Latest / Scripture Central / Alma 23–29 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource

Transcript

Alma 23–29 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin | A Come Follow Me Resource · Scripture Central

0:00
Hello there, My name is Tyler Griffin and this is Scripture
0:04
study Insights by Scripture Central Today, ALMA chapters 23
0:09
through 29 and the lifelong learning overlay that I want to
0:15
to address with these particular chapters is this question, what
0:22
is it that defines you? What makes you uniquely you?
0:32
This is an identity level question.
0:35
And what we're going to see in these chapters is a group of
0:39
people who have spent their entire lifetime heading in a
0:45
certain direction and by accepting the gospel of Jesus
0:49
Christ as taught by these missionaries.
0:52
This entire group of people in chapter 23, verse 9 through 12,
0:59
we see the names of seven cities who have become converted unto
1:04
the Lord by that preaching and they have now turned the entire
1:08
focus of their lives in a different direction.
1:12
Things that used to be important to them, things that used to
1:16
define who they were and their their level of of contentment or
1:22
feelings of success in life. It's completely different now
1:27
that they've become converted. So as we jump into these
1:32
chapters, one of the questions for you to ponder is what is it
1:38
that defines my life? What is what is the the set of
1:44
criteria that I use as a a measure of my success and
1:51
happiness in my life? What am I really here to
1:55
accomplish on earth, and to what degree am I fulfilling those
2:01
missions that Heavenly Father gave to me before being born?
2:07
And before we we jump into any of the verses, it's important to
2:11
remember those three most important primary identities
2:17
that President Russell and Nelson has repeated on multiple
2:20
occasions. We are first and foremost a
2:24
child of God. It doesn't matter what we do.
2:28
It doesn't matter what we don't do.
2:30
It doesn't matter how we live our life.
2:33
It doesn't change the reality that we are children of God.
2:38
We can't divorce ourselves from that.
2:41
That primary and primal relationship with God #2 we can
2:47
choose to become children of the covenant.
2:51
We can enter into the safety of that covenantal connection with
2:56
the Lord through those those covenants that we make with God
3:02
and #3 we are disciples of Jesus Christ.
3:07
And that second and third identity, they can be altered
3:12
based on our choice, based on our, based on our agency.
3:16
But I love the fact that the very first one, it's not you.
3:20
You can't change it. It it's not going away.
3:24
We are always going to be children of God.
3:27
And you watch as God now deals with these his children who have
3:35
struggled spending generations headed One Direction.
3:40
And now we finally get and, and a large number of them believing
3:47
the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and making that
3:51
change. And they no longer are going to
3:54
define themselves by their history, by their past, by their
4:01
culture. They're going to define
4:03
themselves by their relationship with God, by that covenant
4:09
connection that they made with him.
4:12
So watch for that as you read these chapters.
4:14
The the power of those covenants and the power of those
4:21
relationship defining identities that they, they now see
4:27
themselves differently, they see their enemies differently.
4:32
And most importantly, they see God very differently than they
4:38
did before. And the whole point of these
4:41
chapters isn't for us to go into the past, into history, and
4:46
become experts in Nephite and Lamanite historical narratives.
4:52
The point is to read these stories, find those principles
4:57
that are applicable, and bring them forward in time to our day
5:01
and age today and say I too can change.
5:08
The Lord can give me a new heart.
5:10
The Lord can give me a new perspective, a changed set of of
5:17
ideals and criteria by which I measure myself.
5:20
Regardless of what has happened in my past, there is always hope
5:26
in Jesus Christ. It's the only place where we can
5:29
find that hope to really make those changes.
5:32
So let's dive in and look at the descriptions here of these
5:38
people and this shift that they have made.
5:42
Look at verse 5, it says. And thousands were brought to
5:47
the knowledge of the Lord. Yeah, thousands were brought to
5:51
believe in the traditions of the Nephites.
5:54
And they were taught the records and prophecies which were handed
5:57
down even to the present time. So this this teaching involves
6:04
using the Scriptures and using the the historical narrative of
6:10
what's happened with the Nephites.
6:12
What stories have they been telling?
6:13
What stories of Lamanites been telling doing this comparison
6:17
and these these Lamanite converts realize, oh, we've been
6:22
told a different story. But because of the scriptures
6:26
and because of the power of the Holy Ghost in that teaching
6:29
experience with these missionaries, they now believe
6:32
in the traditions of the Nephites, which are going to
6:35
connect them with God. Look at verse six.
6:37
And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed or
6:42
as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth through
6:45
the preaching of Ammon and his brethren according to the spirit
6:49
of revelation and of prophecy and the power of God working
6:53
miracles in them. Yeah, I send you as the Lord
6:57
liveth. There's that invoking of this
7:01
ancient Hebrew oath when you invoke the living reality of God
7:07
there, there's nothing more substantial that you could offer
7:11
to somebody in giving your word. Then as the Lord liveth,
7:16
there's, there's nothing above that.
7:18
So here is Mormon telling us that as the Lord liveth as many
7:25
of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching and we're
7:28
converted unto the Lord never did fall away.
7:32
So one of the things that defines this group of converts
7:38
is this deep. We would call it lasting
7:46
conversion. This is this is not a a a social
7:54
conversion. This isn't convincing them
7:57
temporarily. This is a deep and soul leveled
8:03
conversion, a whole soul conversion that is going to last
8:09
regardless of what happens in the world around them.
8:12
The kind of conversion, quite frankly, that all of us could
8:16
benefit from incorporating more than ever before in our own
8:21
lives and in our in in the lives of our family members is seeking
8:25
for this level where we don't have to walk around on spiritual
8:30
egg shells wondering when I'm going to lose my faith or when
8:34
somebody's going to say something that will be bad
8:36
enough to offend me. To now make it so that I I don't
8:40
want to be associated with the church or the gospel of Jesus
8:43
Christ anymore because I don't agree with them or because they
8:47
offended me. It's my testimony is not rooted
8:51
in any of these people or any of these situations or
8:54
circumstances of life. What defines me and what defines
8:59
my identity has now become embedded in my relationship with
9:05
and my connection to Jesus Christ.
9:09
I am now wrapped in the arms of his safety, which doesn't mean
9:12
my life's going all of a sudden be easy, as we're going to see
9:15
here with these people. But it doesn't matter what my
9:18
life is at that point because none of those things define me,
9:23
because it's my, my connection with Christ that is now defining
9:26
me. I'm in the arms of His safety.
9:29
I'm relying on His goodness, on his merits, on his grace alone,
9:35
not my own. It must have been a liberating
9:38
thing for these people to get to the point where they no longer
9:40
had to look horizontally for their status or for their
9:45
identity, or to figure out what defined them.
9:49
But now they are firm and they're rooted in their
9:52
connection with Christ. What a powerful example for us
9:56
to follow today. Now it says verse seven, they
10:01
became a righteous people. The keyword for me right there
10:06
is became they didn't start out as righteous people.
10:11
They they were doing all kinds of things that were against the
10:13
commandments of God and against the the will of God for them.
10:18
But God is not going to hold them hostage to those years,
10:22
decades, even generations of bad decisions and poor uses of their
10:29
agency. He's going to define them by
10:32
their desires to now connect with Him in righteousness.
10:36
And it says they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion,
10:40
that they did not fight against God anymore, neither against any
10:44
of their brethren. So they stop rejecting God and
10:49
they stop fighting against their brethren.
10:51
They're going to lay down their weapons as we see in chapter 24.
10:55
Now he gives you the, the list of those seven cities in the 14
10:59
year mission. And that's an important note
11:03
that this conversion process for these people, seven cities, but
11:10
it did take 14 years. It was it was not an overnight
11:15
event. It, it took a long time to work
11:19
through this process of, of conversion.
11:23
And he tell Mormon tells us that there were no Amalekites or
11:27
Amylonites who were converted, save only one.
11:30
There was there was one Amalekite.
11:32
These are dissenting Nephites who have now moved and lived
11:36
among the Lamanites and only one of them is included in that
11:41
number that joins the the these believers.
11:46
And he says they did harden their hearts and also the hearts
11:51
of the Lamanites in that part of the land wheresoever they dwelt.
11:54
Yeah, and all their villages and all their cities.
11:56
So these dissenting Nephites, all except for one, refused to
12:01
accept the gospel and instead fight against this effort and
12:06
and try to stir up the the Lamanites against these
12:09
missionaries and their message. So down in verse 17, they come
12:15
up with a name to distinguish themselves and set them apart
12:19
from the Lamanites who refused to be converted from the
12:22
Amalekites and the Amylonites and the others, as well as to
12:27
set them apart distinctly from the Nephites to the north in the
12:32
land of Zarahemla. And in verse 17, they come up
12:34
with the name anti Nephi Lehis. It's this different, different
12:38
group there. There are some great resources
12:42
at on Scripture Central discussing that name and the
12:46
potential reasons for that name, and I love what it says here in
12:50
verse 18. They began once again.
12:53
This signifies a change. They began to be a very
12:58
industrious people. Yeah, and they were friendly
13:01
with the Nephites. Therefore they did open a
13:03
correspondence with them and the curse of God did no more follow
13:07
them. That curse that likely had
13:09
nothing to do with their skin colour, but had everything to do
13:13
with their accessing the power of God through covenant and not
13:18
being cut off from the promises and the blessings of the Lord
13:21
that that curse no more follows them.
13:24
They are, they are fully in the covenant.
13:26
They're defined by that relationship now and it's
13:29
beautiful to watch this happen. So then it it goes on to explain
13:37
how the Amalekites and the Amylonites had extreme hatred
13:44
against these people and they began to rebel against their
13:47
king in so much they would not that he should be their king.
13:50
Therefore they took up arms against the people of Antonifi
13:53
Lehi. So they're not just upset at
13:57
this change that's happened with their king and seven cities
14:01
filled with Lamanites, but they're filled with this hatred
14:05
to the point where they're going to now do everything they can to
14:08
destroy them and kill them. So let's look at the response
14:12
from the king to these people who have been converted.
14:17
Now these are the words which he said unto the people concerning
14:20
the matter. This is in verse seven.
14:22
I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has
14:27
in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us,
14:32
to preach unto us and to convince us of the traditions of
14:36
our wicked fathers. This is flying in the face of,
14:40
like I said, hundreds of years of generations of these Lamanite
14:45
traditions. And he says, behold, I think my
14:49
great God, that he has given us a portion of his Spirit to
14:51
soften our hearts, that we have opened a correspondence with
14:54
these brethren, the Nephites. They share common ancestry, but
14:58
it goes back over 500 years to Lehigh in Jerusalem, Lehigh and
15:04
Soraya and Ishmael and his wife. And yet they're referring to
15:10
these former enemies of them, the Nephites, as their brethren.
15:16
And they've opened up this correspondence.
15:18
What a beautiful thing it is when people who used to be your
15:24
enemy can become your friend. One of my favorite quotes on the
15:29
subject of all time comes from Abraham Lincoln, one of the
15:34
presidents of the United States. When somebody, I don't remember
15:37
the exact situation, but somebody asked him with as much
15:41
political power as he had, why don't you destroy your enemies
15:45
instead of trying to make friends with them.
15:48
And his response was something along the lines of, am I not
15:53
destroying my enemy when I make them my friend?
15:59
And that's exactly what's happened here.
16:02
These these people are no longer enemies to the Nephites who are
16:06
trying to fight against and kill the Nephites.
16:09
They've now entered into a correspondence with them.
16:11
And there's this new love, this new relationship that is born
16:16
that can now bless both groups of people's lives.
16:20
So they can spend more time building that relationship
16:23
rather than figuring out how to destroy each other.
16:25
It's such a beautiful Christ centered approach to our
16:30
relationships is to figure out how to tear down barriers.
16:34
So as he he gets down to verse 12, he he gives this insightful
16:40
comment to the group. Now, my best beloved brethren,
16:45
since God has taken away our strength, our stains and our
16:48
swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more
16:53
with the blood of our brethren. And he talked talks about how
16:58
they have have had the their their swords washed bright
17:05
through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be
17:09
shed for the atonement of our sins.
17:12
The the symbolic beauty of that example is is amazing that we've
17:20
stained our swords with the blood of our brethren, with the
17:24
blood of our enemies that we fought against previously.
17:27
But now we've washed those very same swords clean.
17:32
So they're now bright in the blood of the Lamb.
17:36
It's that the symbolism is is beautiful.
17:39
And so he then invites them in verse 15 as a testimony to our
17:45
God at the last day or at the day that we shall be brought to
17:47
stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our
17:51
swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his
17:53
word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
17:57
His invitation is let us hide our swords and bury them up deep
18:03
in the earth. We're not just going to put them
18:05
in the shed Outback. We're not going to dig a small
18:08
hole and put them in a shallow grave, so to speak.
18:12
We're going to bury these swords deep in the earth.
18:16
There are a lot of people today who are wrestling with and
18:20
struggling with addictions of every variety in in our world
18:26
and in our culture today. And you, you probably all know
18:32
people, loved ones who are wrestling with with addictions
18:37
to 1° or another. It's fascinating to me that the
18:42
Book of Mormon written for our day and Moroni later on will
18:48
tell us that he has seen our day.
18:51
He sees, he knows our doings. He knows what we're struggling
18:54
with and wrestling with today. And one of our biggest struggles
18:57
surely has to be addictions in all of their various forms
19:01
today. Maroni would have seen that.
19:04
Mormon would have seen that they they would have known about
19:09
this. And it's fascinating to me that
19:11
the Book of Mormon never uses the word addiction or never
19:16
addresses it directly. But this is one of the places
19:20
where Mormon includes this beautiful story.
19:23
And in my mind, this is one of the sweetest places to see how a
19:29
people responds to an addiction. Now, some of you might be
19:32
thinking to yourself, what are you talking about?
19:34
What's the, what's the potential addiction here?
19:38
Well, the way the Lamanites describe their, their situation,
19:43
as they say, bloodthirsty and a ferocious people who delight in
19:52
the shedding of blood. There's something about that
19:56
violence of war. They delight in the shedding of
19:59
his blood. These are words that would
20:01
describe elements of addiction. And so here's this people who
20:06
have a changed heart, their mind is shifted using using the the
20:12
example of repentance as defined by President Russell and Nielsen
20:17
when he used the the Greek word meta nueo to change one's mind,
20:22
one's one's beliefs, even the way you breathe.
20:26
They've done that. Can you see why the king would
20:30
invite the people to dig a very deep hole and bury their weapons
20:35
deep in the earth and then cover them up so they won't be able to
20:39
get at them easily? It's that feeling of we have
20:43
been forgiven, now we need to bury the weapons of our
20:48
rebellion, the very tools whereby if we were to pick those
20:52
weapons back up again and go and fight, even if it were in
20:57
self-defense, it's as if he's saying, my, my fear is that we
21:05
would go back into that bloodthirsty realm again and
21:11
delight in the shedding of blood.
21:13
It would no longer be self-defense.
21:15
It would fall back into those old patterns.
21:18
So you can see how this people is choosing to be defined by
21:23
their current connection with Christ.
21:27
Now, brothers and sisters, with our addictions today, it may not
21:32
be quite as tangible as warfare with swords and Spears and
21:38
arrows. It may not be something so easy
21:42
to put into the earth and bury up.
21:45
But the weapons of our rebellion with our addictions, we could
21:49
probably spend a little bit of time and think through what are
21:53
the tools that I use to engage in certain addictive behaviors
21:58
and how could we bury those deep and turn more than ever before
22:04
to the Lord for for our our identity, defining moments of
22:12
life moving forward and to get us through those those
22:16
struggles. I love that it says here verse
22:19
18. And this they did, it being in
22:23
their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never
22:29
would use weapons again for the shedding of men's blood.
22:33
And this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that
22:37
rather than shed the blood of their brethren, they would give
22:41
up their own lives, and rather than take away from a brother,
22:44
they would give unto him. And rather than spend their days
22:48
in idleness, they would labour abundantly with their hands.
22:53
That verse right there, verse 18, it reflects so much of the
23:00
attributes of Christ, the characteristics of Christ.
23:04
The closer you come to somebody and the more time you spend with
23:08
them, the more likely it is you're going to become more like
23:12
them. You're going to adopt their
23:14
thinking, their way of talking, their way of treating people.
23:19
And we see it with these people. They have come into closer
23:23
proximity with Jesus Christ and their life, it's not shocking,
23:30
now reflects more of those Christ like attributes.
23:34
And then Mormon jumps in showing these these this real conversion
23:40
that's taking place. And thus we see that when these
23:45
Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth,
23:48
they were firm and would suffer even unto death rather than
23:53
commit sin. So often in our world today, the
23:59
the society around us teaches that you can't change.
24:03
There's no hope. If you have an addiction or if a
24:06
loved one has an addiction. These are hard.
24:09
These are painful trials to overcome both for the individual
24:14
and for the loved ones of that individual and those who maybe
24:17
are hurt by those addictions of of individuals.
24:23
There is professional help available for many of these, but
24:27
the only lasting and complete hope for overcoming these
24:34
struggles lies in the power of Jesus Christ through His
24:39
infinite atonement, through His ability to change hearts.
24:44
And sometimes it takes a long process of time and sometimes it
24:48
happens with a life altering experience and sometimes
24:53
something in between. But the point is that once we
24:59
make those adjustments, once we connect with Christ, it's to
25:03
figure out what can we do to truly be firm.
25:10
And he says, and thus we see, so here's his second lesson
25:15
learned. And thus we see that they buried
25:18
their weapons of peace or they buried the weapons of war for
25:25
peace. We've talked about this before.
25:27
We don't know exactly what's going on here with this
25:30
particular phrase, but it looks a lot like Mormon is writing his
25:37
little lesson here. His thus we see, and it looks
25:40
like his hand got ahead of his mind.
25:45
Have you ever written or typed something and you get ahead of
25:51
where your mind is in the sentence and you type a word or
25:55
write a word out of order? It looks like that might have
25:58
what been what happened here on the plates for Mormon.
26:02
Thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace.
26:07
And then for some reason he, if that's what happened, he doesn't
26:10
just cross it out. He looks at it and he fixes it
26:15
with words or they buried the weapons of war for peace and
26:22
then he moved on. The Book of Mormon is showing us
26:24
this beautiful pattern of what do I do when I mess up when I
26:30
didn't intend to. I, I don't think Mormon woke up
26:34
that day saying, OK, I want to. I want to really miss speak in,
26:39
in one of the verses I'm going to write today.
26:41
Sometimes there's some struggles that come through.
26:44
So he shows us a pattern of what do I do when I mess up.
26:49
Number one, I recognized that I messed up.
26:53
Number two, I fix it. I, I repent, I make it right and
27:01
#3 I move on. I drop that offering at the feet
27:08
of the Saviour Jesus Christ and I move on.
27:12
And I don't define myself by the mess up.
27:16
I don't go around with my head down and my shoulders drooped
27:20
and not engaging with loving my fellow beings and loving God
27:24
because I'm having a hard time loving me because I messed up
27:27
and I'm choosing to define myself by my mess up.
27:30
That is one of the unwritten messages of this book.
27:33
Whenever you see stuff like that where you say that's odd, that
27:37
is a really weird way to write that.
27:40
Perhaps it's preserved in the book to teach us even those
27:47
principles because it's teaching us another lesson, another
27:50
lesson that's very applicable to our life and applicable to teach
27:55
to our children, our grandchildren, our students, our
27:59
loved ones. When they mess up and you see
28:01
them wallowing in the mire of their their past struggles that
28:09
we can remind them that they can recognize where they messed up,
28:15
repent, make it right with the Lord and move on.
28:21
And Mormon moves on in glorious ways.
28:25
So now you get this army coming and what do these people do?
28:32
Instead of hiding or running away?
28:35
Look at verse 21. Now when the people saw that
28:37
they were coming against them, they went out to meet them and
28:41
prostrated themselves before them to the earth and began to
28:44
call on the name of the Lord. And thus they were in this
28:49
attitude when the Lamanites began to fall upon them and
28:51
began to slay them with the sword.
28:54
They are so deeply and lastingly converted to the Lord that in
29:01
this moment of death they don't fear it.
29:06
Kind of like the Savior Jesus Christ didn't fear death, these
29:12
people now recognize because of their covenant connection with
29:14
Him and their proximity to Him in this relationship, that
29:20
nothing that happens in this life can compare with what God
29:25
has in store for them. And so they're going out facing
29:29
it. And it says verse 22.
29:31
And thus without meeting any resistance, they did slay 1005
29:35
of them. And we know that they are
29:37
blessed, for they are gone to dwell with their God.
29:41
But we noticed that before verse 22 and before the experience
29:45
here in verse 21, they've already been walking with the
29:49
Lord. Now they're going to dwell with
29:53
him. So as terrible and as as awful
29:57
as that circumstance is, Mormon is helping us think celestial
30:02
here instead of looking at the story through earthly lenses.
30:07
So verse 23 says, Now when the Lamanites saw that their
30:10
brethren would not flee from the sword, neither would they turn
30:12
aside to the right hand or to the left, but that they would
30:15
lie down and perish, and praised God even in the very act of
30:20
perishing under the sword. Now when the Lamanites saw this,
30:23
they did for bear from slaying them.
30:25
And Mormon gives us another description of these people who
30:28
have died. Look at verse 27.
30:29
Now there was not a wicked man slain among them, but there were
30:33
more than 1000 brought to the knowledge of the truth.
30:36
And thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the
30:39
salvation of his people. And we find out that in in verse
30:45
25, the Lamanites get more angry in verse one because they had
30:51
slain their brethren. Therefore they swore vengeance
30:54
upon the Nephites. So they they stop slaying the
30:57
anti Nephi Lee heights at that time.
31:00
And then they go up to the land of Zarahemla or down because
31:05
it's downhill even though it's up north.
31:07
And they went to Amanihah, and they they kill all of the
31:11
inhabitants of the city of Ammaniah and fulfill that
31:14
prophecy given back in Alma chapters 8 through 14 by Alma
31:19
and Amalek. Notice chapter 25, verse six for
31:25
many of them. So this is Speaking of the
31:27
Lamanites, after having suffered much loss and so many
31:31
afflictions being began to be stirred up in the remembrance of
31:34
the words which Aaron and his brethren had preached to them in
31:37
their lands. Therefore they began to
31:40
disbelieve the traditions of their fathers and to believe in
31:43
the Lord and that he gave great power into the Nephites.
31:46
And thus were many of them converted in the wilderness.
31:51
So here's this group that that went to fight.
31:53
And now the Lord continues to work with these people and many
31:58
of them are joining the the converted group.
32:03
So when that happens, the descendants of Amylon, the
32:07
priests of Amylon, the they're called the children of Amylon.
32:10
In verse seven, they caused that these these new believers who
32:14
were converted in the wilderness should be put to death by fire.
32:19
And it says that this caused great contention in the
32:24
wilderness. And the Lamanites began to hunt
32:26
the seed of Amylon and his brethren and began to slay them
32:29
and they fled into the East Wilderness.
32:32
So now in this group of Lamanites returns home to the
32:36
land of Nephi. Verse 13 tells us that many of
32:39
them came over to dwell in the land of Ishmael and the land of
32:43
Nephi and to join themselves to the people of God who were the
32:46
people of anti Nephi Lehi. It's this journey of conversion
32:51
where they now after having fought against these these
32:56
converted Lamanites called the anti Nephi Lehites and then
33:00
fighting against the Nephites. God has worked on their hearts
33:04
and their souls and they come and join themselves.
33:08
And it describes what they did. They did also bury their weapons
33:14
of war according as their brethren had and they began to
33:17
be a righteous people and they did walk in the ways of the Lord
33:21
and it observed to keep his commandments and his statutes so
33:25
beautiful to see how God works with these people to define them
33:29
by their glorious future and their covenant connection with
33:34
Christ in the present, not by their sins and wickedness and
33:40
addictions and struggles in the past.
33:44
So in chapter 26, this incredibly powerful group of
33:49
people who are fully and deeply and lastingly converted to the
33:53
Lord, They now have this, this struggle of what do we do?
33:59
Because the, the opposition isn't going to go away.
34:04
And so we, we have this journey that now begins taking them
34:11
northward to the land of Zarahemla.
34:14
But before we make that journey, you get this little interchange
34:18
between Ammon and the other missionaries.
34:23
And Ammon starts waxing very, very eloquent in his praise for
34:29
God and in his his excitement for what this group of, of
34:34
faithful missionaries has accomplished.
34:36
Look at verse 8. Blessed be the name of our God.
34:40
Let us sing to his praise, ye, let us give thanks to his holy
34:43
name, for he does work righteousness forever.
34:46
So he's giving the praise to God.
34:49
And then he says, for if we had not come up out of the land of
34:52
Zarahemla, these are dearly beloved brethren who have so
34:56
dearly beloved us, would still have been wracked with with
35:00
hatred against us. Yeah.
35:02
And they would also have been strangers to God.
35:05
At which point Aaron rebukes Ammon.
35:08
And he says, I fear, Ammon, that thy joy doth carry thee away
35:11
unto boasting Ammon. You, I'm afraid you're, you're
35:16
you're congratulating us a little too much here.
35:19
And I love Ammon's response. Verse 12.
35:21
Yeah, I know. So this is testimony, language
35:26
He's witnessing. I know that I am nothing.
35:31
As to my strength, I am weak. Therefore I will not boast of
35:35
myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can
35:42
do all things. Ye behold many mighty miracles
35:45
we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise His
35:48
name forever. It's a beautiful principle.
35:53
Reminds me of one of my favorite examples from the the life of
35:58
Elder Neil L Anderson when he shared in General Conference
36:03
that as a new General Authority President, Boyd K Packer took
36:07
him on an occasion to address a group of people and President
36:14
Packer stood up, looked at the group and said, Brothers and
36:18
sisters, I know who I am. And everybody would have
36:21
expected him to say something along the lines of I am an
36:25
apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ or something profound along
36:28
those lines. But instead he said, I know who
36:31
I am. I am a nobody.
36:35
And then Elder Anderson said, he turned and looked at him and
36:38
said, and Elder Anderson, you're a nobody too.
36:41
And don't you ever forget that it's a beautiful thing to let go
36:46
of those self-inflicted or worldly imposed identities.
36:52
And to take this perspective. We're not building up our
36:55
Kingdom. We're trying to build up His.
36:58
It's not our work that we're doing.
37:01
It's His work that we're assisting Him in doing as an
37:05
instrument in His hands. And Ammon reflects that
37:07
beautifully here. I know that I am nothing but in
37:12
His strength. I can do all things.
37:16
Therefore, let us let us boast in our God because of the
37:20
miracles that He can do. And if you read now verse 131415
37:26
and 16. Look for principles that come
37:31
off of the page for you or off of your, your Scriptures there
37:35
to describe what God would have you do in your circle of
37:40
influence in the relationships that you have some level of
37:44
influence over and with those people.
37:48
And, and you'll notice in verse 17, he finishes that off by
37:52
saying, who could have supposed that our God would have been so
37:55
merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful and
38:00
polluted state? Here's this beautiful moment in
38:05
this story of Ammon glorying in God's goodness and and mercy and
38:09
grace. And he reminds his three
38:12
brothers and perhaps some of their other missionary
38:15
companions. We don't know for sure, but he
38:18
reminds that group We weren't terribly dissimilar to these
38:23
Lamanites before we taught them the gospel.
38:27
We didn't know God. We were not on the covenant
38:32
path. We were doing everything we
38:34
could to destroy the work of God.
38:38
But God in his mercy and in his infinite grace has snatched us
38:45
from our awful, sinful and polluted state.
38:48
It's a an amazing thing when you compare that to your own life.
38:52
Some of you may be thinking, yeah, but my, my life hasn't,
38:58
hasn't been as sinful as my loved one that I'm struggling to
39:01
love here. Brothers and sisters, the
39:04
reality is, is all of us desperately need the mercy and
39:11
the grace and the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
39:15
You don't have to have major sins or major addictions or
39:19
major missteps to need the saving and redeeming power of
39:25
Jesus Christ. Every one of us has experienced
39:30
times in sinful, polluted, and awful states, to varying
39:36
degrees, to be sure. But we all desperately need His
39:41
grace. And it's that that beautiful
39:43
little moment in this rejoicing that Ammon reminds all of them
39:48
of. And then he says, oh, then why
39:53
did he not consign us to an awful destruction?
39:57
Yeah. Why did he not let the sort of
39:58
his justice fall upon us and doom us to eternal despair?
40:02
We deserve that. But he didn't do it.
40:06
Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought.
40:10
Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his
40:13
great mercy has brought us over that everlasting gulf of death
40:17
and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.
40:22
So now they've been used as an instrument to pass along God's
40:27
goodness to this group of of thousands and thousands of
40:31
Lamanites. Now, when you come down to verse
40:34
22, notice this, this beautiful connection.
40:39
He, Ammon, is going to give us four steps followed by three
40:45
promises, 4 things that we can all do.
40:49
It doesn't matter who you are, where you live, what your past
40:51
has been, what your present circumstances are.
40:54
Every one of us can do this, and every one of us needs to do
40:59
this. Yeah, he that number one,
41:03
repenteth #2 exerciseth faith and bringeth forth #3 good works
41:12
and #4 prayeth continually without ceasing.
41:16
We can all do that. It doesn't matter what your past
41:20
struggles have been. You can do that, those four
41:23
things and then look at the the three outcomes.
41:26
Unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God.
41:31
Number one, our minds will be expanded.
41:34
Our souls will be able to understand those mysteries
41:36
better. Yeah.
41:38
Unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have
41:41
been revealed. This, this spirit of prophecy
41:45
and revelation will come upon us because we come closer to God
41:50
the more we see things the way he sees things.
41:54
And the number three. And it shall be given unto such
41:57
to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been
42:00
given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.
42:06
It's a pretty lofty promise, but it's not you who's going to
42:12
fulfill that promise. It's God who has the capacity to
42:17
use you as an instrument to make this this astronomical
42:22
difference in the world. Even if you positively change or
42:27
help the Lord to change one life, that ripple effect can
42:32
cause thousands of souls to be brought to repentance.
42:37
It can bring thousands of people closer to God through the
42:41
generations and through time and efforts, righteous efforts of
42:46
those people. Now, some of you are listening
42:50
to this thinking, oh, it sounds so easy.
42:54
It sounds like, yeah, I just need to do those things.
42:57
Then all of a sudden my life's going to change and everything's
42:59
going to work for, for the good. And some of you are weary in
43:04
your discipleship. You've you've tried and you're
43:07
growing weary and you don't know what to do.
43:10
I love verse 27. He says, Now when our hearts
43:16
were depressed and we were about to turn back, we're about to
43:20
give up. Behold, the Lord comforted us
43:23
and said, Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and
43:28
bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give
43:33
unto you success. I would imagine that most people
43:39
who have served a mission have come to that moment in their
43:43
mission, and maybe many moments in that mission where they've
43:47
thought, I'm depressed, this is hard, I can't do this anymore.
43:54
And by the way, it doesn't need to be in a mission for this to
43:58
apply. It can be a marriage, it can be
44:03
parenthood, it can be schooling or education, it can be a
44:09
career, it can be a calling. There are many of these these
44:15
aspects of mortality that we can get into that applied
44:18
beautifully to verse 27. Now when our hearts were
44:21
depressed and we were about to turn back, brothers and sisters,
44:27
it's not us who give us give ourselves the success.
44:30
Now there's a lot to be said for hard work and smart work and and
44:36
steady discipleship, no question.
44:40
But it's God who ultimately is the Lord of the harvest.
44:45
It's not us who does this work independent of him and of his
44:49
grace. And he says now behold, we have
44:54
come and been forth amongst them and we've been patient in our
44:58
sufferings and we have suffered every privation.
45:02
Yeah, we have travelled from house to house relying upon the
45:05
mercies of the the world, not upon the mercies of the world
45:09
alone, but upon the mercies of God.
45:13
There have been so many times in my life, pre mission, during my
45:19
mission in Brazil, going to college, feeling like a failure
45:24
in in multiple settings, feeling like I can't do this, I'm just
45:28
going to give up, I'm going to do something else.
45:31
And the Lord gives that quiet, steady reassurance.
45:35
Don't you quit, keep at this, keep moving forward.
45:42
I'll give you success. Just trust me, keep walking,
45:47
keep going. And then I got married and I
45:50
thought everything's now going to be easy and children start
45:55
coming. And there are so many times when
45:59
it's hard, but it's so worthwhile.
46:03
There's nothing more meaningful than building those
46:07
relationships with your spouse and your children, if that's
46:11
something that you've been blessed to have, or with your
46:13
loved ones, your parents, your siblings, and other loved ones
46:19
that we move forward in faith, trusting that Lord will give us
46:23
success. Now as you jump down to verse
46:27
35, he's concluding this, this rejoicing.
46:31
Now have we not reason to rejoice?
46:33
Yes. And you, there never were men
46:35
that had so great reason to rejoice as we since the world
46:39
began. Yeah.
46:40
And my joy is carried away even unto boasting in my God.
46:45
For He has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding.
46:50
He comprehendeth all things and He is a merciful being even unto
46:56
salvation to those who will repent and believe on His name.
47:01
Brothers and sisters, we don't need to be going through a
47:03
massive trial in our life or in our families right now to have
47:07
these these verses be extremely relevant and create a sense of
47:13
true urgency in our discipleship and in our life.
47:16
Not panic, but true, righteous urgency.
47:20
We are all on a mission right now.
47:24
We're all away from home, we're all to 1° or another
47:30
experiencing homesickness. That would be homesickness with
47:34
a capital H where we long for the peace and the serenity of
47:41
heaven that somewhere deep in our soul we we miss in our in
47:46
our mortal mission. But I love how he's focusing us
47:51
on, if you look at your life in the perspective of this next
47:55
verse, in the context of them leaving Zarahemla and going to
47:59
Nephi or going to the land of Nephi to teach among the their
48:03
former enemies. Look at verse 36.
48:06
This is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation and my
48:13
redemption from everlasting woe. Yeah, Blessed is the name of my
48:18
God who has been mindful of this people who are a branch of the
48:21
tree of Israel and who has been lost from its body in a strange
48:25
land. Yeah, I say blessed be the name
48:28
of my God who has been mindful of us Wanderers in a strange
48:34
land. We are all Wanderers in a
48:39
strange land. Brothers and sisters, this isn't
48:42
home for us. It's it's a temporary in along
48:50
the path of life until that glorious day when the Lord comes
48:55
again and redeems the earth and makes it into a heavenly sphere
49:02
for us on which we can dwell forever.
49:06
The trick here is to not wait for the Millennium or for the
49:12
next life to experience heaven on earth.
49:16
The trick is to figure out how we can give our life to the
49:20
Savior more completely today so that we can create more of a
49:26
heavenly feeling around us in our little part of the vineyard,
49:31
our little part of this world. So that we can create more and
49:35
more of these outposts of heaven everywhere we go, every
49:41
interaction we have, that we can leave people feeling more
49:46
connected with God, seeing more clearly the Savior's attributes
49:50
because they've interacted with us.
49:53
That's the trick. And Amaner and Amaner and him
49:56
and I and their companions have lived this in this story.
50:01
So now in chapter 27, they're, they're told to take these
50:07
people northward and settle them among the Nephites.
50:12
And you can read Chapter 27 through the lens of how do you
50:17
treat people who formerly were your enemies, who formerly went
50:21
to war against you and killed some of your ancestors?
50:24
How, how do you feel about them when they change and they
50:27
repent? And now they're coming in.
50:30
Chapter 27 is loaded with some of these beautiful principles.
50:32
And they give these this entire group of former enemies, the
50:36
Lamb, Jershon, which means a gift or an inheritance.
50:41
So now let's finish with Chapter 29, where Elma the younger
50:45
shares his innermost heart desire here.
50:49
Oh, that I were an Angel and could have the wish of mine
50:54
heart that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God,
51:00
with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentance unto every
51:03
people says I want to be an Angel.
51:07
That's odd. It's coming from Elma, whose
51:11
entire trajectory of his life was changed initially by his
51:18
parents and other people's prayers being answered by an
51:21
Angel coming to him and shaking the ground as he speaks to him
51:25
and helps him repent and turn in a new direction.
51:29
So now he's saying, oh, that I were an Angel.
51:33
I want to repeat that. And he says, yeah, I would
51:36
declare unto every souls with the voice of Thunder.
51:39
What would he declare? Repentance, and the plan of
51:42
redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God,
51:46
that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the
51:50
earth. And in the midst of that, that
51:54
heart's desire, he says, But I do sin in my wish, because I
52:02
ought to not hurrow up in my desires the firm decree of a
52:04
just God. He says, I know that he granted
52:07
unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death
52:10
or unto life. And he goes on to say, yeah, he
52:13
decrees unto them decrees which are unalterable according to
52:17
their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto
52:21
destruction. He honors their agency.
52:24
And he says, verse five, Yeah, I know that good and evil have
52:27
come before all men. And he that knoweth not good
52:30
from evil is blameless. But he that knoweth good and
52:32
evil, to him it is given according to his desires,
52:35
whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or more
52:39
subconscience. And then he gives one of my
52:42
favorite verses of all time when it comes to interfaith dialogue
52:47
and interfaith conversations. And how do you interact with
52:52
somebody of a different Christian denomination or of a
52:55
different world religion, whether it be Buddhist or Hindu
53:00
or Muslim or Jewish or Taoist, or fill in the blank with all of
53:05
the the many variations of world religions out there.
53:08
Verse 8 For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations,
53:15
that's all inclusive. It's 100% that God grants unto
53:19
all nations of their own nation and tongue to teach His word.
53:25
Yeah, in wisdom all that He sees fit that they should have.
53:29
Therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom according
53:32
to that which is just and true. You can find beautifully true
53:37
principles and all kinds of the of other religions out there.
53:42
God has given elements of his truth to all nations according
53:49
to their own nation and tongue. And So what is what is Alma
53:53
conclude here? I know that which the Lord has
53:55
commanded me and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I
54:01
glory in that which the Lord has commanded me.
54:04
Yeah, and this is my glory. Is this sounding a little bit
54:08
like Ammon back in chapter 26? This is my glory, that perhaps I
54:15
may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul
54:18
to repentance. And this is my joy.
54:23
What an amazing thing to take that concept and plead with
54:30
heaven to inspire you. Plead with the Lord to direct
54:35
you to people that you can have the greatest influence on and to
54:41
help encourage them to turn their life more fully to God as
54:47
you are turning your life more fully to Him.
54:51
He will help you become more like Him as you turn outward and
54:55
encourage and love and motivate, not condemn, not facilitate, not
55:02
encourage sinful behaviors. But you continue to love and you
55:08
continue to invite and you continue to persuade people to
55:12
align their lives, their hearts, their identities, to see their
55:20
life through the lenses of what God intends them to become and
55:24
what they have the capacity to become through the infinite
55:27
atonement of Jesus Christ. In closing, I want to finish by
55:33
repeating Ammon's words from chapter 26.
55:39
Yeah, I know that I am nothing as to my strength.
55:46
I am weak. Therefore I will not boast of
55:49
myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can
55:56
do all things. And I know that's true.
56:01
And I leave that with you. In the name of Jesus Christ,
56:04
Amen, Know that you're loved.