Come Follow Me Alma 39-42 (July 27-Aug. 2)

okay did it start yeah hi everybody i'm david butler i'm emily freeman welcome to don't miss this uh in a little bit we're gonna be talking about the two trees in the garden of eden so i dressed like one of them just so you know i just realized he's going to happen i just realized when i looked at the screen but happy aloha friday um we are doing alma on friday i hope you're watching this yeah or if you're listening just imagine me looking like a tree all right we're doing alma 39 through 42 which is the second part of what we started last week remember when mormon takes a break from these sweeping stories of battles and war and cities and nations and he just zooms in on alma taking one-on-one time with each of his sons which really is i think mormon's just trying to say like this isn't the heart and soul of all these big battles and nations it's one the greatest battles are fought in the confines of the human soul and so they're just these one-on-one moments that alma has with his boys should we let him look at the board yeah look at the board last time we talked about the two boys helaman and we also talked about shiblon that he talked to and now he's going to be talking to um his son whose name is coryanton and uh and i i remember starting a institute class once and saying just you guys let me tell you the story of this dad who gets called as a mission president and um his son gets a mission call opens it up and he's actually assigned to his dad's mission it's crazy and then while his son is serving that mission he leaves the mission and goes and kind of hooks up with a harlot and his dad finds out and he comes back and what do you think that conversation was like well turn to alma 39 because that is the conversation and coriander kind of spends some time you know um when the dad's like a horrible being i have a little bit more to say to you than i did to your other brothers i love them my time with shiblon and it only took 12 minutes i just want you to know don't have that expectation i actually hate how alma starts this conversation with his son because he just says this remember what he's just like you did not give so much heat as your brother did now why can't you be a little bit more like him i know i was just sad about that part i know i'm like don't this is anti-parenting advice 39 verse 2. um but i it is um when he talks about he talks a little bit about what may have happened with corianton following after this um this girl is i mean what's her name isabel yeah the harlot isabelle who he says the thing about her he's most concerned about number one is she stole away the hearts of many people meaning uh stole them away from god is the problem and then where's that one verse where he says really the hard thing right about what happened was um you should have tended to the ministry wherewith that was entrusted like this was your mistake you had a ministry you had something to devote your heart to and instead of saying devoted to that thing you accidentally went a different way and and it was a way that was with someone who was actually against the ministry yeah against the thing that you had been called to yeah because it's interesting that she's a harlot and whether this was an actual like whether it actually was a sexual sin or what most of the old testament writers talk about with idolatry and they connect idolatry and harlots together like turning to another god turning away from god and that seems to be the bigger concern not that sexual sin isn't a concern but it seems to be that it's like the bigger issue here is like verse 11 because of what happened you it suffered the devil to lead away many people and they wouldn't believe in my words anymore because of what because of what happened that's like a that seems to be a bigger problem than you know whatever else was happening and you love that this becomes such a good chapter on repentance and i love when we talk about what is repentance and remember when we've taught it before with the sign language of just it's a turning again and you watch that process here um because there you see the turning away and we're gonna watch the the turning back again and i love that we get to see it come full circle and set in these sections yeah and if you want to take percentage of verses something i love about alma's approach even though i hate his parenting approach in verse two what i love about his approach is maybe one percent of the verses is kind of is talking about the problem and 99 are talking about the solution the redemption so 39 through 42 is the whole conversation and just this beginning of 39 he kind of brings it up he gives some tips on kind of like oh here's some tips on how you could have avoided this but then the rest of it is on his rescue yeah and that to me is so beautiful um so it'll be fun to go through and just talk about it at the beginning um what it would look like to avoid sin not just if you're corianton but if you're any of us what are some of alma's advice for avoiding sin we just wrote down a few but as you go through these first verses in this first chapter that's what you want to be watching for is what is his counsel for how to avoid the sin in the first place yeah um one that we didn't i didn't put up on this list when i was drawing it is actually in verse seven i thought it was interesting that he said uh i wouldn't dwell upon your crimes unless it were for your good so the only reason he's even bringing it up and bringing up the consequences is not to make him feel stupid or shame but because he's like i think it will actually end up for your good if you if you just and it kind of hints at um remember with joseph of egypt there's that one phrase that talks about god can turn it for your good and i love that that the same can be true here that alma is almost saying to him listen you're not past saving you're not past rescuing god can actually turn this for good and let's talk about how that might happen for you which i love that kind of a conversation as you're entering in with someone who has made a mistake to say i i think some good could actually come of this and almost speaking as someone who has had bad things in his life be turned for good so you love that he's like i'm speaking from a place of experience right right now right um in his own experience he actually uses that word i just noticed to hair up your soul it's the same word that he uses to describe what drove him to jesus was that sort of feeling and he's like the only reason guilt would be good for you is if it drives you to redemption um to jesus and and i think that might maybe he's kind of and that's one invitation we want to give you right at the very beginning of these chapters you're going to see a lot of words um in here that are doctrinal words that have a lot of doctrine behind them and one thing i love to remember is that every doctrine should point you to jesus so everywhere through here the number one thing you should be looking for is okay where is jesus in that verse and in that principle and in that doctrine where do we see jesus through all of this teaching because it makes it so much personal to us when we're talking about a relationship rather than a list of yeah doctrines yeah i was just as you were saying that i was thinking to myself for example he's going to give this whole chapter that we're not going to spend very much time on on the resurrection and it could be super easy to get caught up in like what are the details of the resurrection instead of like the marvel of the resurrection brought about by jesus like let's like let's not get so caught up and when do they get resurrected or them or where do they go and stuff like that rather than like wait a second isn't this amazing that someone came and conquered death that gave us the chance to rise again no matter when it is so good advice um okay so quickly let's just go through um how do you avoid sin then we'll just stop for a minute and 40 and talk about um a couple things that we love there and then we'll jump in to the end um so some of the things he talked about was don't hide your crimes um he talked about um which we've talked about before is a very adam and eve thing a problem of mortality from the beginning he's like come out into the light with them you don't have to hide them right yeah you don't just they won't be solved if you're hiding them we just lay it on the table and figure it out um go no more after the lust of your eyes oh we love when he tells him in ten listen he and he doesn't this is not little advice he says i command you to take it upon you to counsel with your brothers um and i love that one that just like sometimes it's okay to be like go talk to your brothers they live in the same world you do they're in the same circumstances go figure out how they're doing it and then almost like a side advice to the brothers they um you stand in need of being nourished by your brothers that if someone were to come to you for counsel or advice make sure that that is nourishing advice instead of making someone feel stupid advice um okay uh refrain from your iniquities um turn to the lord with all your might mind and strength i love that one i love this one too acknowledge your faults and the wrong what you that you have done just it's okay to be like i think i made a mistake here oh it makes it so much easier if someone is just like that that's on me you know i think i actually did make a mistake yeah here i want to say two about that one that 13 one turn to the lord with all your mind and strength when we talk about like repentance is a turn i love the thought of it is not a turn away from sin as much as it is a turning toward the lord right repentance doesn't mean i stop that repentance means i turn to god with all of my heart mind and strength that's really good um so and then you just notice then starting in 15 he is i mean he's already there but he's just full fledged ahead like let's talk about the coming of christ who will surely come to take away the sins of the world like that is the heart and soul of this conversation and you love that that's the direction that he's gonna go and before we jump into that um one of the things that i love is watching and learning from these men and kind of what did their personal behaviors look like what was the way they learned and studied and did things and i love in chapter 40 we get a little bit of insight into alma in verse three um and he says this at the very last sentence but i show unto you one thing which i have inquired diligently of god that i might know and i love the thought of that that he's like let me just tell you about one of the things i'm trying to ask god to teach me about it made me want to think to myself okay what other things were on his list don't you want to know like this is just one of the things i'm trying to work out with god and it makes me think every time i read it okay what's on my list like what are the things i um have inquired diligently of god to know more about and as you look back over the last course of your life you know the last few months or years what are the things that you're like i want to know more about grace i want to know more about mercy i now i want to know more about what is the thing that you are diligently inquiring to the lord about yeah and just that whole that just that whole experience is valuable even if you never come to a conclusion we just spent before we started this a half hour just talking about an upcoming chapter just because it was interesting to us you know and i love alma like you'll notice as you read through 40 so much of his personality where he's like i think it might be this but i'm not really sure and he's like my opinion on this one he actually says that one time my opinion is actually this but i don't really know god does but i think it might be and actually in one of the verses he's like wrong about one of his conclusions on resurrection you know because he actually says like the wicked and righteous will get resurrected together at the same time you know and it's like i just like that he's exploring working out it's cool where he's like and he doesn't wait until he knows everything he's like let me just tell you a little bit about what i've been learning and and it might be this i don't know and it might be this but you just love this process of this man who we admire so much showing us how he is working out obtaining knowledge from the lord on on a really big subject yeah and what's even neater i think is 40 verse 1 where he says his son he says i perceive that your mind's a little bit worried about the resurrection of the dead so let's talk about it i've actually been studying it i want like i like that he just dives into this topic i'm so curious why corianton that is on his mind yeah did he lose a friend recently like did their mom just like why is he like why is he so yeah the resurrection is going to happen well and it's interesting that he's concerned about it and alma obviously isn't too cool because he's been thinking about it so some maybe something was happening that made them think but i just love that we get that little window of a chapter of he's like this is let me show you my study process and what i'm working on trying to figure out right now that gives me like motivation to be like okay what am i going to diligently study with the lord right now what do i want to figure out um then we're going to get into chapter 21 which is this i mean chapter 41 i don't know why i just really wanted to go to 21 chapter 41 which is um a restoration chapter i love this chapter so much um as we go through and it talks about what does restoration even look like and why would we need a restoration and um this year is a fun year to study this alma 41 just because we've talked so much about restoration within general conference and then coming forth from that and because for some reason 2020 is such a year when we need restoration right now for so many things so i loved reading through here as what it looks like when alma talks about restoration and that process and i love when he says this when he's going to talk about what restoration is is to take a thing in verse 12 of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state or to place it in a state that's opposite to its nature that's not the case but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again and i love that thought of that of that bringing back again if anyone's restored a car or if you've restored a piece of furniture that bring him back again and i love as you think about that process of restoration a lot of times we talk about the savior as a refiner and there might be a restorative process in that i don't know because i've never done refining before but um i have done restoration with sandpaper have you ever done that before where you try and restore a piece of furniture and you go through that sanding process and at one time when i was doing that i thought to myself you know what the atonement is the medium that allows the restoration it doesn't happen at the end of the project it happens along the way and through the atonement of jesus christ we experience grace we experience mercy we experience all of that standing down process that enables us and strengthens us to eventually become everything that is in mercy and justice and doing good and grace and i just love the thought that the restoration isn't instant have you ever noticed that before that it's you don't just say i'm going to restore this car and in an hour it's done or i'm going to restore that that table and it's done the restoration takes place the whole way um from that moment when you say you're gonna start until it really is a finished um whatever it is and we're the same we have to go through that restorative process until we get there and you might read in in 13 when he says um it brings evil for evil um carnal for carnal devilish for devilish good for good righteous for righteous merciful for merciful meaning like this resurrection restoration it's like whatever you were here that's what you will be you know restored to and you might be thinking about yourself like i actually don't want to be restored to what i am you know because um you know so if you feel that when you read 13 it's gonna come up in 42 but before we get there go back in 41 to um starting in verse 5 yeah where he says the one is raised to happiness according to his desires for happiness or good according to their desires for good and the same of evil but so it is on the other hand if a person repents of their sins and desired righteousness they will be rewarded unto righteousness so it's so important to put those together jesus is going to be the one who's going to make that possible that someone like me could desire good could desire mercy could desire grace and then be restored unto those things yes that's so just simply because that's what i wanted um okay then we're going to get into 42. and corianton's going to ask a question yeah the question he wants to know that either asterisk on his mind in verse 1 is he doesn't think it's fair that a sinner should be consigned to a state of misery um he's concerned about the justice of god there would be punishment for sinners and this is not uncommon even today for someone to say like well if god's so good why do we talk about him punishing sinners and why does a sinner um have to have to go forever to help the doctrine of hell like how is that combined together with a god who is merciful and i think it would be awesome to start right here and what alma teaches about um does god punish or does the law punish um where is that verse oh twenty-two yeah let's just jump there right now before we even get into the discussion because i think what's so interesting here is this two things number one one of the things he's going to teach him in 42 22 is there's a law given and a punishment affixed and a repentance granted so repentance is this like gift that's been given as part of what alma's definition of repentance is can we do that right now let's save it for when we get to that middle spot because i think it'll be more powerful there but no i think right here maybe like it's a gift so like there is law and a punishment is a fix to it p.s there is a gift that's going to be given which repentance mercy claimeth otherwise justice claimeth the creature and executed the law and here's a really important point and the law inflicted the punishment not god so even though we use the phrase the wrath of god the justice of god and those kind of things there those are more poetic than it is the it is the law that is inflicting punishment it's natural punishment it is not god inflicting you know a punishment i think that's that's super important um because he has a problem with god why would god punish these people and what alma's gonna teach him is god's not god will turn people over to punishment if they choose that if they don't want to be claimed by him he will allow that i mean he will let them walk jesus yeah right but but he has gifted he has granted a way out of it which is going to be really important i love too that um because lots of times we enter into conversations with our kids that we're like i don't know like what should i what should we talk about how should i enter in and i love that what alma thinks is i'm i'm going to go find somewhere in scripture that i can help to teach this principle and the story he's going to go back to is clear back in genesis that's that is the scripture where he's gonna start and he's gonna um use that to help in this conversation with his son which makes me think how often do we do that do we take the time to be like which scripture is gonna help in this situation and um he doesn't give a lot of detail about that story he just hits the points and then moves on to the conversation which i also think is really important that as we look in scripture and we try and figure out how can we teach and help our kids um it's important to realize we don't need to read all of the book of genesis to them we can say okay i ca i can see through the spirit that these are the important things and now let me help you um do you remember this do you remember this okay let's start from here to have this discussion yeah because it doesn't seem like his point is to figure out what do all the trees and the sword and everything symbolize i'm more interested in teaching you like the part your point of the story yeah right is not to figure out all of this i'm gonna use all these to get to here is the most powerful truth that i want you to walk away with and it's almost as if he's looking at him and saying um i i maybe think there is only one thing that you need to understand better but let me paint this picture for you so we can get to the one thing and that's what you're gonna watch happen so he's gonna start out in um he's gonna explain this thing he says and he's and he starts out he's like do you remember when god sent our first parents from the garden of eden to till the ground like do you remember that part of the story that's where we're going to start and he's going to talk about these two trees and um the one tree we're going to read in 40 to 12. nope 42 this is wrong what did i tell you it was really oh seven forty okay here it is um they're going to um there's gonna be these two trees in the garden and when they eat at the fruit of the first tree the tree of knowledge of good and evil what happens is they were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the lord and they became subjects to follow after their own will okay that's what happens at this tree so we get just right um cut off from god um the problem is now how how are they going to get back to god and you love when you read in 42 23 i'm almost going to talk about that um he's going to talk about at the very end of that verse they're going to be restored into his presence and then they're going to be judged according to their works and so this tree um has the capability of restoring them back to god um meantime they come to this probationary state it tells us yeah and i think it was interesting like now i'm kind of seen in connection with his initial question where he's like i don't think it's fair for a sinner to be punished or be consigned to a state of misery forever i think it's neat that alma's like not ignoring that and saying like no it's important for you to understand like what you needed to be rescued from yes you will never understand the love of god unless you know what things would have been had he never sent his son like you've got like we want to get rid of the doctrine of hell because we say it makes god mean but the doctrine of hell actually shows us what we were rescued from yes what he experienced to pull us from it and it actually shows a more loving god so he's like no let me show you and i love that it's gonna be so basic he's like here's what happened we we were cut off and um so then there's no way to be restored back and he and he lays out the problem for him in verse 12 he says and now there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience there was no means who's going to become the means that's what we have to figure out or what's going to become the means but we like thinking about who is going to become the means and what it's going to require is a plan um the plan right here and we love that in here he calls the plan 100 different things would you love because every name of the plan is so interesting so we wrote down for you if you just want to write down what every name that he calls it the plan of happiness the plan of redemption um the plan of restoration the plan of mercy and the plan of salvation all of those are the same thing it's the father's plan um i love this for it's the reclaiming that's what it is and and he had to look at the whole thing and say when this happens and then this happens and then this happens how do i reclaim what is my own how do i get it back to me and the answer to that is going to be repentance and a place for repentance but we love what alma's going to teach about what repentance is do you remember when we talked about this last week because this will point us to what the plan actually is so it isn't actually repentance that is going to claim anybody but if you go back to 37 37 and we just love when he tells you because sometimes we get caught up on that we're like okay so we came to mortality the most important thing in mortality is we have to repent which isn't such an important part of mortality but what is repentance exactly and and why would that be so crucial and we love what alma teaches there in 37 9 do you remember when he says he says this is going to bring them unto repentance and that is repentance is it brings them to the knowledge of the lord their god and to rejoice in jesus christ their redeemer that's repentance so you're going to have this probationary place this probationary state that will bring you to the knowledge of the lord and allow you to rejoice in him as the redeemer that's repentance think about what that means when you think about it in alma's definition i just love the thought that is that how i'm using mortality as a place to come to know the lord do i do that every day and am i finding reason to rejoice in the fact that he has redeemed me i love that that name redeemer actually means by any means because remember in verse 12 it tells us there was no means unless a redeemer came who was willing to save us by any means to bring us back and it's neat that each of those titles of the plan of whatever you want to call it are all talking about what he does right they all are describing for those of you who need happiness he will bring it for those who need redemption he can redeem for those who need to be restored he is a restorer for those who need mercy his mercy himself for those who need salvation he he has come to save he's the savior that these are the names of all of them but really the plan is jesus oh we love that so much just that reminder it's that simple the father's plan for us was jesus and what jesus would do intimately and personally for every single one of us that he would enter into our stories and and he would say let me restore this part let me bring happiness here let me give you mercy you remember the definition for mercy is especially active compassion let me bring especially active compassion into your story let me bring healing let me rescue let me deliver you just love that he's like what part of the story are you in okay let me come into that part and bring um this to you and we love that part of it um i know it's sad that corianton's like started off by thinking like i see god as this punishing god why is he punishing people for their sins and it's just neat the alma is like no we bring it upon ourselves we walk into it on our own accord like we're we're you know who god is is someone who had a plan to fix that right to rescue to reclaim all of us and i love just thinking about you know if if we're all there in the presence of god the father and mother in the pre-mortal world and it's like someone asked him what's your plan for salvation yeah how are we how are we getting back what's your plan for happiness what's your plan for restoring what we're gonna mess up what's your plan for redeeming and he didn't pull out a chalkboard and draw a bunch of circles and columns he introduced us to his son he's like he is my plan this is the plan of salvation and redemption and mercy it's it's him yeah it's so good and alma's going to explain that in verse 15 because he's going to say this he's going to say quran and the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made therefore god himself atoned for the sins of the world jesus came and died for us for two reasons one to bring about the plan of mercy and second to appease the demands of justice then god could be a perfect just god and a merciful god also and we love the thought about that that jesus came and he came to bring about the plan of mercy but he also came to appease justice he becomes the balancer in the equation he he becomes the answer in the equation and i think alma is saying to his son listen this is easier than you think it is we just got to turn your heart to jesus if we can do that everything else is going to fall into place yeah he says um one of our favorite verses about mercy that is in here is verse 24 where he says behold justice exerciseth all his demands and also mercy claimeth all which are her own and um that is such a powerful verse especially when where is that verse where he says what that actually um what that actually is where it's like those who call out right for mercy are those who are going to be are those who are going to be claimed yes um this morning i was just studying this morning early in the morning and i kept hearing the neighbor's kid crying next door and i was like man and then the crying kept getting louder and louder you know and i was like someone should like help that kid like why are they crying so loud um our sister-in-law staying with us and then i realized like huh that actually might be one of her kids and i just didn't recognize the cry so i ran downstairs and sure enough my nephew was on our back porch like banging on the door you know for me to let him in and what had happened is he'd gone out the front door and it automatically locks and then he went through the gate that locks like behind him and stuff like that and i just i've been thinking about today as we're having this conversation earlier that um here he was he got himself into this mess all of his own accord and all he needed to do was was to cry out and of course i was going to open that door and bring him in if he had a desire to be rescued a desire for mercy of course i was going to open that door and and let him in and i i just think that's so neat for him to refrain in corianton's mind god is actually like and he really does it so well in verse 27 because it's so interesting because what he ends with there are two points he ends with that are so good um one of them is he says this let me let me tell you about god what kind of god he is because he's not going to force anyone back into his presence he's gonna let you choose what you want he says this whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely anybody who wants to he's gonna say come and and experience this living water but whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come he's not going to make anybody come but in the last day it will be restored unto him according to his deeds according to what it looked like he wanted most um from this life god god's gonna give you what you want out of this life and i love the thought of that whoever wants to come come and if you don't want to come i won't compel you to come we each get to choose which had to be interesting to corianton to think to himself okay well what's my choice then yeah what do i want out of this and you love that we're gonna see um at the very end and this is my um my one of my favorite parts because i love that alma looks at him and he doesn't see the mistake he he moves past to the potential instead of the mistake and remember how he started if you just attended to the ministry you would have been fine and instead of seeing that mistake i was going to go back to the ministry because in verse 31 at the end of their whole conversation one conversation one conversation it starts off and you think oh dear this is going to be disastrous yeah it's so awesome he says to him and now o my son you are called of god to preach the word unto this people and now my son go your way and declare the word with truth and soberness that you may bring souls under repentance that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them and we just love this he gets the same um call that shivan does at the end right you you are called to teach you are called into the ministry you are called to do this work but how great will be his work because now that he understands the great plan of mercy he can teach that from experience to other people so they will also understand that great plan of mercy yeah and you said something earlier before we started filming and i thought it was so awesome and now connected with that i'm like oh that if you go back to that 23 where we talk about um that mercy claimeth the penitent and appeases justice um that if you switch those words out to say um jesus claims her own i mean the penitent and jesus appeases mercy yeah i was saying it's so interesting because really when you come out of 15 and it talks about yeah that god atoned for the sins of the world you you could say jesus brought about the plan of mercy and jesus appeased the demands of justice that is true it would be just as true as what is written there and probably better than saying like the atonement because that's like a thing it was it wasn't a power it's a person yeah jesus um is what brought about the plan of mercy and jesus appeased the demands of justice which means you can go to 24 and say and jesus claimeth all which is his own and oh we just love the thought of that and he's going to start with corianton and then he's gonna move to the next and the next and the next until he's just like let me just get everyone as many as i can yeah then it made me think that verse 30 where he says in the middle of it let the justice of god and his mercy and his long-suffering suffering have full sway in your heart to just move that switch that out and say let jesus have full sway in your heart that's so good and that's the word he's going to preach in 31 go preach jesus so our hero of the week actually is corianton which is so fun because we love that we get to pick someone who the story starts out a little bit rough like the ezram um but that he's gonna come around those are some of the greatest heroes right and his verse is 31 the verse that um emily just read about okay you're still called so go preach the word which word that word of mercy and redemption the word of jesus and so our battle-ready phrase is preach jesus to find some way this week to spread that good news about him particularly those people who might be just caught up and like why does god seem so like this or so like this like oh let's reframe your your perception of his character in jesus to who he really is yeah so good okay y'all have a good week

Channel: Don't Miss This

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Id: B6JYzkKD5V0

Length: 39min 48sec (2388 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020