on faith,
32:21
we always can get access to God's mercy.
32:24
Again, verse five of Alma 33 That was merciful unto me when I
32:29
did cry unto thee in my field. So the action was, I cried unto
32:32
God, and I got from the Abrahamic covenant mercy.
32:36
Actually God gave the mercy. Verse 8 Thou art merciful unto
32:41
thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee, and
32:43
not of men. Verse 9, Thou has been merciful
32:46
unto me and heard my cries. And what's very interesting is,
32:49
and I don't want to minimize this, but how much effort is
32:52
going on here? It's simply prayer.
32:57
Now there are many other things we can do to get access to God's
32:59
mercy, but how hard is it to pray?
33:02
You can be praying at any moment wherever you are.
33:05
You can have a prayer to God and you can experience His mercy.
33:08
Now, there are many other things to do in this life that we
33:10
cannot get access to God's mercy, but just know that
33:13
through prayer we can have ongoing continuous access to
33:16
God's mercy. And that actually is the promise
33:19
that we get at Sacrament. So to illustrate this just very
33:23
briefly, I could, I mean, we could give thousands of examples
33:29
of where we've seen this in our life.
33:32
When our second son was down on his mission in Guayaquil,
33:36
Ecuador, and the whole coronavirus epidemic was getting
33:41
bigger and bigger and scary down there.
33:43
And there was a chance that some of our elders and sisters
33:47
weren't going to make it out of Ecuador.
33:50
It was amazing to me the feeling that that I got as I watched my
33:56
my dear wife and our children and my siblings and her siblings
34:02
and nieces and nephews and grandmas and grandpas, uniting
34:06
faith, turning to God, realizing there was nothing any of us
34:10
could do in the States to get those missionaries and our dear
34:14
son Jacob home safely. But we turned to God and there
34:17
was a there was a feeling of peace, a feeling of be still and
34:23
know that I'm God. Watch me perform miracle after
34:27
miracle after miracle, mercy after mercy after mercy.
34:32
All we had to do was exercise faith and trust in Him and
34:35
plead. And those prayers and and
34:37
fasting occurred to be sure, when we did get Jacob home,
34:43
along with dozens and dozens of the the last set of missionaries
34:48
from from that Guayaquil area. The stories he told us at every
34:53
step along the way of getting all of the missionaries in from
34:57
remote parts of that country into Guayaquil to be able to get
35:01
on to that very last plane out back to the US back to Miami.
35:06
I just sat there the whole time as he was telling stories,
35:09
saying how great thou art, how merciful the Lord is, how kind
35:16
He is. And sometimes things don't work
35:18
out that way in every story, but even then they work out for
35:24
whatever is best for us. And that's my faith, that's my
35:27
trust that even if I don't get exactly what I was praying for
35:30
like we did in this instance, it doesn't mean that God isn't in
35:34
His heavens and didn't hear His prayer and that we didn't
35:37
necessarily have faith. Our faith isn't always in just
35:40
what the exact outcome is going to be.
35:42
Our faith is in dear God on high.
35:45
Please bless that this will happen.
35:48
Nevertheless, not our will, but thine be done.
35:51
Good things always, always happen when you turn to the Lord
35:55
in faith in this, in this way. Now you'll notice, turn the page
36:01
over in verse 11 when he finishes the last verse of
36:05
Zenith's quote here. Notice why God is merciful,
36:10
verse 11. And thou didst hear me because
36:13
of mine afflictions and my sincerity.
36:16
OK, so I was sincere in this, and you heard me.
36:19
And it is because of thy son that thou has been thus merciful
36:24
unto me. You could underline or mark or
36:27
highlight however you want that phrase because of thy Son.
36:30
It's because of Jesus that God can extend such incredible,
36:36
tender mercies to us in our life.
36:39
So you have justice, You have me who deserves that justice, and
36:48
it's headed my way. But Jesus inserts himself
36:52
betwixt me and justice, so that instead of me getting the
36:57
justice, he absorbs the justice and in return allows God to give
37:03
me the mercy, extends the mercy to me.
37:06
Justice has to be served, has to be paid.
37:09
And he's doing that. And we'll talk more about that
37:11
in the next lesson. Look at verse 16.
37:16
Because now he shifts from zenith to xenoch.
37:19
For behold, he said, thou art angry, O Lord, with this people,
37:22
because they will not understand thy mercies, which thou hast
37:26
bestowed upon them because of thy Son.
37:28
And now my brother, and you see that a second prophet of Olds
37:31
has testified of the Son of God, and because the people would not
37:35
understand his words, they stoned him to death.
37:38
So here's an Old Testament prophet that we don't have in
37:40
the Old Testament who was stoned to death because of his
37:43
testimony of the Son of God, apparently.
37:45
Look at verse 19. Behold, he was spoken of by
37:49
Moses. So here's our third witness from
37:52
the brass plates. Because a type and a shadow was
37:55
raised up in the wilderness of Christ, that if you just look,
37:59
then you'll live. Look at verse 20.
38:02
But few understood the meaning of those things, and this
38:04
because of the hardness of their hearts.
38:07
But there were many who were so hardened that they would not
38:10
look. Therefore they perished.
38:12
Now the reason they would not look is because they did not
38:15
believe that it would heal them. Remember the Elder Bednar
38:19
principle, Assurance leads to action.
38:22
They didn't have enough assurance that looking at the
38:25
serpent would heal them, so they didn't act.
38:29
They didn't believe, so they didn't act.
38:31
We talked about the spiral staircase upward of faith.
38:34
Well, the same principle applies going in the downward direction.
38:37
You can actually decrease in your level of assurance with
38:40
failure after failure to act in faith, making it so that you
38:44
don't believe anything anymore. And you won't act in faith at
38:48
all at a certain point if you keep digressing.
38:52
But let's not focus there. Let's let's go back and focus on
38:54
the upward trend. Look at verse 21.
38:57
O my brethren, if you could be healed by merely casting about
39:00
your eyes that you might be healed, would you not behold
39:03
quickly? Or would you rather harden your
39:05
hearts in unbelief and be slothful that you would not cast
39:07
about your eyes that you might perish?
39:09
Here's Alma. Can you picture it?
39:11
He's pleading with these poor Zormites.
39:13
Will you just look to Christ? Will you please just trust Him?
39:18
Just call upon God in the name of His Son and He'll have mercy
39:22
on you. I know you have problems in your
39:24
past. We all do keep turning to Him
39:28
through this long process of time with diligence and patience
39:33
and long-suffering. Look at verse 22.
39:36
If so, woe shall come upon you. But if not so, then cast about
39:41
your eyes and begin to believe on the Son of God that He will
39:44
come to read Him as people, and that He shall suffer and die to
39:47
atone for their sins, and that He shall rise again from the
39:50
dead. Are you noticing the faith?
39:51
They don't see these things. They don't know Him for sure.
39:53
They have to believe, there has to be a level of assurance here
39:58
to then act in faith. And he's, he's pleading with
40:01
them to believe in all these things which are to come for
40:04
them. Then he finishes by telling them
40:07
at the very end, May God grand unto you, that your burdens may
40:10
be light through the joy of his Son, and even all this can ye
40:15
do, if you will. Amen.
40:18
He's saying this isn't rocket science.
40:20
It's not reserved for people who are rich or who are black or
40:23
white or blonde or free or male or female.
40:25
It's you can, you can partake of God's goodness and of his mercy
40:29
and of his grace through his Son, if you will, if you'll just
40:34
turn to him and begin to believe.
40:36
And I love the fact that at the beginning he said, look, even if
40:39
you can no more than desire to believe.
40:42
Let's start there. Just nurture that desire until
40:46
it becomes the act of planting the seed.
40:49
Then we shift into chapter 34. Alma sits down, Amulek stands up
40:55
and gives an incredible discourse on the infinite
40:59
atonement of Jesus Christ, which makes all of this possible.
41:02
We're not even having these conversations about faith and
41:06
progression on the covenant path if it isn't for Jesus performing
41:11
an infinite atonement. He sets the stage for this.
41:14
Look, pick it up in verse 9. For it is expedient that an
41:19
atonement should be made. For according to the great plan
41:22
of the eternal God, there must be an atonement made, or else
41:25
all mankind. What percentage?
41:27
That's 100%. All mankind must unavoidably
41:31
perish. Yeah, all are hardened.
41:34
All are fallen Again, what are these percentages?
41:37
All are hardened. All are fallen and are lost and
41:41
must perish except to be through the atonement, which is
41:44
expedient should be made. We've talked about this before,
41:47
but really quickly. Let's review it.
41:49
When you take the suffix MENT, it means the process or product
42:01
of whatever it comes after. So quick review.
42:05
Adam and Eve, they're walking with God in the Garden of Eden.
42:09
They're at one with him. They fall, They are no longer at
42:15
one with him. So what do we need?
42:18
We need a way to be at one with him again, what Jesus did for
42:24
us, the process and the product of becoming at one with God and
42:30
with each other is the ultimate fruit of the Savior's infinite
42:36
atonement. Now no mortal can do this.
42:40
No, no pure mortal can can accomplish what needs to be
42:43
accomplished here. So look what he says verse 10.
42:45
It is expedient that there should be a great and the last
42:48
sacrifice, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beasts, neither
42:53
of any manner of fell. For it shall not be a human
42:56
sacrifice, but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.
43:02
Let me translate the words infinite, eternal.
43:04
It has to be a sacrifice of a God.
43:07
It can't be the sacrifice of a man or a beast, or of the fells,
43:12
or of the fruits of the IT can't be that kind which are
43:14
permeating the law of of Moses. This sacrifice had to be the
43:20
sacrifice of a God. Jesus is the only one who can
43:28
perform this infinite atonement for us.
43:31
Why? Because he inherits from his
43:34
mother the ability to suffer, the ability to take upon himself
43:40
the human condition, the fallen state of man and woman, where he
43:45
can suffer and die. And from his father he inherits
43:50
infinite capacities to endure pain.
43:55
He inherits the ability to control his own life.
43:59
He can't. You can't take his life away
44:01
from him. He has the ability to lay it
44:04
down and take it up again, the capacity to suffer, bleed and
44:08
die, and the capacity to endure infinite amounts of pain and
44:14
sacrifice for and in behalf of us.
44:17
Now you'll notice he says verse 12, the law requires the life of
44:21
him who hath murdered. Therefore there can be nothing
44:24
in short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for
44:27
the sins of the world. Jesus literally stands in my
44:32
place and says I'll take that punishment so that Tyler doesn't
44:38
have to take the the ultimate punishment for sin.
44:42
Verse 14. Behold, this is the whole
44:44
meaning of the law. Every wit what percentage?
44:48
That's 100%. Everything in the law points to
44:52
that great and last sacrifice. And that great and last
44:55
sacrifice will be the Son of God.
44:59
Yeah, infinite and eternal. And thus he shall bring
45:02
salvation to all those who shall believe on his name.
45:05
This being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about
45:08
the bowels of mercy which overpowerth justice and bringeth
45:12
about means unto men that they may have faith under repentance.
45:16
Brothers and sisters, this message is beautiful from
45:19
Amulek. He's saying you don't have to
45:22
own all of your sins and iniquities and struggles alone.
45:26
You have a Savior, you have a Redeemer, you can trust Him.
45:30
The most important thing you can do at that phase is to recognize
45:32
Him for whom He is and give him your struggles as you trust in
45:36
Him, and let Him pay the demands of justice, and experience that
45:42
glorious feeling of mercy and forgiveness that comes from a
45:47
God of mercy and a God of love. Look at verse 16.
45:51
Thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice and encircles
45:56
them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith
46:00
under repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of
46:04
justice. Therefore, only unto him that
46:07
has faith unto repentance has brought about the great and
46:09
eternal plan of redemption. I mean like saying Jesus has
46:12
already paid this price for you, just come into the arms of his
46:16
safety. But if you say no, I don't trust
46:18
him, just like the people out in the wilderness said, no, I don't
46:20
believe that looking at that serpent upon the rods going to
46:23
heal me, so I'm not going to look at it.
46:24
And then they perish. He's saying the same thing to
46:27
us. Just look to Christ and live.
46:30
Come to him. He has arms of safety.
46:32
He's already paid a price, but if you don't want to come to
46:35
Him, then you remain out here and you will have to pay the
46:39
price yourself to justice. Then He takes us into this
46:44
beautiful, beautiful section on prayer.
46:47
You could read very carefully and slowly, verse 17 through 27,
46:51
all of the different things to cry unto God over.
46:56
It's a pretty inclusive list. Then look at verse 31.
47:00
Yeah, I would that you would come forth and harden not your
47:03
hearts any longer, or behold, now is the time and the day of
47:07
your salvation, and therefore, if you will repent and harden
47:10
not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of
47:13
redemption be brought about unto you.
47:16
You could mark the word immediately there, because
47:18
that's very rare. Rarely do we get prophets giving
47:22
instantaneous or immediate promises.
47:25
This is one of the few that you're going to find Where if we
47:29
don't harden our hearts immediately as we come to
47:31
Christ, we're going to experience the plan of
47:34
salvation, plan of redemption being brought about unto us.
47:37
And then he gives that famous verse 32.
47:40
For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet
47:43
God. For behold, the day of this life
47:46
is the day for men to perform their laborers.
47:48
Jump down to 34. You cannot say when you're
47:51
brought to that awful crisis that I will repent, that I will
47:54
return to my God. Nay, you cannot say this.
47:56
For that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time
47:58
that you go out of this life, that same spirit will have power
48:01
to possess your bodies in that eternal world.
48:04
I don't know what exactly Amulek implied for all of the
48:08
eternities down the road. I I don't know.
48:10
But I know that his invitation to those Zoramites on that day
48:13
and to me and you today is don't say, oh, these are good
48:17
concepts. I'm going to worry about them
48:19
tomorrow or next week. There's a sense of urgency
48:23
attached to learning the gospel of Jesus Christ that when you,
48:26
when you know it, happy are you. If you do it, if you act in
48:31
faith, often God gives you the assurance.
48:34
And if you don't act when you have that assurance, the
48:36
assurance doesn't last. And then your ability to act
48:40
gets harder and harder and harder as time progresses and
48:43
you and you lag and delay in your obedience.
48:46
Let me finish with verse 40. And now my beloved brother and I
48:50
would exhort you to have patience and that you bear with
48:53
all manner of afflictions, that you do not revile against those
48:57
who to cast you out because of your exceeding poverty, lest you
48:59
become sinners like unto them. But that you have patience and
49:03
bear with those afflictions with a firm hope that you shall one
49:05
day rest from all. What percentage?
49:08
All your afflictions. This life is the time for men to
49:12
prepare to meet God. This life is the test.
49:15
It's not like you're going to be tested for all of eternity.
49:18
So we bear with patience the afflictions that we have here.
49:21
Now the Zoramites have an interesting scenario because you
49:25
get this poor class that believes in the the more popular
49:28
part of the people in chapter 35, verse three says, and it
49:33
came to pass to the more popular part of the Zoramites and
49:35
consulted together and they get angry because of the words of
49:39
Elma and these missionaries. And they find out who believed
49:43
and they kick out the poor class.
49:45
They have nowhere to go. So they they flee to Jershon to
49:48
go live among the people of the anti Nephi Lehis.
49:51
And they give them land inheritance.
49:53
And then the rich Zoramites are like, wait a minute, something's
49:58
wrong. Who's going to do all of the the
50:01
menial labor now our working class is gone.
50:05
So they go to the people of Jershon, the anti Nephi Lehis,
50:09
and they say kick those people back out.
50:11
And they say we're not kicking them out.
50:13
And that's when these Zoramites go home and say we're done.
50:18
And they then go and make a league with the Lamanites to the
50:21
South and join with them and invite them into Antionum, which
50:28
launches us in a few chapters into the war chapters.
50:32
So Zarahemna and his army that comes in to fight against
50:37
Captain Ronnie for the first time in Alma 43.
50:39
That kind of launches us into this long war narrative.
50:43
Zarahemna was invited in by the Zoramites, who rejected the
50:47
prophets, who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, who
50:50
would not give a place in their heart.
50:53
Now, in closing, every one of us are at one point or another in
50:58
our progression of faith. Every one of us has something
51:04
that we need to do or ought to do or feel we could do, but it's
51:09
a little bit uncertain. It's this let go opportunity for
51:13
all of us to trust more in Jesus wisely using both our mind and
51:18
our heart to move forward in faith.
51:20
Our prayer that we will all trust God more than ever before
51:26
as we move into uncertain times and uncertain waters in our
51:29
future, knowing that God lives, He's in His heavens, and He
51:34
loves you, and He is merciful to you because of the sun, and we
51:39
leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.