Come Follow Me Alma 23-29 (June 29-July 5)

okay okay let me make sure yeah okay hi everybody i'm david butler i'm emily freeman welcome to don't miss this we're so happy you're here for this lesson it is one of our favorites um this is the second half of that great um missionary effort of ammon and all of his brothers all together and a continuation of the summer of heroes or the winter of heroes if you are in australia or new zealand or anywhere in this our southern hemisphere friends um okay our heroes today are this group of people that are um just fantastic and they have such a um a long lasting impact and really we're about to get into the war chapters of the book of mormon and all of those wars are gonna start being fought over this conversion process that happens in today's chapter so like it's dominoes all the way through the end of the book of mormon um so this group of people um what happens you remember is ammon is with king lamoni and then they have an interaction with um lamoni's dad and then lamoni's dad has his own personal conversion experience and then he because he is now converted makes a law and proclamation through all the land that everyone's got to listen to these boys to ammon and aaron all the brothers and that leads to all these other people having these conversion experiences and it's just this domino and what we're gonna talk about is like thousands of people a whole nation and grouping of people that become converted to the lord but every time we talk about the thousands we want you to just consider there every thousand is a thousand ones and every single one of those people has their own individual story and their own struggles that they overcame through grace and their own relationship that was made right with god and it's so easy to get caught up in like oh yeah and then thousand people were you know and when you say the anti-nephi lehighs we think of this big big group but we do want you to remember that every one of them became converted individually and has a story and you want to look at that big group and walk up to one of them and be like hi i'm david what is your story yeah and then just have them like okay let's sit down get some s'mores and let's tell the story yeah so um we do want to zoom in real quick on just this sweet part from last time we missed which is the dad king lamoni's dad which sort of like propels this big thing that happens um wait you can't even actually say that right it's so funny you can kind of trace this back right then you're just like oh will you trace that back to like amish and you would trace her back to ammon and you would trace ammon back to that angel that came and you would con trace that back to alma the elder and you would trace that back to abandon and you would like it's cool to see the dominos yeah all that happening um but if you remember when i just want to show you this quick little like two verses that are so neat together the first one is in alma chapter 20 verse 23 when ammon meets king lamoni's father and king moana's father tries to attack him and ammon is much better with the sword than him and disarms him and then he's standing over him with a you know with a sword and lamoni's father says this is chapter 20 verse 23 he says now the king fearing he would lose his life said if you will spare me i will grant unto thee whatsoever that will ask even up to half of the kingdom so it's interesting that he feels like his life is worth half of his kingdom because what if ammon says i actually like three-fourths the king might say well then kill me because i'm not giving it up i'll give you up to half my kingdom um and ammon's like i don't want any of your kingdom i just want you to be good with your boy and that troubles the king for a while and when aaron shows up ammon's brother compare that verse to alma chapter 22 verses so remember for his life he'd give up half the kingdom now you want to watch what happens in this verse yeah 22 15 it says it came to pass after aaron had expounded these things which one verse back is the merits and mercy of jesus christ he says what can i do to have this eternal life of which thou has spoken what can i do to be born of god and have this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast and receive his spirit that i may be filled with the joy and not cast off behold i will give up all that i possess yea i will forsake my kingdom that i may receive this great joy so for that relationship and that kind of joy he's willing to give up everything and he even says in his prayer three verses later in verse 18 he says to god oh god aaron told me that there was a god and if there is a god and if you really are him will you make yourself known unto me oh every time i read that verse there are so many different people i think of who have prayed that same prayer that like will you just make yourself known don't you love those first prayers too um that missionaries talk about them all the time and even with your little people those first prayers are so endearing we had an experience just barely a couple days ago i was with caleb maria and they have a two and a half year old and caleb was eating cereal and i was working on some stuff on my computer and luca was playing with play-doh and caleb's just eating his cereal and all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere luca just folds his arm starts praying heavenly father thank you for this day thank you for my plato he's all the stuff caleb and i look at each other and then both of us are like like this and he thanks for the cereal at the end and then says amen and then puts his head up and looks at caleb and says cereal please he's just so simple those beginning prayers are so cute you know and they're that one is so heartfelt that it just reminds you of those little moments that you've had with people when you were like i will never forget that prayer for as long as i live and you love that that one is captured right there so sweet if there is a god yeah and if you really are him you know you really see in him just this like like wish like he sees aaron and the way he loves god and seems to be connected to him and he's like i don't have that and i wish i did yes and then he says this line um i will give away all my sins to know you like i'd give up everything if i could just know you so you you get a little zoom in on one person and you see how personal and heartfelt all of these stories are um so think of that as we zoom out and talk about this in this big big group of people so let's go back to 23 um one chapter later um talking about this group of people well and that conversion because you love like watching him go through that conversion process where he's like i will give up everything like he wasn't just kind of in he was like all in and that's what we're going to watch about the anti-nephi lehi's is when they decide they're not just kind of interested they are like all in and they're gonna give up something in order to be all in which really are the marks of jesus and so you know they've met him because they start to reflect his character you know we're just like uh he's the only one who gave all yes he's the only one who laid down his life to die for his brothers so when you start seeing these people act and have the marks and reflection of jesus you're like oh i know you've met him because you're starting to act like him yeah um so we have this list oh let us move yeah let's show you the whole everything take a screenshot over here we have like what happens that that we think some of the things that help bring about their conversion their change over here and then we'll get into this part then one thing that is interesting about um these people that we are gonna see is their conversion runs so deep that it's gonna be we're gonna see the effects of it clear till third nephi and we want to figure out why why why was their conversion so deep what made them such solid witnesses of jesus christ and and what allowed them to stay firm because their life doesn't get easier when they become the anti-nephi lehi's things actually get harder and so what is it that allows them and and that's why we're so interested in these verses of what what brings about that kind of a conversion yeah yeah so that's such a good question to ask okay um all right 23 we're gonna go through six verses six through eight or where we're going to find these and then in verse 17. and that phrase down at the bottom of that list that we're so focused on is they never fell away how why did that happen okay um starting in verse 6 um we'll just read these and as sure as the lord liveth so sure as many as believed or as many as were brought to the knowledge of truth through the preaching of ammon and his brethren um let's just stop that's number one number one is it came about because ammon and his brothers came to preach to them somebody came and told them the story of jesus and that's how it all starts right and that's true for all of us wherever we are either we are the bringer of the good news or we're the hearer of it and i think the process of conversion is ongoing um so we're either one or the other all the time throughout our life yeah i love that you just said the bringer of the good news because ammon did not walk in and say my message to all of you is you got to stop killing people you got to stop being so rebellious the message he came in with was the mercy of god right and the that's what he came in with okay the second thing we have on there is the spirit of revelation and prophecy um remember how we love to connect that spirit of prophecy with the book of revelation that it's the testimony of jesus but somebody comes and there is a personal um connection with heaven for these people and because the spirit is the one who converts right we we can teach we can preach we can testify we can bring the witness but it's going to be the spirit that is going to convert and i love that is that spirit of ongoing revelation that that's the second thing so they're they're noticing this was the pattern for us first someone came and taught us second that it was revealed to us through the spirit what we were being taught was true then the next thing it says and the power of god working miracles in them i love this one that is my favorite word in that one is in right that it's just like those great miracles the ones that were the most impactful happened on their insights right um are there miracles that you can see happening on the outside with situations yes but they are not the great ones that lead to lasting conversion do you remember um david o mckay saying the greatest battles are fought within the confines of the human soul it makes me think therefore the greatest victories are won in the confines of the human soul yeah as well and that's what you see so true and you just love that once you have accepted that preaching and once you are allowing the spirit to work in you you're going to start experiencing miracles i love the thought of that that life with god is a life with miracles that's just what happens and a high percentage of them are happening on the inside yeah every time we say that we mean check what's going on on the insides um then it says yea i say unto you as the lord liveth as many of the lamanites as believed their preaching were converted unto the lord and never did fall away and we want to connect that with our next one number four which is for they became a righteous people um they were converted unto the lord they weren't just converted they were converted unto him and remember that phrase righteousness means to be in right relationship so they came into right relationship with god and with their fellow men and that that's what happened they started to mend the relationship that they have with god and others um then it tells us that they laid down the weapons of their rebellion and we remember that part this is the part of the anti-nephili heist that we remember they dug that big hole they buried their swords we're gonna remember that part of the story where when the great army came upon them they just knelt down on the ground and prayed that once they had said what they were going to do they did it they had self-control they had courage they they were just true to what they said they were going to do and that becomes so important that's number five and then we'll come back to that in just a second because that's such a cool part of the story of them bearing it has to do with our summer of heroes too but the last one is um in verse 8 and then also link to verse 17. so alma 23 8 it says now these are they who were converted unto the lord um and then 17 we'll get to in a second but that word my favorite word in that one is they were converted like they allowed themselves like they didn't convert they were converted like the working was done in them by him and then after that in verse 17 it says they take upon themselves a new name they became new creatures and to celebrate that they said we'll now be called something entirely new and you love as you study them so at the very beginning it's going to tell us right here in these verses they never did fall away it's so fun to read in 3rd nephi 6 14 right at the very end right before jesus is going to come back in like moments from this verse it's just not too many things happen before jesus is there and it tells us this is what was happening in the world there became a great inequality in all the land in so much the church began to be broken up in so much that in the 30th year the church was broken up in all the lands save it were among a few of the lamanites who were converted unto the true faith and they would not depart from it for they were firm and steadfast and immovable willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the lord this is those same people this is the anti-nephi lehi's who never fell away and it's so interesting just to look and see this was what rooted them was this process right here and how it's almost feels so simple that i'm like oh i could i could do this i could listen to the prophets and the apostles preach i could let the spirit reveal the truth of those things in my heart i could learn to start watching for the miracles working in in and out side of my soul um i could become righteous and sanctified and let mend the relationship and be grown and become like jesus and i can lay down whatever is that's gonna hold me back until i'm fully converted but it's so interesting that we have to allow the conversion to take place sometimes we are so quick to be like i don't want him to say that or i don't agree with this or i um you know it would have been easy for them to be like well this is ridiculous why did we bury all of our weapons when the arm we didn't know the army was going to come there's so many times you can say but but you know well i was except for and it's so interesting that they just allowed they allowed that to happen they listened they allowed the spirit to work in them they started watching for miracles they let go of whatever would have become rebellion in them and they became converted yeah and i love that you mentioned that you know in the next chapter this our army of other lamanites comes upon them and and and they don't dig up their weapons again you know they lay them they lay them down and there's a couple like hints in chapter 24 about like why they didn't go dig them up again but should we do this first yeah and then okay so anti-defined the ice our scripture they are our hero for the summer of heroes for this week is the ant nephi the heist um if you don't know this you can get a copy of this poster and go get it blown up or print it just paper scissors letters in the newsletter yeah um and you can keep track in your house if you want so alma 23 6-7 is their verse the ones we just read and we wrote for their battle ready was to bury your rebellion um and one thing you might want to do is is an activity you may have heard of before or done um is to do what they did and bury something like actually like go into your backyard dig a hole and or your neighbors back here and dig a hole and bury a sword in there but what we'd like you to think about with the sword is you're not just burying like um things you're not supposed to do or whatever they said they buried their rebellion and um we like to think of that rebellion in context of the two great commandments right my rebellion is anything that is um breaking a relationship and causing harm to god or to others and think of how powerful it would be if we thought about our sins in context of the hurt it's causing somebody else so um we have like a little thing here a sword that you might want to cut out of your journal or just make them um where it says this is my testimony to god that i never will again dot dot dot and what is it that you might be doing in your life that is hurting someone else yeah we love that their weapons were used to hurt and to harm and that's what they said we're not going to do that anymore instead we're we are going to love we will fully love and wouldn't it be awesome just to think about what am i doing that is hurting or harming um a relationship with someone in your home or with god what is that thing that is hurting or harming that relationship and how can i bury that thing right um and why do they keep it in the ground so long let's look in chapter 24 at a couple of hints there um the first one is in verse 12. and we just love this line so much that um they say um now my best beloved brethren that's so cute he's just talking to like his faith community but he just looks out and he's like these these are my best right here yeah which we left a little box on there because we're like who are yours who are your best beloved brethren or sister sisters who's your best beloved who are your best um that when you look and think these are people who are also trying to become a little bit better with me and the cause of that is sometimes what what makes those our best people because they're willing to do that hard thing with us yeah and then at the end of the verse you see something so interesting outside of his group or his faith community those who used to be enemies he says let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren that why were they able to keep them buried they started to view their enemies or their perceived enemies as something totally different they started to see them as their best beloved brethren and it's like we won't hurt our brothers we're not gonna do it and i love it just as you think about that this was hard that was not easy what they're gonna choose to do was really hard especially when an army is gonna come up against them and they have to look at their best beloved brethren and their wives and their children and think is is this right or is this the right thing to do and i love today i have been so caught up in elder eyring's talk from general conference there is one line in there that he talks about um the saints and he says that there will be there will rise up faithful people who will choose to do the hard thing well isn't that a great line yes there's so many parts of that line that i'm like i can't decide what is my favorite word because i love that he's gonna rise up a group of people and they're gonna be faithful people who will choose to do the hard thing well well that's so interesting because i want to connect it to this verse right here which is we kind of put a quote on the page verses 14 and 15 alma 24 14 and 15. and if you listen to that quote he will rise up a people who will then do the hard thing well and that is such an awesome order it's not because they did the hard thing well they rose but god rose them up from where they were and now they do the hard thing well i think the order of that is so important look at what he says look at what they say why didn't you go dig up your swords and they said this in 14 the great god had mercy on us and he made these things known unto us that we might not perish he made these things known unto us beforehand because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children therefore in his mercy he did visit us with angels and made known the plan of salvation unto us oh how merciful is our god and now behold since it's been so much to get our stains taken away let's hide them away as a testimony to god that we won't do it again i love that what kept those swords buried is a remembrance of the great cost to rescue them and with that deep in them that's how they're able to like hand themselves over to god because of the great rescue he's already performed for them and don't you love that one line when they say he loves our souls and they're just confident that he just does he just loves our souls and um part of that is probably what helps them to rise up and be ready for the hard thing that's about to come they know they know the other day we have this activity of like writing down things that you're are your identity and one i wrote down was one of god's favorites on my little paper should have written he loves my soul yes he loves your soul um yeah it's so good this is just such a powerful part of the whole book of mormon this is a part that i think we are all drawn to because we watch them do that hard thing we watch them choose jesus over every other thing and then stand by that choice for the rest of their life yeah and then what happens next is you get you watch all this happen and then we get this like mini um like heart moment with ammon in verse 26 and it's cool because like he came in as the rescuer and then watched what god did with all those people and then now he's just over like he's overthrown he's like i i can't even say too much about how good god is and what verse are you into this is chapter 26 we're going to do this right here yeah you said verse and i was oh sorry sorry sorry this is chapter 26 yep where he is just he is just we have this verse 16 yeah well starting in two it's like what great blessings has he bestowed upon us can you even tell yeah well and let's pause for a minute let's just stop and introduce this whole chapter because this might be one of my favorite chapters in the whole book of mormon um because you love the ammon is gonna gather everybody and he wants to talk about it's almost like his their homecoming it's the end of everything that has happened and they've all come together and they're all gonna sit kind of like how we started this last week at the beginning and um and they're sitting there and he's like okay let's do this everyone would we have ever supposed when we started from the land of zarahemla that god was gonna have given us this many great blessings and then he says what great blessings has he bestowed upon us can you tell and it's almost as if he has just opened up this thing for everyone to go around and say okay i remember when this happened on my mission and i remember when this happened on here and this happened here and they're gonna go through and they're all gonna talk about what are these amazing things that they witness which we've read through them and we're like oh my heck i love the story of king lamoni i love the story of avish i love the story of the anti-nephi lehighs we love them too but can you imagine those four boys sitting around and saying oh wait wait remember this when this happened and remember when this happened and they're just sitting around talking and um i love that as they go through and list these things it's not just their best days um part of their blessings that they list are their worst days also um when each of my kids served their mission i loved monday emails so much you cannot wait for your kids to write home monday emails uh like i seriously look now i get the call monday and phone calls but i still made my kids write because i just wanted a history of what was happening it's a good idea yeah i told grace you can't call me until you've written me and then you can call because otherwise you're gonna forget all these great things and on the last week i wrote my kids on sunday night every one of them the last week of their mission and said before tomorrow when you write your letter i want you to read alma 26 the whole thing and then i want you to write that chapter about your mission experience and those are my most treasured letters of all my kids mission letters i wish i could read you every one of them they are so tender every single one of them just tender and it was fun because as they wrote down the experience it was just like we're doing with this where we're looking back and we're like oh i know what you're talking about you're talking about when that happened and when this happened and you love when they go through and they talk about not just the good amazing things and all the baptisms but in alma 26 27 they talk about when our hearts were depressed and the lord comforted us and when we had to have patience in our afflictions and we suffered and we traveled from house to house and we entered into their houses and we taught them and we went into their temples and we went into their synagogues and we were stoned and we were bound and we were cast into prison and then we were delivered again and um we just hope that we would save some and and were there just a few know there were many and you just love as they are recounting this entire experience one moment at a time each of these boys and i love when he says were there ever men that had such great reason to rejoice as we do when they look back over that time and i love when he says this is my life and my light is this experience that we've just had for this many years what happened and then in verse 37 when he says now my brethren we see that god is mindful of every people this this is what i love the most is at the end they're like what did you learn from your mission what did you learn from your experience and i love when he says this is what i learned that god is mindful of every person no matter what land they're in and isn't that true for everyone you would say that about korea and caleb would say about croatia and garrett would say it about the people in colorado and grace would say about the people in california that this is what i learned from my mission that god is mindful of people wherever they live in whatever land and he numbers them and his mercy is over them and then i love when he says this now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving like if i had to tell you anything it would be this and it's such a powerful moment and we can have those too um if we've served a mission then that but any calling you've ever been in or coming out of a really hard period of time or even like at the end of a month or the end of a year to be able to like look back and do something similar yep and just say here we left you a little square what great blessings have been yours can you tell and to go back and just list even 2020s so far to just stop and be like this has been hard but this is where we've been delivered this is how we suffered but this is where we saw the lord and um you know this chapter is such a powerful chapter alma 26 it's one of my best in all of the book of mormon um just because i love watching him take a pause from life for a minute to say let me show you where i see god right now in my life and i think that is what's powerful that like even in where did you see him in the prison and where did you see him in the place of depression right and all of those um yeah and all of that i was reading this again yesterday last night um 26 and um that song the blessing came on my phone right when i was reading it and i was like huh that song was made for this chapter so we'll link to this the best song you've ever heard in your whole life and what have you listened to it while you read you might you might faint like king lemon i did one of the other things that we love about 26 that is totally like an aside so we're teaching you 26 twice um that's what's happening because that's how much we love it um is a part that talks about instruments and before we talk about it i just have to tell you the funnest story that happened to me because i wonder if you can just stop in your life right now and if i were to say to you name someone who was an instrument in the hand of god in your life who would come to mind for you and particularly too if you were to look at different situations or different times but one of mine is kind of a funny one and it's from when i was growing up there was this lady at girls camp there were actually two ladies at girls camp they were so darling both of them together and um every time i went to girls camp i looked for those two ladies i don't even know why but i was so intrigued by just their joy and their happiness and the way that they served in that calling with their whole heart and every time i got called into girls camp which has been a lot of times i would think about those two women and think i'm i'm gonna be that um i'm gonna be like that when i get to girls camp that's how i want to be and they both played instruments one played the banjo one played the guitar and at night they would get them out and they would just sing for us well um the other day i was over at my brother's house he lives across the street and greg called and he's like you need to come home someone is here to see you and um it was one of these ladies from girls camp all those years ago and i had actually run into her a couple months ago and when i saw her i just said to her oh my gosh you don't even know this because i was one of 2 000 girls at girls camp you know you probably have no idea who i am but i know who you are and you changed my life and you changed the way i have led at girls camp you did and i won't ever forget that and you might not even know that you had left that kind of impression but you you were that for me you were that instrument for me in my life what was so cute because she showed up at my house and she was carrying this big thing doing all this and um and she came over and she had brought this banjo everyone this is her banjo adele's banjo and um she said to me i was cleaning out and um this was just this is an extra banjo and immediately the spirit said take it to emily's house and drop it off and i don't play the banjo everyone i've i've never learned how to play the banjo i can play the piano no you will um but i thought to myself oh i love this because it makes me remember her as an instrument but also i really want to learn to play the banjo now that is something i want to do so badly and she said to me if i come to her house she'll teach me how to play the banjo and you love that also she left me this little book that is all of her how her ukulele and banjo that's what it is from 1982 which is when i would have gone to girls camp do you love that and um as i thought about it i thought um just kind of like what we talked about last week that is an instrument it is it is a hundred percent an instrument i have no idea how to use it it is not in my skill set to use that instrument even with the handbook i'm still not going to be qualified to use it but i can learn how to use it and to bring that same happiness into my own camping situations for the rest of my life and maybe one day i'll get called to girls camp and i'll know how to play the banjo at the same time and i'll be adele on that day for some girl who is there but what i love is um we are going to bring back up that thought about the instrument right now in 26 and i love that one of the things that we can learn from this chapter and from the experience of all these sons of mosiah is how to be an instrument it's almost like a little handbook with also someone to guide us and and it's like you hear the story of adele or you read the story of avis or ammon or aaron and you think to yourself i i want to be that you know i there's a lot of us who like read these stories and you're like wait i want to have that impact on somebody like i want like we're all drawn to a cause the cause of christ which is the cause of rescuing people and it's neat that there's so many spots in scripture that say do you want to okay let me show you how yes and that's what's going to happen right now so we want to start you in 2517 and we're just going to walk through several um verses that are in these chapters on how to be an instrument that might lead you on a search of really how to become an instrument and listen to the verses pay attention because we'll jump around yeah we're going all over the place so alma 2517 is where we're going to start on purpose because we love the lesson that is taught here it says and now behold ammon and aaron and omner and hymnai and their brethren did rejoice exceedingly for the success which they had had among the lamanites seeing that the lord had granted unto them according to their prayers and that he had also verified his word unto them in every particular and then you have to stop and say to yourself okay what were their prayers what was it they prayed for can you remember clear back when they started at the very beginning what did they pray for because then he's gonna um verify that in every particular for them which i love and you remember what they prayed for we read about in alma 17 um and we talked about it actually last week do you remember when they prayed that they would be it's alma 17 9 it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness and they fasted much and prayed much that the lord would grant unto them a portion of his spirit to go with them and abide with them they might be an instrument in the hands of god so the very first thing they did is to pray that the spirit would be with them that they would be instruments and then you love that he says that what they saw at the end of their mission is that the lord had granted unto them according to their prayers and he had also verified his word unto them in every particular which is so awesome um so then we get to this mission reunion homecoming moment that we were just talking about and um he and they say can you believe he gave us such great blessings and what are the blessings can you tell and then in verse three he says this is the blessing which has been bestowed upon us that we have been made instruments in the hands of god to bring about this great work and you just love that they were witness to the fact that god could make them the instrument he needed in that moment he taught him to play the banjo yeah and that the end result was people like it's just so powerful it's like the great blessing was was people so um the other prayer that we have on this list was back from mosiah chapter 27. that they saw the lord verify in the particulars and it was in 36 they said mosiah 27 36 remember when they first wanted to go they said thus they were instruments in the hands of god in bringing many to the knowledge of truth yey to the knowledge of their redeemer that their prayer was help us introduce people to christ and experience him the way we have experienced him and that was another thing that the lord was going to verify in every particular that they could watch and this is this is a cool okay so um so we love that they first of all they prayed they asked that they would be they asked for the spirit and then they watched in 26 3 they were made an instrument part of the particulars were that they would bring souls to christ and then it talks about what we talked about earlier that they asked for a portion of the spirit to be there with them um let me give this cross-reference it's so cool that i just thought of when when they said to watch for it in every particular how he was going to bring people unto christ there was this moment in alma chapter 24 verse 27 where remember they buried their weapons those people and then they got attacked and they knelt down in the on the ground and a lot of them were killed and when they were killed like the people were struck in their hearts at what happened and then it says that more people actually ended up finding christ than those that died and then um mormon makes this like thought as he's telling the story for us he says there was not a wicked man slain among them but there were more than a thousand that were brought to the knowledge of truth thus we see that the lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people that as they watched for the answer to that prayer that you could just expect that it might happen in ways that you wouldn't expect in so many different kinds of ways yep and then as you're looking so as you go through you'll want to write down this is what it looks like to be an instrument here and this is what it looked like to be an instrument here and here and here and we love in 26 9 that first line where he says if we had not come up out of the land of zarahemla none of this would have happened and they would still be strangers to god yeah they would still be strangers and part of um becoming an instrument is actually taking the challenge like for me it's actually sitting down and learning to play the banjo sometimes you have to say i'm i'm going to enter into this i'm going to go into this land that everyone says i shouldn't go into um i in order to be the instrument god needs me to be right now might require me to do something differently than i've been doing it or to learn something or to go somewhere different and we love the thought of that that it is going to require action on your part and then the very last one we have is alma 29.99 where he just says again coming back to that idea of there were thousands of them um 29 is when they meet back up with alma again and alma hears all of the success stories of ammon and his brothers and remember he has that line where he's just like i i i wish that i were an angel i wish that i you know and and he says but i do sin and my wish and sometimes you're like wait why is that a sin and sometimes i read that and think maybe alma was a little bit jealous of the success the ammon and it's like wait i wish i could kind of have that success but his conclusion is awesome in 29 9 he says i know that which god the lord hath commanded me and i glory in it and i don't glory of myself it's not about me but i glory in that which the lord has commanded yea this is my glory that perhaps i may be an instrument in the hands of god to bring some soul to repentance and this is my joy that we love that idea of just some soul what if all of your efforts and all of your like things that sacrifices that you laid down were to bring it about for some soul and just that thought of what i was talking about before those two women who came to girls camp every year for as long as i can remember girls camp and showed up and played their banjo and their guitar and had no idea that they were affecting one girl so much and i'm sure i was not the only girl in girls camp who was affected by that but i was deeply affected by that and i've had the opportunity to be at girls camp more than 15 times in a leadership position since then and um every time i've been extended the call i have been so excited because of those two women left that kind of impression and you just love that that there's going to be some soul that is going to be changed because you were willing to be an instrument in that moment and we we may never know who it is but it will be true um we want to end with this last story of this group of people who live in a place called gershon who get to become instruments in the hands of god in another kind of way and when ammon and this group of people have converted they keep getting attacked by these other armies and finally gets to the point where ammon says we gotta go like we can't live in this land anymore um and if you go over to chapter 27 um he his idea is let's go to my land let's go back into the land of the nephites and they will take care of you and king lamoni at first is like i i don't think you remember all the bad things we did like remember we've had this really great experience together but your people back home have not had this experience with us so i don't think they're gonna want us um coming into that land and and ammon says um this is such a great line are you 15 27 oh no i want to start in nine because nine and 15 are so good they're so good so in nine he says um i let's rely upon the mercies of our brothers um he says let's go give it a try and and let's just rely on the fact that they will be merciful to us and remember mercy means um especially active compassion so it's just so neat to be thinking we're gonna we are gonna rely on their especially active compassion in this moment and we're we're gonna hope that they have some and um don't you want it to be said of you that you would be somebody who could extend mercy like well that someone could rely on your mercy like whatever or or in that verse 15 where it says let's go try the hearts oh i love that line so much because remember this is ammon who was like i'm going to go there and i'm going to win their hearts and he did right he won their hearts these people would do anything he said and you love that he's like okay now let's go back and try the hearts of my people right and see what they will do and it's cool that he's just doing that and like oh you kind of want to be a person that when they tried your heart out they found something good yeah you know and they do they go to the people and they say you can come into our land and if you go down to verse 24 it says behold this we will do for our brothers now the nephites are calling the lamanites their brothers and it says they can inherit this land and we will guard them from their enemies right we're not only going to let them live with us but we're going to guard them and we are going to protect them um from their enemies and you love that they're there's going to be they're both going to take care of each other because the people from the land of jericho say we will guard you and um the the anti-nephi lehighs will give them a portion of their substance to assist so they can maintain the armies and i think that's so important to realize we're asking you to give and we're also willing to give you know there is something in the give that strengthens that bond from both of them um and then 27 maybe we'll end on 27-27 let's just say what happens in the next chapter 28 1-4 the lame knights really do attack and they have the nephites put their money where their mouth is because they attack and they defend them and it was a significant loss and it's so touching to me to think that this group of people said we will take a hit for you we will take a loss to guard you and protect you and they and they really do that's a it's a sad scene but it's also beautiful at the beginning of 28 but 27 27 really might wrap up this whole lesson today which is man this is what they say they were numbered among the people of nephi they were they became their people right they were no longer like oh there's this group we're protecting they're like you're now us we're you're our people now and they were distinguished and this is what they were known for all of them for their zeal towards god and towards men um that that is what they were known by those were their marks the marks of conversion right how do you how do you know that something happened in you it's like oh because of the way that they treat other people and their zeal they have toward others and and toward their god which really we could say are one and the same yeah there's powerful lessons in here even for our day as you look at everything that's going on and just think um are we the people who are merciful in this situation and and all of us need to see do we have a heart of mercy if our heart were to be tried do we have a heart of mercy and and do we love like that are we willing to bring people in and just i feel like we're so quick to say except for what if they do this or what if this happens or what if this is the circumstance or what if and it's so interesting that there was like no what if in fact they could have been like and what if a whole army comes and kills thousands of us and god was like yes yeah then you'll still have mercy and you'll still guard the people and you know you'll still your hearts will still be tried and what you hope at the end is that your that our heart is good yeah right i will be my brother's keeper yeah love is the only weapon that actually worked you know yeah so it's a good one so good two good weeks in a row see you next week see ya

Channel: Don't Miss This

Views: 139,393

Rating: 4.7503548 out of 5

Keywords: Don't Miss This, Come Follow Me, Book of Mormon, Summer of Heroes, Podcast, Church of Jesus Christ

Id: 0zvOnyWUPC8

Length: 49min 34sec (2974 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 22 2020