Come Follow Me Alma 36-38 (July 20-26)

hi everybody i'm david butler i'm emily freeman welcome to don't miss this we're excited you're here watching or listening this is our third start um and we're happy it's going good all right we're about to jump into this new section of the book of mormon i i what month is it even right now that people are listening to this we hope you're having a good summer um and the life's going really well hope you're loving the summer of heroes we keep waiting for summer here in utah you know what someone called it yesterday january that is what it is it's freezing here it's not even summer yet we're celebrating the winter of warriors like you said with everyone down under is that who's celebrating right oh yeah yeah yeah i was like what but now i get it and then i was so distracted by january i was like this of course comes out of the same culture that invents all those things at christmas time you know hope you have a poppin new year and it's popcorn you know all those things well meanwhile it's freezing right now remember when summer was 95 degrees in utah it hasn't been it's about to be when you listen to this we hope um all right alma 36-38 is the section that we're on today um and this just kind of we enter into like a like a almost like this uh i don't know what you say it's like a commercial yeah oh what i mean it just breaks off of the story is what i meant by that okay he's having a commercial i love this moment where this dad is like boys come here sit down i'm just gonna talk to you for a minute and it's neat to see like how mormon puts it in how he introduces it so go back just a little bit into chapter 35 where it says starting at the very end of 35 mormon introduces this little section that's actually going to go from 36 to 42 so today's lesson and next week's lesson but he says alma was so grieved because of the iniquity of his people for the wars and the bloodsheds and the contentions which are all going to continue once we get into chapter 43 also remember um that fight with the zoramites is going to initiate all the war chapters so it's just this commercial from all of that but he says um having been to declare the word order among all the people in every city and seeing the hearts of the people that are waxing cold and offensive and blah blah blah blah 16 it says therefore um which is a word that means because of or due to that he caused it as sons should be gathered together and that is the word i want to use instead of commercial don't say commercial anymore i met a commercial from the war but okay say what you're gonna say i love that it is this gathering in moment which is so interesting because we're having one of those right now um it's just this like okay let's pull back out of everything that is going on and come back into the house for a minute and for some reason we get this little peek into alma's house on that um you know that night or however long it took him to talk to those boys and you just see these intimate conversations of a dad and his boy as he goes through each of their stories and i love that we just get a picture of that because it makes me think to myself am i remembering to do that same thing therefore he caused that his son should be gathered together that he might give unto them everyone his charge separately concerning the things pertaining under righteousness and do you just love that that he's like and for you this and for you this and yeah it's so good it's neat that it's just like it's been these big sweeping like cities and nations and everything and then you get to see not alma the prophet but alma the dad yeah and he's just like almost like oh all of this is reminding me how important my role is as a father to take each of you one by one yeah it's so neat so the first sun is so neat uh we'll do two of the suns today and then a third sun um next week uh but the first son is helaman um who he's actually going to pass down um kind of the the charge of the people and the scriptures and all that we'll get to that in just a second um remember helaman's the one that he left in charge when he went on his little mission and he took two other boys two other boys with him um but he talks to hilum and the first thing he does for helaman is he recounts his own um conversion story which is really interesting because you start to wonder like what's the best advice to somebody who's about to be high priest is is a conversion story a story of coming into christ and maybe helping other people have those same experiences it's neat that it's to when you consider what role he's about to take why is he going to tell this story um i don't know if you remember a couple of years ago when president oh holland maybe that was a prophecy when elder holland takes the remember you had the book of mormon up and he was talking about um just the power of the book of mormon and he said it's it's teeming with um uh like hebrew literature and and poems and all these things that really smart people we read the book of mormon like this is such good words but man underneath it it is a beautiful book of literature and one of the things that we like in chapter 36 is there is this um type of hebrew poetry you may have heard of before that's called a chiasmus we're about to get really smart right now everyone this is like an english lesson just for a second but it's going to make you love this chapter so much more yeah and it's neat it was i think john welch is the one who first kind of discovered in the book of mormon that this was something that was happening in biblical studies that people were finding that ancient people used this unique type of poetry and then he thought well if it's in biblical writings it certainly must be in the book of mormon and he printed this great paper on it i think he discovered it as a missionary if i remember right really that is so cool do you want to explain why you do it like this so we'll move out of the way of the board in just a minute so you can get a screenshot but let's this is how you normally would do a chiasmus in that that triangle shape or that v um helps you actually to see it better because what you're looking for is the climax of it is going to be what happens in the very center and then every other thing should match to its counterpart so you start reading in and you'll see an d e f g h and then you come to what is the climax which will be that i and then usually that is repeated twice in two different ways right next to each other isaiah does this all the time and then they back back out um by going h g f e d c b a who knows how to say the alphabet backwards well you just didn't and um and it'll come back out so it's super fun when you watch this one because you can it's you puzzle it together and you'll be able to look at both and be like oh yeah that verse actually does say the exact same thing in a different way than that verse does as you're going through so this would be a fun game to do with your kids yeah to try and match up we gave you the verses here or you can see them on the board and for a cheat sheet if you want um it could be more complex than this this is just the simple version you might find more that actually matches up in it but the point is like emily was saying that the beginning point and the end point match and then the second point and the second to last match and the third and the third to last match um and the style was designed well let's just show you some of them so you can see yeah well if you start at the beginning when verse 1 he talks about my son listen in as much as you keep the commandments of god you prosper in the land now you go to the very last verse of um this chapter this particular chapter where he says inasmuch as you shall keep the commandments of god you will prosper in the land um and so you see how they match up and let's do one that's kind of a hard one because there's one where um like g let's look at um oh and this is my favorite one okay good let's look at g so you can see what it looks like in both so in 14 he says um yay i had murdered many of his children or rather led them away into destruction yay and in find so great have been my iniquities that the very thought of coming into the presence of god did rack my soul with inexpressible horror okay that's the first one the matchup is 22. yeh mitha i saw even as our father lehi saw god sitting upon his throne surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their god yay and my soul did long to be there so at first read you'll be like well wait those don't match at all because one he has horror about being in the presence of god and in the next one he actually longs to be in the presence of god and so the match there is the presence of god and what we're learning as we as we come out of this is how he was changed through this um process so you'll that's a good one just so you realize what you're kind of watching for as you're going through why is it your favorite oh i just love that phrase that he's just like how different he was after that he was like the very thought of being in the presence of god like like was horrible to me and then after his encounter with jesus he says then i longed to be there and it's just so powerful how opposite those are the last half of this really most of them are are opposite of what the first half was which is it's neat to see that it's like this is who i was but it is not who i am anymore and it was after that experience the the two eyes that you'll see he saw one jesus christ and he had the experience where he said jesus have mercy on me and it's a beautiful lesson actually on grace we talk about this a lot where we talk about um jesus will meet you where you are as you are but he doesn't intend to leave you there and in this moment we see um jesus meeting him where he was and as he was right where right where he came from but but from that moment forth he experienced the mercy and the grace of jesus christ which allowed him to go through a transformation process and we watch him come out of that and go through that process and it's just a beautiful example of what grace looks like that enabling strength that comes as we believe in christ that allows us to transform and become who he sees in us yeah i love that um in that moment that middle moment where he says like i i'm racked and and harrowed up those are um you might want to look up a picture of those they're they're farming tools um what a rack is and a harrow and what they're used for and like it's actually super like descriptive what he's saying about like oh how awful he felt um i'd love that he just says this i remembered that my dad used to prophesy about one jesus christ and i love that it's so neat that here he is sitting down with his boys and the thing he's emphasizing is are those truths that his dad had taught him and and i'd who knows how often his dad had taught him to him and it wasn't working you know the dad may have thought like oh i don't even know why this is worth it but in that moment of trouble he remembered his dad's belief in jesus christ and in 18 he says then my mind caught hold on that thought like but so many times before it had just passed by him and i love that whatever his dad taught him he knew that even as i am in this place i can still cry out to him i don't have to hide from him i can cry out for mercy and he meets him that's i just that's just beautiful so you will find so many powerful phrases throughout this chapter um as you look at it again let's just emphasize this that the whole point of the the style of poetry first to actually remember some people thought it was used so that you could remember all the points you know but it is meant to point you to a single most important like principle or truth and in this one it is um jesus christ jesus and his mercy um which is cool so have fun with that whole chapter it's just so beautiful and we do want to pull one verse out that we love and then we're gonna kind of see repeated actually two so if you'll turn to alma 36 two and three one of the things that is so true and it's interesting because have you ever noticed when you look at a prophet um you can kind of look back and be like what was that prophet known for so president monson what would you say he was known for one-on-one yeah the rescue wrestling the one right oh no i felt like i was on a quiz you are cause i'm about to do another one and president hinckley would be to be good and temples have you ever not gone through and looked at all the prophets have been like what kind of was the message like he was just optimistic minister he wasn't an optimist yes he loved optimism and the bees you probably want to say the bees but um he was known for building temples and president monson was known for going after the one and one of the things i love about alma is he loves to talk about remembering the times when the lord has delivered you it is a theme of his ministry he talks about it over and over again and a theme of the whole book of mormon yes right right almost seems like this is yeah um but he constantly wants to tell his followers remember your deliverance he says it so many times somebody really should go through and mark down how many times he teaches that principle and he's going to do it right now with hilum and again i just we just got to say i hope that that is a consistent like theme of of your life also it's remembering the yeah yeah i i think it's one of the most powerful parts of sacrament um is i think it's that's one of its central purposes is every single week don't forget the moment to remember your deliverance yeah that's be re-centered in that every week um and that's exactly what he's gonna say i would that you would do as i have done i just love that he's like listen i know you're tired of me saying this i'm going to say it again in remembering the captivity of our fathers for they were in bondage and none could deliver them except it was the god of abraham and the god of isaac and the god of jacob and he surely did deliver them in their afflictions and you love that he just goes right back to the message of the whole old testament right which is deliverance and then he says this and now o my son helaman behold thou art in thy youth which i love thinking about this because we know who helaman is going to become and we know what he's going to do and we're about to jump into everything he's going to write and he becomes a powerful general and just an amazing man and i love thinking of him just this teenage kid just sitting there talking with his dad we don't know how old he was but i just love when he's like you are in your youth um it's just this kid who has no idea what's in front of him and therefore i beseech you thee that thou will hear my words and learn of me for i do know that whosoever shall put their trust in god shall be supported in their trials and their troubles and their afflictions and shall be lifted up at the last day um it's so interesting to me that he chooses three words to describe trials um that just one wasn't good enough that he wants to talk about trials and troubles and afflictions and um i thought about this many years ago that i was like why did why did he give three different things but then um one of my friend's daughters was asking me a month ago she was like what do you think why those three different things and i don't know that anyone has ever talked about that but as we read through here alma's going to continue to talk about these trials and troubles and afflictions um over and over again and as he talks about him sometimes he's talking about conditions that come to us from mortality sometimes we want to say it's what happened because we came because we chose to eat the fruit it's cancer and it's health issues or mental issues or things that just come because we're in mortality the things that god allows to take place in our life um he talks a little bit later in chapter 37 about afflictions alma says they're afflictions that came because of choices that the people had made and therefore afflictions came so something that we bring upon ourself and sometimes we run into troubles that are things that others bring upon us and maybe those are the three things that alma's talking about sometimes it's just what god allows to happen because of mortality sometimes it's because of choices we make that cause those afflictions to come and and sometimes it's troubles that come because of choices other people make that come into our life and to think about all three of those things and how does god support us in all three of those areas well it's just interesting that the same solution is there for all three of them like to trust in god and i was just thinking as you were talking that why would somebody not trust in god and all three of those things happening actually could cause you to like doubt the character of him because things are allowed in mortality you might ask the question why would you ever allow that and turn your back yeah it's those two questions is god good and can he be trusted and and how do we get out of that place what if that's the place you're in how do we get out of that place yeah and even like then if if i'm going to brought it upon myself i think my temptation might be like oh god wouldn't want to talk to me right now because of the things that i've done like i i won't go to him or kind of like that first one if someone else is doing it to me you might ask that question again why is god allowing other people you know to do this and everything so yeah all three of them really can lead to a person distrusting god in his character so it's powerful that it's that he's like the last thing you want to do is run away from god in times of trouble and you love that he's going to teach that so well in chapter 37 um because he says to him oh remember my son i'm in verse 35 chapter 37 verse 35 oh remember my son and learn wisdom in thy youth yea learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of god and then in verse 36 he says yea and cry unto god yes and cry unto god for all thy support yea let all thy doings be unto the lord and withers whoever thou goes let it be in the lord yea let all thy thoughts be directed unto the lord yea let the afflictions of thy heart affect you affections of thy heart be placed upon the lord forever and then this verse that is so familiar to us counsel with the lord in all thy doings and he will direct thee for good yea when the elist down at night lie down unto the lord that he may watch over you in your sleep and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto god and if you do these things you shall be lifted up at the last date and i think that might be some of the most powerful advice i have ever received for times of trial and affliction and adversity is um to to sit down and counsel with the lord through that place and sometimes the answer comes immediately and sometimes the answer comes in years of counseling back and forth with the lord as you go through that process and and for me it's that counseling process that actually brings the healing for me i don't know if that has been true for you but it's it's um not being afraid to question not being afraid to talk about how much it hurts not being afraid to say um where you've been wronged or you feel like um you know it's even just pouring out the why is this happening to me that's all human nature those are the places that we go but as we counsel with god he's gonna help us rise up out of that into the place where we can then ask the question what should i be learning from this and how can i become better out of this and and we have to remember god is going to allow us to go through the weeping and questioning moments he allowed joseph to do it in liberty jail um the other joseph of egypt did the same thing god is patient with us as we go through that crying out of the why but it's through the counseling together with him that we come to understand the what and the how yeah and how unfortunate if a person thinks that i can't approach god in moments of doubt or in moments of pain because i think like he would not like he would encourage us right to come to him with our questions with our doubts even with our wonderings about his character yeah because through that counsel and kind of struggling through that that's when like real authentic relationship happens with him and that's what i that's what he's after he's not after us getting everything right he's like i want relationship with you so let's it's that phrase in isaiah that i love so much when he says come reason with me let's reason together through this um i love how approachable god is that he doesn't set limits on what we can or can't ask or or what we um how we counsel together that he's like come come sit down with me and let's walk through these things together and i think it's important to remember that that is the character of god in scripture and sometimes accidentally like these things aren't like said from the pulpits of our churches or in classes very often and it almost makes us feel like that's not allowed in the jour it's part of the faith journey you know to say maybe because those moments are so sacred and so vulnerable that people don't often talk about that that crucible moment you know yeah they talk about and then how i came out let me tell you about that i think we have to remember everybody has that that crucible moment that leads you into counseling yeah because you trust only grows in places of trial affliction and trouble like that's the only place that trusts is right it's in those places and so people might be hesitant to share it because it's personal hopefully they're not hesitant to share it because they don't think it's allowed um in a faith journey and it's like it's crucial to a faith journey to ask why today you love thinking about the refiner in that moment and it is in those intense moments of heat that he is there you know watching and that process and making sure it goes exactly right even though it's the heat of the of the fire or the trial or whatever it is but that he's right there with us every step of the way yeah this this is super important and i like that he just connects them together you know where like in 36 where he just says you'll be lifted up at the last day yes the is the promise at the very end of that um when i read that i just think oh if i'm gonna ever be lifted up it means that god expects times when i'm going to be down like if that's the promise you will be lifted up that means that the falling wasn't a um unforeseen right yeah it was part of the process right um i one of the other things that we love that we just want to spend a little bit of time on is when alma talks to his son about these holy scriptures that he has been responsible for for this whole time and now he's going to hand them over and do you ever have those moments where you handed something over to one of your teenage kids where you're like um like for example grace was just gonna drive my car i was just about to say jack just got his permit so what yes this is close to him i drive my car somewhere that i was a little nervous because it was up a big dirt road and i just don't know if she's good at driving on dirt roads and so as i gave her the keys i was like okay listen don't go faster than this and if you see potholes in the road this and like i went she just looked at me like mom i'm 21 years old and then you said that's the problem i don't know if you've ever driven on a dirt road before i don't know and so i can just imagine alma as he's like handing these over that he's like this is the keys to my car you know that like these are precious to me and worth something and i don't want you to ruin everything that i've just done here so let me talk to you about how you're gonna take care of this thing and um i love that he starts out he's gonna mention it three different times which is uh one of our favorite parts of this chapter he starts out in um one and two he says helaman i command you that you take the records which have been entrusted with me and i command you that you keep a record of this people according as i have done upon the plates of nephi and keep these things sacred which i have kept even as i have kept them for it is for a wise purpose that they are kept and we love that phrase keep these things sacred um just think of that phrase for a minute because there is so much being said in that one phrase keep these things sacred he says it again um in 16 but if you keep the commandments of god and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the lord that command you if you must appeal unto the lord for all for you must appeal unto the lord for all things whatsoever you must do with them behold no power of earth or hell can take them from you for god is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words and i love that that hints so much to exactly what moroni told joseph when remember when he gave him the same plates and he and almost word for word this exact phrase is what alma says to joseph if if you will just keep them and protect them and keep them sacred they won't be taken from you and then um at the very end of this chapter in verse 47 he says and now my son see the e take care of these sacred things and we love that thought of how you take care of these sacred things but also what alma is going to teach about the sacred things so maybe let's go to this part first and then we'll jump into that other perspective um as he's talking about the holy scriptures in 37 verse let's see this first we have right here a little spot for the bible dictionary on holy and sacred these words are so similar to each other in language um to be holy or sacred means to be set apart for sacred things for a certain purpose right um the bible dictionary exactly says to be holy is something that was set apart for a sacred purpose which is such a neat word because you start thinking about temples are set apart for a sacred purpose but also we are meant to be holy which is set apart for a sacred purpose and the same for these plates and when you look at it like you might if you were an observer like watching it with like it on mute and he's handing over like the plates like in a really tender like careful way like we were talking earlier i had this friend of mine who i was in his office and he knocked his scriptures off of his desk and right when he did he was like and he went and he like grabbed him and like he took him and he actually kissed him and he put them back on the desk and i was like oh well that was weird one that you kissed your scriptures but i'm into it and second i was like oh that was so instinctive that he was just like oh these are you know so it's really special yeah they're just like these are so special to me but what's interesting is if you're watching on mute and he handed over you were like oh i know why because those are made of gold you know and those are like treasures but that's not the sacred purpose they were set a part of the reason you're going to see alma so intense about it and moroni's so intense with joseph is because what they will be used for it's not their actual like them themselves it's what they're used for and watching all these things that it has to do with people every one of these has to do with what the scriptures are going to do for people and that's why they're so important and you and you think about they're irreplaceable because of the story they contain um stories that would have been forgotten if they hadn't been saved there and do you ever have i can remember um have you ever had this moment happen before where i can remember in elementary school coming home and i had this thing that i had made in art class and that i loved and i had worked so hard on and it just ended up in the garbage because what if mom saved all everything from all our classes we wouldn't even have room to live in our house and but i saw it in the garbage in the laundry room and i was like oh i was so wounded do you ever have that moment where you were like wait do you know how long i spent on this thing um that i do think there was part of that too where he was like you are a teenager and you might not yet understand how precious the work that has gone into this is and the stories that are contained here but you will after you've written several things you know but you might not understand yet um just how important it was um going to be and um how sacred and how holy they would become to helaman but also they would become to each of us and i love that he says let me just try and explain to you why they are so sacred and so holy the same way that i took the time to try and explain to grace and i'm sure you're doing that same thing right now that he does sit there for a minute and says let me explain to you why and it's so awesome because in verse we're going to start in verse 8 and then we've given you a couple other verses 44 and 47. that we want you to just list what was so important about these holy scriptures and in verse 8 he tells us um it's been wisdom that these things have been preserved and the first thing he says they have enlarged the memory of this people um which is so important it's just there's no way they could have remembered everything god had done to deliver them if somebody hadn't taken it down so you love that part of the purpose of the scriptures is to enlarge our memory so we know the goodness of god second it convinced many of the error of their ways it just helped them to know this is the right way this is the right path this is the guidepost this is the direction in case you don't know here this this could help you to make sure you don't go away you don't want to go i love this one it brought them to the knowledge of their god unto the salvation of their souls it just it gave them the knowledge that there is a deliverer who will save you um that's what his promise is the salvation of your soul and who doesn't want to hold on to that yeah i noticed this yesterday that eve in verse 9 also with the connection with that he kind of gives that as a synonym to repentance which i've never noticed before he said these records and words brought them unto repentance that is they brought them to a knowledge of the lord their god and to rejoice in jesus christ their redeemer isn't that such a synonym to repentance almost a definition of repentance what if you described it as that repentance is whatever brings you to a knowledge of the lord and allows you to rejoice in him right that would be what repentance actually is that's the best definition ever i know thanks alma we need to write that impermanent marker on the fridge what if i did that you're gonna be so mad or you might rejoice like it says maybe um if you go down now we've had these and you might find other reasons what is it that scriptures do for people yeah and in the verses in between because that i as i was going through i was like oh we should have said this one like the one about bring to light yeah and like you're gonna find more but we just gave you a spot for five you pick whichever ones you want 44 it says um talks about the word of christ which pointed people on a course to eternal bliss i love that word too right can we call exaltation who doesn't want to go there um on a straight course to the promised land it says and and that is what they do one thing that i think is um a little bit um when i read that i was like but they didn't go in like a straight line necessarily and so i don't think we ought to be confused on this and and one of the things i just want to bring up i've been thinking about a lot recently is how often wisdom and counsel come up in this chapter about the scriptures and i think it would be unfortunate if we thought of the scriptures as a rule book for the right way to live life instead of wisdom literature that we're supposed to go into and then it becomes kind of a springboard into like this counseling like to call scriptures wisdom literature has been such a helpful like um i feel i don't even know where to use um it's been so helpful for me in my study of the yeah so good and i love that as you look at it really it's not saying we none of us are gonna make a straight course um and some of us are gonna have a less straight course like i love my mom used to describe my sister sarah who is so she's the happiest person you've ever met in your life hopefully she's watching today um so happy so creative she just her mind is so creative and my mom would say if you were going to do a beginning and an end right here sarah would get to it like this [Laughter] she would eventually get there but that's just how she would get there that's how the course of her life would be and i love that what this actually says is the compass would point a straight course always the compass would the leona would always point the straight course the reality is none of us except for jesus are gonna take that that straight course our journey is gonna look more like this just because we're learning because we don't have all the wisdom why we need wisdom literature because somebody has to set the straight course but then we have to be patient enough with ourselves to realize ours is going to look like this and that's actually why god gave us a savior and why we receive grace through the atonement because that's what's going to help us in all of this to get where and this journey looks more like a person to me yeah instead of a robot yes and i i just don't think that god intended us to be like nope this is the i like experience life and like well and sometimes you're not gonna know and sometimes i'm only gonna give you the next right step and then you're gonna take 15 others and then i'm going to be like okay here's the next right step now and then um right it's we're being tutored right we're going through a process of becoming if it was as easy as getting from a to b i don't know that we would have even needed to come down and experience mortality yeah there's a learning that is taking place along the way and i love that and i think it's great that if you could if scripture can become a springboard into wisdom right where we're just like it's going to be a springboard into that counseling with the lord instead of what should i do with my yeah not a checklist yeah what should i do with my son right now let me see if the answer's in here somewhere and it's like no god's like i want you to come to me in counsel because you'll even find contradictory information in scripture right like the proverbs you know that one spot in proverbs where it's like um you know you know what to do with proverbs i know it's like this one time he's like you should beat your kids if they're naughty and the next one's like never beat your kids or you'll ruin them you're kind of like what should i do so it's like a spirit yeah it's gonna help you discern what is the part i need for me right now so we've done enlarge the memory convinced of errors bring to a knowledge of god point to the promised land give us the clear path give us this straight path no he's the destination yeah what's the difference we're gonna do this on the way there and then um the last one is gonna be in verse 47. um look to god and live that's what those sacred things are going to help us do and as you think about this lesson and you go through um we loved the thought that as alma was teaching helium and how to take care of these sacred things which were scripture we couldn't help but think about how alma or how healing might have taken this advice and looked at so many other things in his life that were sacred because of this summer of heroes and we just keep thinking about these stripping warriors and when you think about healing a lot of times we think about the stripping warriors before we actually even think about his responsibility to take care of plates but we love the thought that he took care of those boys with the same um counsel that alma had given him to take care of these plates and see if you love this we both read this on our own this weekend and thought about this this way because alma in verse 16 and 17 is talk of 37 is talking about the plates but as we read it both of us had an experience where we were like oh you could also think about those boys right stripping warriors when you think about this council and how this tutoring of how to take care of sacred plates also helped him learn how to take care of sacred boys at the same time that it applied larger think about this in terms of those boys if you keep the commandments of god and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the lord doth command you for you must appeal unto the lord for all things whatsoever ye must do with them and behold no power of earth or hell can take them from you for god is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words for he will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made under our fathers and we just love that thought about um what you should do with these things which are sacred and maybe it's plates and maybe it's your children and maybe it's the people in your calling um but just how um god would have us respond when he hands us those things that are so sacred to him um and what we do with that and and every time i you know think of that concept as particularly as a dad i love that line where it's like here take care of these children and no power of earth or hell will take them from you for god is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words and all his promises and there are there are the promises that he makes to abraham isaac and jacob that can be renewed with us and that's one of them is i you will not lose them right and it's just neat to think of oh take care of these so he's actually our hero for the week helaman and um the scripture is alma 3747 where you look at where he's counseled to take care of these sacred things and that's what our phrase is take care of these sacred things and we want you this week to think about what are the sacred things that god has entrusted into your care and what does it mean to take care of them you might want to use that parable from uh elder bishop burton no howard burton no f howard burns was it i promise you might remember this from conference where he talks about the silverware set the parable the silver yes we love it so much you might want to look that one up and read it where you if you want something to laugh burton howard oh well you were close you had all the right things in the wrong order yeah it's fine he's doing this my style y'all should know by now yeah um eternal marriage f burton howard it's april 2003. oh it is such a good example of um taking care of sacred things yeah so this week you might pick something where you're like uh where you choose to like take care of it or you know but make sure that the lesson of like what is it that god's actually given to us that's sacred to take care of um okay before we move to the last chapter we just want to talk really quickly about what we call the liahona principle um and it's um it goes back to that straight course that the the job of the leahona was to paint a straight course those um it told us those needles we're gonna always just show the right way to go but it's so interesting because god gives a this is what this could look like and then he knows we're gonna enter in um as human beings immortality and try to go through it and what that's going to look like and um and he's going to talk to us about what that relationship looks like this this is kind of what he's going to talk about right here we're in alma 37 and he's going to teach us this in verse 40. it did work for them according to their faith in god so that the leohona was going to work according to their faith in god therefore if they had faith to believe that god could cause those spindles should point the way they should go behold it was done therefore they had this miracle and also many other miracles wrought by the power of god day by day nevertheless because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works they were slothful and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased and they did not progress in their journey this is such an interesting lesson and let's just we want to unpack it for a minute because we love to talk about grace is one of our favorite things to talk about and how jesus christ will meet us where we are as we are and through his grace or his enabling strength we are able to accomplish everything that he has in mind for us and we're able to become so a lot of times people will say to us well then um what is faith and works for and and where does that fit into the picture along with what is happening with grace um a lot of times we talk about grace is what helps us um is what enables us to have salvation it is a gift that was given to us that enables us to have salvation but alma teaches us a really important principle here and it is this in 41 when he says they forgot to exercise their faith and diligence or their faith and works you could say when they forgot to exercise their faith and works what happened they didn't progress that's what happened they were stopped in that progression they were stopped in that transformation they could be experiencing through grace because they didn't have faith or works and in my scriptures i wrote down faith and faith plus works equals progression it's not that we're earning our salvation it's that we are on this um process right here that we're trying to obtain exaltation and exaltation is becoming like god that's what we're doing um in this life and that is a process of believing in christ of giving our faith to what he has taught us to this little map that he's given to the liahona and walking it every single day if nephi and his family had stopped walking if they had stopped following that compass they would have just stayed where they were forever that still have salvation right that still um have life but they wouldn't be in the place god knew they could have been had they not followed the entire way to the end it's the greatest blessing faith and works is what leads us to god's greatest blessing that he has his greatest promise that the place that he has in store for us and we love that grace is what allows us to to do this process and still maintain the course yeah if we just separate the difference between salvation saved from death and sin and the fall and exaltation which is becoming then you can kind of see where they you know where it fits into that right it's just like my someone asked like why are then why are you you know why do you do all these works why are you doing all these things you know it's like well one it's out of love for him and and second because i want to be someone better i i want to be right i want to become and and that's he shows us the path and how to do that so so good we love this um this is a great thing to put in um just you on your study on grace and then salvation and exaltation and um kind of what we'll learn all through scripture about those things um okay should we go to 38. oh yeah so just to wrap up um we felt a little sad for our friend in chapter 38 shiblon because he lemon just gets this great emphasis and then you kind of watch his story and then and next week we're going to talk a lot about corianton and because he's a little bit naughty so he gets some attention and so you're kind of like you forget about this poor middle child so this isn't this is an ode to you jenny the middle child that jenny was a middle child so you know like what about those forgotten middle kids you know and uh he's kind of just this unsung hero in there and we love to take a minute to just know that you know alma the dad cared just as much as this boy and and just the things that you see in here you know toward him yeah i love that in um 38 3 and 4 we get a little um like window into remember when we talked about the dream team and when they went over and they were going to have that missionary and we don't really hear very much about that experience yeah we don't know but there's just this little window right here where he says i send you my son that i have had great joy in thee already because of thy faithfulness and thy diligence and thy patience and thy longsuffering among the people of the zoramites for i know that thou wast in bonds yea i also know that you were stoned for the word sake and you did bear all these things with patience because the lord was with thee and now you know that the lord did deliver you remember that's the thing he just wants his boys to know and i love that we get to see that little window that when they went in that dream team it wasn't an easy process they were stoned for what they talked about and um they had to bear all those afflictions with patients um and they were in bonds but just how neat that he was i watched you go through that and you you did good you know you did good um steady like that's the word that he uses for him in verse two he was just like because of your steadiness and i love that that steadiness can look like this also right because you just you just keep what's that in verse five keep trusting in god yep and you'll be delivered in your trials and troubles and afflictions until you're lifted up that same concept like whatever the journey looks like it's going to be different for everybody but what can be the same is that we keep trusting god throughout that entire and i love that he reminds us with this in verse 9 there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved only in and through christ that's it that's how salvation comes and but if you want the becoming process then you enter into faith plus works and you're gonna have progression you're gonna be able to go into that place i love to at the end of this chapter verses 10 through 15 is such a great little mini discourse on how to be a great teacher i love it's such a self-check of where you are at and i love that he says to him as you have begun to teach even so i would that you should continue to teach and then he's going to walk down and talk about this is what a good teacher looks like they're diligent and they're temperate in all things and they're not lifted up into pride and they don't talk about their own wisdom or their own strength i love when he says this use boldness but not overbearing if if there's something you believe you be bold about teaching that thing but but don't like scare people you know he's like you be passionate about your testimony but and i was thinking like in context of this for the first time ever just yesterday i was like some of these are kind of temptations for the good kid yeah who's been super steady and faithful that they might accidentally yes that could actually become a hindrance yeah you know and i love that he's emphasizing first don't you forget that it's not your steadiness that's saving you it is jesus and now when you teach yes make sure that you don't do this you know and then this is good but you know don't look like you love when he talks about like use your talents and um i love when he talks about just be filled with love that is such great advice for a teacher and don't get lazy don't get like just because you have that gift don't you get lazy or think you're better i think you're better yeah um i just love that and i love when he's like now now go my son and teach that's what i want you to do um i love the thought of that counsel for my dad so those were our favorite parts of that one so many good things here you just don't know what's going to be in these chapters but so many good things yeah okay have a fantastic week next week

Channel: Don't Miss This

Views: 139,747

Rating: 4.7186365 out of 5

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

Id: elghwUtZTiE

Length: 52min 23sec (3143 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020