Come Follow Me Alma 5-7 (June 1-7)

hi everybody oh do we start Butler I'm Emily Freeman this is don't miss this we're so glad that y'all are here okay first you see this gigantic poster behind us for our summer of heroes which we are super excited about it's just if you're just figuring out or finding out or hearing about it for the first time don't worry you're not too late and we're doing it all summer even if you are halfway through the summer when you watch this but what we're doing is every week of this summer we are picking a hero or a group of heroes from the book of Alma and they all have a protection scripture that's just awesome like powerhouse scripture about why we think they're a great hero something to kind of emulate something that makes them like Jesus and then one simple activity to do that week to kind of think about their lesson and think about like just what makes them so heroic and yes and how we can develop that characteristic we love saying it's what made them battle ready and we we want to try and gather all those characteristics by the end of the summer you can find this at Emily Belle Freeman calm under don't miss this this posters post dirt download it's free so that is so you can print it little if you want we just won there's a 10 and 11 by 17 and then I took this to Office Depot and they made it whatever size this is because we're gonna hang it up all summer and just do it and you can just fill out your people in your scripture and your bad already thing like throughout the whole thing that's what we're gonna use the poster for yeah if you've ordered your bracelets there are we have these bracelets if you want to kind of wear as a reminder throughout the summer they have these letters on them mm LX these are the Roman numerals for 2060 which is one of our group of Heroes the 2016 stripling warriors and they'll be at the very end so we'll be wearing those bracelets clear til they'll be one of the last few that we do one of the reason we picked that is it was just rad looking and also because in their verse it talks about once that sixty group of people came into the original 2000 they said then we were strong and we love the idea of like we all need each other and we are stronger together that we are by ourselves so that's kind of why that that phrase became the so the bracelets we have ordered and they will be shipping out so those of you who have already ordered that we will start shipping out the very last few days of May to you we've had several people asked about doing it with youth groups this summer and ordering larger quantities if that's something that you want to do we email us so we can work with you on shipping so that we can make it easier for you to do with a large group of people if you want to yeah so anyways hopefully your you don't have to get the poster the bracelets obviously but if you want to and they're fun just come over to well the links will be in our Instagram profiles or at Emily about Freeman calm and yeah it's great yes so follow along and we're still doing the journal and we're just going through the job were still doing our lessons but in addition to the lessons we have this one hero simple thing it's what we're doing in our family for just kind of our Book of Mormon study throughout the my personal study will be here in the chapters but together with the kids with vacations that are now new we are making stuff up now in the backyard camping I hate can't be just so everybody knows why do you want to pretend to be homeless so we'll do the lesson still but this is just something fun in addition okay and we're on our second one today who is Alma should we talk about him right now at the beginning or do you want to wait at the end we'll talk about him at the end know what's due right now that's okay alright okay so last week Gibby in you can go back to PS the in our newsletter every week you will find who the person is what their lesson is what their scripture is and what the activity is in a little bit more detail so go back to last week's if you want to find out about Gideon who is our first summer hero and then this week it's our guy Alma who the books named after so we are not gonna lose him the whole time he's gonna be around the whole time but we thought we'd focus on him yeah during this second week and we were gonna capture two verses for him because then it's gonna be a pattern we're gonna see for his entire life all way through the book of Alma so in Alma for the reading from last week you just want to go to verse 19 it says this and this he did so this is when Alma gives away the office position at the judgment seat he used to run the run you sit hold the judgment seat and he was the high priest and then things started not doing well in his community in in the faith community where they were so he gives up the judgment seat and he is just gonna go out and preach that's the part of the story that we're in and it says and this he did that he himself might go forth among his people or among the people of Nephi that he might preach the Word of God unto them to stir them up and remembrance of their duty that he might pull down by the Word of God all the pride and the craftiness and all the contention which are among his people seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down impure testimony against them and this is what we're gonna see about Alma all the way through Alma is he is passionate about preaching among the people he's it's like he serves a mission for the entire chapters of this book he's gonna be preaching and what he loves to preach is the Word of God and he loves to stir people up to remembrance he he wants them to remember God he wants them to remember how they've been delivered in the past and then he wants them to remember the Word of God so those are all things that we're going to see in Alma 549 it tells us this and I love this and now I sang to you that this is the order after which I am called yay to preach unto my beloved brethren yay and every one that dwelleth in the land yay to preach unto all both old and young both bond and free yea ice and you the aged and also the middle aged and the rising generation yay to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again and it's so awesome that he's like I'm gonna share with everybody it doesn't matter if you're old or if you're young if you're the rising generation I'm gonna go from house to house go from community to community but I'm I'm gonna stir people up to remembrance and this is the order after which I am called and we just love that passion of his teaching so when we are thinking of your idea for your battle-ready challenge we thought of this idea in britain so those of you who are British who are watching us hello there is a tradition at the end of the year that is called stir up Sunday and what happens if you're there in like will tell you the real tradition first is you make this British pudding and it's really hard to stir and they call this holiday stir up Sunday and you stir the pudding and everybody takes a turn so every single person who stirs takes a turn and in the real life tradition you make a wish when it's your turn to stir the pudding but what we thought would be awesome is to let to make something if you want to make pudding if you love pudding make pudding if you want to rape your normal make a cake or whatever would require stirring that's what you want to do and we thought it'd be so fun because Alma wants you to stir up the remembrance of the Word of God is when it's each person's turn to stir let them share as a scripture it can be a favorite Scripture it can be their favorite from this week's learning of Scripture whatever they want something from the Word of God let everyone just take a turn to stir one other fun thing about the pudding the British pudding if they will put in a silver coin or you could do an almond and then whoever gets that gets good luck for the whole year yeah well that are you come up with your own if you want to put an almond in there or a silver coin I'm a little worried about people's teeth but you are choking to death nobody will relinquish all almond might be your best choice then you come up with what happens that night but maybe it is a really fun prize for that night or you just decide anyways we thought that'd be fun way to remember that Alma stirred people up to remembrance yeah it's got need those verticals we talk about these words a lot this idea of repenting and being born again and sometimes they can have a connotation of like Oh like I feel like you're mad at me or something like that and what he's saying is I'm trying to stir you up to experience that living and loving power of God in your life and it's kind of neat that if you were to let a cake batter or a pudding or something sit for a while it would start to get gross yeah and just to kind of like stir it up to bring life bring God back into them and that's what Alma likes to do right he likes to bring God back into people's lives that is what he is he's trying to do so with that we'll jump into the the chapters because that's a that's a good jump into yes we're gonna watch him do that through in fact Alma v is a stirring up that is exactly what you might want to call it that we've called it let's move out unless you can see some of these things that are on here not there's not too much on the actual like study guide sheet that you'll write down at the bottom you will but the questions that we have on the study guide sheet are kind of Alma's questions reworded a little bit kind of like this is essentially what he was asking but it's it's really neat Mormon does something cool when putting together the Book of Mormon he kind of will take this story of Alma preaching to the people at the same time the sons of Mosiah are preaching to the Lamanites so those two stories happen parallel with each other but first he's gonna tell Alma's like reclaiming of people it's almost like the knee fight Reformation is what's happening here he's going into the cities to kind of get people what would you say the beginning they're struggling in their faith community he's like I got to stir them up and then when he's done with Alma's version he's gonna move camera two over to the sons of Mosiah and the Lamanites and the arms and all that kind of stuff you know a man all over here so he is just and it's fun that they're they're both these same people uh we learned earlier the Alma's a really good speaker a preacher he did it to get people to walk away from God for a long time he was super convincing and he's using that same talent and gift to kind of bring people back to God but chapter 5 is one of those ones that you really want to slow down with and don't just like go through the questions really quick and it kind of wants to be a silent lesson like you really do want to sit down and ask these are really powerful questions and poignant their life they hit the chord I don't know and you don't just want to let Alma ask that to his faith community you really want to let Alma ask you those questions and think about where am I in my faith we love that at the very end of this chapter in verse 62 so we'll start at the end and then go back to the beginning the very last verse he tells us right in the middle of that verse I speak by way of invitation and that's what all of Alma v is it's just an invitation to re-evaluate where you are in your faith yeah and to think about that and we love that the question some of the questions are so good you love how it begins oh yeah yeah this is like I almost love the idea of like here's the context of me asking all these questions he starts in verse well in verse 4 and he says where am I I've lost where I am the chapter for I have my in chapter 5 okay obviously what is happening right here I've lost all of the things that I like in the world chapter 5 verse 4 he says I say into you they was talking about the people like their past a little bit and he's like let's remember about all of us that we were delivered out of the hands of King Noah by the mercy and power of God I like that the whole context of this chapter is we are trying to bring God's mercy and God's power into our lives and so he says let's remember that that's who he is let's remember that's who were being stirred up to remember but remember that we're being stirred up remember you guys we love that word legit though I like love that word right now I know that's like super trendy in our church to love the word remember but I think that might be the second best word from the Book of Mormon first one's Jesus and the second one is remember I it's Jeffrey warming up again and again and again how yep and it's that whole story of the tender mercies starting at the very beginning and going all the way to the very end and and that really is the thing just remember remember the hand of the Lord remember the goodness of God remember the word of God remember how he delivers remember how merciful how powerful yeah and a lot of these questions are about that so sometimes when you read these questions you I think he's starting off by saying I want you to remember three things God is merciful so wherever you're at it's okay God is powerful so wherever you are he can make you more yeah and whatever you're facing right he's bigger than that thing is yeah so wherever someone's at in the spot remember he's merciful remember he's powerful and then in the next verse verse five he says remember they got delivered from king Noah and then they got delivered again he reminds them that God is also consistent and I love before you start thinking about all these questions he's gonna ask it's like please remember God is merciful God is powerful and that God doesn't give up on people like that sort of he'll deliver again he'll deliver again that's who he is that's what he's going to do because he keeps talking about that even in verse six he still wants to say dude I don't know if you sufficiently remember I love when he says that in case you don't I'm I'm gonna remind you again about this um sometimes I was just thinking about this yesterday sometimes when we can't see the goodness of God we tie the goodness of God so much to our life circumstances like we just do that as humans we're like oh if my life is going really good we infer that God is really good my life is going really bad I'm inferring that God is really bad and we do that as mortals we focus so much on what God does rather than who God is you know at least what we see him doing so one of the most powerful things to do I think in places of my life circumstances aren't super good - is to start by remembering you know how good god is particularly God to be yeah you as soon as you start asking that question who do you need God to be in this situation all the sudden you're gonna start being drawn to understand more about the character of God and particularly I love where he starts off and he says like we wrote the questions like this can you remember a time of captivity in your life can you remember a time where he was merciful or patient or long-suffering with you and can you remember a time of deliverance mmm that's so important especially if you need deliverance right now to remember a time when he was and I love that he says and if you can't think of any of those at the end of verse 6 he's like at least you can remember the day and think about the greatest deliverance of all when he rescued you from all of your enemies so he says everybody's got one I want you to focus your heart on it yeah it's really good then there are a couple of between 7 and 9 there are just a couple of really great teaching principles to phrases that we love from chapter 5 so he's gonna say this they were in the midst of darkness nevertheless their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word and I love the thought of that that Souls can be illuminated particularly in a time of darkness and that he tells us how that illumination is going to take place is through the Word of God it's it's gonna be by coming here and if it's made me think a lot and this has been something that has been on my mind a lot this week how do we get into the word consistently because that's how that illumination is going to come elder Anderson actually talked about stones that would illuminate our path as we looked back at times when we had been delivered and there is just something about that that illumination that happens as you think about your souls being illuminated in that and as we turn to the word that that light is going to come in and as you think about that I think it's important to think where does the word fit into your life right now and for me anytime we experience a change of season or routine I like to sit down and think to myself okay what is my plan gonna be like now so now that it's summer so often if we don't sit down and make the plan then summer just comes and goes and then we're like oh it's September I can go back to my plan but why don't we want to have a summer plan and last night when I am to realize it is summer it's a different season so yeah you know what I'm gonna do here and last night when I was climbing in bed after I said my prayers that spirit so clearly said to me you need to type out your summer reading plan what are you gonna study every single day and and it needs to be typed out and you need to put it out where you can see it and as I laid in bed I was like oh that is so fun because I know what I'm gonna do on Monday and I know what I want to do on Tuesday and I know I want to do this with all of my kids and it's almost being intentional that is gonna allow your soul to be illuminated so if that's a gift that you want then we might have to put in some effort to receive that gift and we love in verse 9 right in the middle where it says and their souls did expand there's something happening here where Souls can be illuminated and then can expand because of the effort that is being put into that situation and because you're inviting Christ into your life every time I read these I think of a lesson Joseph Smith taught to the women in the Relief Society when the church was beginning and there's just one line that he says he said you must enlarge your souls toward others if you would do like Jesus and I love the thought of that that there's there is something about enlarging our souls that becomes really important that's from the beginning of better days by Joseph Smith and that there are just some great nuggets in here but I think about that invitation from Alma and then also from Joseph Smith to just enlarge your soul to let your soul be illuminated to to make a space in your life for that to actually happen and one of the great ways that we can do that is through asking questions that's a such a great teaching principle is to ask to think craft really good questions what's a good question one that's gonna make someone like go a little bit deeper and it's awesome because usually you have to come up with your own as you read you have to like stop in a verse and be like hmm have I seen that in my life that seeing God in my life but here it's nice because the questions are already written for you you know it's like oh so our advice on these is read these so you can kind of maybe get an idea of like oh you hear it a little bit more in our language with some of these what he's asking and then just use this Oh mine's all filled out it's not blank but like to just maybe write some of like your answers to this it's such a great it reminds me of like a I loved and still love temple recommend interviews mm-hmm I think I just had as a bishop some of my most touching experiences as a bishop were there such simple questions and then you can see and the answer in the insulins eyes like oh there is you you got a story yeah you know and it's neat to have almost like I almost sit down with you one-on-one and say and I it's look it's legit that it's Alma to me because it's like when he talks about you know the mercy of God he's like do you remember who I once was yeah you know like I want you to remember who I was so wherever you are or whatever you have to overcome he can do it yeah you know you might love to go through and list how many questions there aren't here I did that once I just put a number by every question Alma asks at least 47 questions in this psalm 40:8 I know that's why that's why I'm like you find however many you can find in there but I just love that this is can you imagine being in a gospel doctrine lesson and someone asking you 47 questions because Wow without having people raise their hands you just say I just want you to think you could be really cool I just want you to take a minute and just it's almost a prompted lesson anyways we love chapter five and oh I wrote this at the top because when I was studying the other day do you guys know that song I can only like you're gonna answer back I can only imagine yes cuz memory goes through those questions at one point where he's like can you imagine what its gonna be like to walk into his presence again and if you have been redeemed before can you still do still is your soul still sing that song of redeeming love we talked about at the beginning that he's asking these by way of invitation Alma's only learning that from his from from Jesus himself because in verse 33 he says behold he sends an invitation and to all men for the arms of mercy are extended toward them and he says repent and I will receive you come unto me and partake of the free the fruit of the tree of life come and eat the bread and water freely so I love the alamos just following the pattern of his master which is just to invite all to come yeah so good and you love so when you go at the the end that verse 62 he's gonna tell you I speak by way of command and I speak by way of invitation and it's interesting just let's just think about that word command for a minute because I was the other night hanging pictures at my brother's house for him on this wall and we were using nails and we put them all up and we had about five up and one tip and it knocked down the entire wall so then I was like you need thank you well you need to go to the store and you need to buy command strips he'd never heard of him before and so he went over there he's facetiming me I finally showed him if you've never seen him there are these sticky things that you can put on the back and you put them on the wall and it will hold them there and it can hold a lot of weight well it's interesting because that word command means to be in a strong enough position to be able to secure something mm-hmm is that interesting yeah do you see how those command strips are in a strong enough position they could you're that to the wall and it's so interesting because Alma is in a strong enough position that he can secure you he can command you he's making you safe he's securing you he's holding you steady don't you love the thought of that yeah and I would love just the thought of God being the one who gives the commandments to be like ya know what's gonna hold you and I know what's gonna secure you and you're gonna see it from God and you're gonna see it from the Prophet and you can trust that they are gonna hold you secure that's what they're going to do isn't that neat so I speak by way of command and I speak by way of invitation I'm inviting you into this awesome situation and I'm gonna hold you securely here you'll be safe here mmm so neat that's so awesome I have to say one more thing and then weird we will move to chapter 6 okay if that invitation verse 37 where he says some of you are like a sheep having no Shepherd notwithstanding that no not withstanding that the Shepherd's already called after you but she has I just love that it says and he is still calling out it's so good I'm glad you just said that cuz that's gonna take us right into six perfectible um because you love the fact that he already did call you and he's still calling you like he's never gonna give up that's what kind of shepherd he is never and I love the invitation he gives in chapter 6 verse 5 I wish that you would understand that the Word of God is liberal to all like liberal liberal is like when you put butter on your toast in the morning it is it's just so much for all and none were deprived of the privilege of assembling themselves together to hear the word of God and I love that that is who I want to be I want to be the type of person that is like I I will give what I know to every person I know as much as I can give I will give and everybody's invited isn't that how church should be it's not how our home should be when we start talking about Jesus just any anybody who to here she'd be able to come and here none should be turned away right now my favorite part of chapter six okay we gonna move to chapter okay which is the new city so five he's preaching to a city six he moves to another city seven he moves to another city so he is like going on this tour right this speaking to her of all of these you guys wanted it to be a concert to her well he did say sing the song of redeeming love that was so dumb I wish I could erase that from the you love in seven when he says I have been trying to address you but I've been holy confined to the judgement seat I had so much business and how many times has that been you where you're like I am so busy right now that I haven't been able to do what I wanted to do which has been an interesting byproduct of this season they're just gonna say yeah it we've kind of have slowed down from the business of things a little bit unless you're homeschooling your children and then you're like ah you don't know our potty training someone which is what I have been doing for the spicy that's a busyness you have to do those things but I love that there is this little moment of just he's gonna take this little pause from the busyness and he's just gonna teach Jesus that's what he wants to do and and then you love when it goes to verse 3 yeah where he says I came here having this great hope and so much desired that I would find you in a place like grateful and humble before God like before I even walked into the gates of the city that's what I was hoping for you he says I hoped that for our friends in the other city it wasn't the case but he says but it's okay because he finds out he tells him a little bit later but hey but but they've started to humble themselves before God and they've started change which is awesome but um first we just love that he comes into that city hoping that he is going to find just the best of circumstances which we love because then he gets to five and he says and I trust that I shall also have joy over you and we loved the language of both of those things that he's he walks into that situation assuming the best and if it isn't it's all right he'll they'll work through it with the Spirit of God and figure it out together but I just love that as he walks in he's like I'm just gonna assume the best about you in this situation which i think is a good lesson for all of us like don't you want to just walk in and think I trust that I'm gonna have a lot of joy over what you're doing in your life right now and that's where I'm gonna look first what are you doing that is bringing joy yeah into my life it's I just love that part so he this Alma 7 is actually one of those spots in scripture that man it just kind of shines brighter than some other chapters actually because he really gets a chance I think because the city was ready to hear it they had hearts that were prepared where he was just like I now I'm gonna come in and just teach Jesus to you and we love in 7 when he says there are so many things that are gonna come this is Alma chapter 7 verse 7 and and but there's one thing that's more important than they all and you're gonna see that yeah yeah study sheet the one thing that is more important than they all it's a little hangman that's what he's never you just Jesus we love that he talks about that that the time is not far distance that the Redeemer is gonna actually live and come among the people that's that's the most important knowledge he could teach them right and then he starts going through his life starting in verse 10 and he's like he's going to be born of Mary in Jerusalem and and he's gonna talk about her and him coming as the the son of God which is such a powerful phrase because this is interesting that we didn't just get like this all-powerful God that came to us to command us and tell us what to do but we didn't get this mortal that came either where you got the Son of God which afraid is a phrase that means like he will experience mortality and he will have godhood at the same time which is what makes him a person were so drawn to that he's like I understand mortality and I have power to overcome mortality the well either of the others we couldn't have had it we couldn't have just had this nice teacher who came although we like his teachings and we couldn't have had this all-powerful like Zeus come and tell everybody what to do but it's so beautiful in the plan of salvation that God the Father and mother sent their son to be mortal to experience mortality and to be have the power of God at the same time yep and you love that he's gonna do here what Nephi did in first Nephi 11 he's gonna show what condescension looks like he's gonna show a God coming down to where you are as you are he's gonna meet you in that place whatever that place is for you right now and he's going to talk about in Alma 7 11 through 13 um if you're in pain if you have sickness if you're bound by something that you feel like you can't escape from um he talks about your infirmities and that along with sin and death that he is gonna be able to experience and understand everything about what we're doing that's that's what it means when he condescended but it's also when we talk about all the time he will meet you where you are as you are and that he doesn't intend to leave you there this Alma 7 11 through 13 is such a beautiful description of him meeting you where you are as you are and just bringing grace into that situation you know whether it's a hospital room or a bedroom in the middle of the night or into a relationship or into something that you struggle against he's gonna meet you in that place that that's who Jesus is that's what he does and that's where we experience His grace and we just see it so clearly that enabling strength that is gonna overcome anything mortality can can bring up against you he has the power to overcome that thing whatever it is so we have this little box on the study guide sheet oh there wasn't room for the box but there is a box on the study guide sheet where we want you to just write about where is that place where you where you need to be understood and where is that place where you need His grace and where's that place where you need to be reached I was thinking this week - I was reading again that chapter of Thomas yeah and when Jesus comes to him I'd never thought about this before chapter 21 John 21 is sort of like the mop-up chapter of John you know he's just like the whole story got tied up and it seems like John 20 is this climax chapter and so Thomas's like interaction with Jesus seems to be John's climactic event of the whole gospel and I started thinking this week why does he pick Thomas to be the climax of the whole gospel yeah and anyways you can go through that and think through that for yourself but one of the things I loved about it was remember Thomas earlier in the week said unless I feel his prints and his hands are in his feet inside then I won't believe when Jesus shows up he says to Thomas put your hands he knew put your hands in my put your hands in my side in my hands and my feet he knew what Thomas his concern was like and there's something powerful about God being able to come to us and say I know where you are and I know what your concern is and I have the power to help well and also I'm not afraid of it I'm not afraid of you being in that place Thomas you bring your concerns to me you want it you want to put your hand in my you know you want to touch these prints come in and touch him I love that he doesn't it's not just like Thomas you got to get past that yeah he's like that's funny cuz he's just like he says it's more good if you don't see and believe but then he say but if you need but you need to just love that he should have rebuked you kind of yeah you kinda rebukes him and invites it's funny it's cool I love it use the wrong words he doesn't pretend there isn't out there he doesn't like I love that he just enters into Thomas's story and says here let's go to that place you want to go to that place alright let's go to that place and he's gonna do that for all of us and and I love that that brings us into verse 15 because Alma is saying come come to Jesus come to him and I love when he says to him come and fear not which is so interesting because Thomas was angry he was worried he had been forgotten he would--he he was afraid that Jesus was gonna see everyone else and not him and maybe there was a reason why and like what did I do wrong like why did who I didn't yeah interesting because I've been spending some time with my kids going over their patriarchal blessings and then I've been listening to other people who've been talking about their patriarchal blessings and one of the people that I was reading a comment talked about when I went to get my patriarchal blessing I was so worried because I was afraid it was gonna list everything I had ever done wrong and I wasn't gonna be able to get the blessing I needed because there was something wrong with me that would hold back that blessing and isn't it interesting that sometimes we are actually afraid to approach God because we just have that fear and I love that Alma is like no no no go ahead and come without fear to him same as like Thomas don't be afraid that I forgot you I didn't and don't be afraid of your doubt I'm not scared of your doubt that doesn't deter me from being in relationship with you that he's like come and fear not and then I was like you just made me think it's like that it's the beginning story of Genesis of Adam and Eve running and hiding and covering and blaming and and God asked that question there's that that question asking again Adam where are you and where are you going and what did the devil say to you about me that made you think you needed to hide from me and I love the Alma is just hot let me tell you who Jesus is now now you know that you can come without here oh so good and then he tells him come and go forth like don't just come without fear but he's he's gonna grow you right he's gonna ask you into a relationship of progression you're gonna become better because of him so come and fear not but then be prepared to come and go forth because he's gonna make you to become something that is better than what you could become on your own and I love the thought of that invitation so we've got that also on this worksheet come and fair not come and go forth and then he's gonna talk about this walk of a disciple is that where you want yeah and let's introduce this idea that you're gonna see starting in these chapters about the Holy Order kind of in connection we love this part this is a phrase that you're gonna find throughout the the Book of Mormon is a phrase of the holy order and it kind of is a fancy phrase you know you feel a little bit royal and you feel a little bit if you've read Harry Potter you're kind of like oh the order of the Phoenix you know which if you have read Harry Potter you're a step ahead of everybody else on understanding this because an order is like just this group of people and they all live for a common cause that's what so if you've read Harry Potter the order of the Phoenix had this like purpose right and Alma talks about this holy order there is this group that walks and lives for a common cause and it's the cause of Christ and so you're gonna see that phrase through you know throughout Alma's teachings is gonna come up again several other times and you'll see it through all of Scripture also this this holy order where is that sentence I can't even find it Oh in verse 22 you'll walk after the holy order of God which is gonna also hint toward priesthood and it's gonna hint toward becoming holy that's what you want to be watching for every time you see that that it's gonna be this process of holiness that's what the order is that usually hints toward priesthood ordinances and covenant the covenant path you're gonna all of that is going to be tied together as you're going through that we're gonna see more about that in chapter 13 when we get there but we wanted to introduce that idea and let you see a good synonym for the Holy Order would be a holy pattern of living and so as you look at these verses 22 and 23 what is the walk of a disciple well remember a disciple is not independent of a master you can't just be a disciple you have to be a disciple of someone and so the walk of a disciple is someone who's walking after the holy order or after the pattern of the way that the Son of God walked there's Joseph Smith picked up on this language a lot and used it for when he would talk about temple things he always used the phrase the holy order of God and talking about the temple so he may have initially just kind of pulled it from Book of Mormon language and started using it so there's a great connection there particularly the thought of being initiated into a holy order so some neat stuff if you want some really cool stuff connected with that our friend Anthony sweat yes just posted about that he teaches better temple prep than anyone I know on planet earth and I let me write down and we will put that in our stories Oh to link to his is he actually just posted about the holy order this week in getting his daughter ready for the temple so a lot to understand with it simply spoken though it's a pattern of living after the manner of Christ and you're gonna see it in verses 22 and 23 if you want to see a really simple pattern of discipleship it's just gonna start spelling it out for you you're gonna be humble and submissive and gentle and easy to be intreated and temperate and diligent you're gonna keep the commandments of God you're gonna ask for whatever you need I love that that part is in there that like part of being a disciple is actually asking God for what you're in need of and and it can be temporal and spiritual things he tells us that's a part of discipleship and then remembering to read give thanks for whatever you receive and you're gonna have faith and hope and charity yeah that's 24 we need to add 24 unto the study guy who wrote 23 but add verse 24 chapter 7 verse 24 you know as well just good like checkpoint place where you can just be like Oh which of these things do I need to work on in my life right now that I maybe could be better at I hate it when the answer is submissive it's always like a child you know so that makes it cuter wait.you we want to end on this part right here but did you want to say something about that no I think we covered that good but when it's okay say something we do want to end on this oh I know I just wondered if we wrote that on there and I wondered if well we wanted to know what wait you're on the alma 7 11 through 13 at the bottom it talks about compassion and then he felt her grief in his soul is that what you wrote there yeah I really got a story for that but maybe I well I just we just want you to know this that one of the things you learn from that 7 11 through 13 is the fact that he really will meet you where you are as you are wherever you are and a lot of times when I teach alma 7 11 through 13 I do talk about the time when Josh got diabetes and I was in my bedroom in Draper and it brought me up so much comfort to know that as I read through Alma 7 11 through 13 and it talks about he will experience all of those things and because he has experienced it he will be able to meet you in that place and that didn't just happen in that place in my life it also happened in a hospital room up at the University of Utah I clearly remember that enabling strength that came into that room the same way I remember the strength that came to my bedroom in the middle of the night in a in the Draper Utah the same way that I will never forget that same enabling strength coming in a tiny bathroom in Omaha Nebraska two months ago a month ago there there is something about grace that is is significant and tangible and it voice you up and it carries and it brings strength when you feel strength removed from your entire being in a split second grace can come in in that moment and feel and those are some of for me my most moments that I will never forget I remember the moment I remember the feeling of that grace but I think it is important to remember that it can be compassion it can be mercy it can be strength enabling strength but it comes through grace that is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ and it is a tangible thing that we can experience so maybe that is important yes you remember that well and again in connection with I mean when you've got Alma inviting people to come and fear not he's just like please you've got to understand who it is that you are coming to I just think that cannot be stated enough of how important that is that it's not like if this is not an invitation to get in line this is an invitation to experience godliness on your journey yeah oh I love those three version we're gonna end on this last thing which is so cool this is one of our favorite things he ends with what we're gonna call an apostolic blessing and just pronounces a blessing on the people of this city and this might be a pattern that you want to like embrace in your life is it anytime that you are in a in a meeting or a sermon or have a chance where somebody has authority to you know to bless we've talked about this before particularly in General Conference yeah listen closely to what we call apostolic blessings there's one here yeah and why not claim it as you read through 25 through 27 but look at this type of language may the Lord bless you he's pronouncing a blessing on them that your garments be spotless that you sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob I bless you that you will rejoice that you will have the courage and and like and and endurance to give diligence and heed to his word I bless you with the peace of God may it rest on your houses in your lands and your flocks on your wives and your children and and all it's just a beautiful like blessing that he pronounces upon them as if yet hands on their head we love one of our favorite things to do is to go through General Conference at the end and if you're looking for it you will find several times during conference particularly this conference we were given those blessings blessings just like this one that Alma left and some of them you'll remember and some of them happened so fast you may not have even noticed they were there usually they will take place at the very end of a talk that's where you'll find him just the same way as you do right now 7 it's just the very last thing he does those last two verses we talked a little bit about ago about gathering those and I was going to do it for you and then it was right when desi was diagnosed but our cute friend Paula actually sat down and went through and listed all the promises and the invitations and the blessings from conference that we will post in this lesson also but you love the one that let's leave it you can have that one but Paula said like I wanted to do it just for myself yes and instead of looking at it you might want to like you might want to glance at it to get kind of an idea of what you're looking for but there might be worth going through the talks and finding them for yourself yeah we you'll remember the one President Nelson gave at the very end of conference when he said I would like to confer upon you an apostolic blessing I bless you with peace and increasing faith in the Lord I bless you with a desire to repent and become a little more like him each day I bless you to know that the Prophet Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness and I loved this part should there be illness among you or your loved ones I leave a blessing of healing consistent with the will of the Lord I so bless you adding once more my expression of love for each of you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ amen and I just love the power that you you might want to go back and just watch even his eyes as he gave that blessing but the power that comes when that happens and I've taken to going back through general conferences and marking those blessings and and claiming them for the six months until the next conference of when you write them down and you put them out where you can see him and then think this we were actually blessed with this in our homes we were blessed with this to happen elder Rasband has a really good blessing at the end of his talk but there are several in there I think elder Suarez does too we I've been using this book that I love that I'm just going to tell you about this desert book this time put the general conference addresses all together but with wide margin here so that you actually can go through and pull out those blessings the words that's what I'm doing the words of the blessings in the margins just so I can go back and say oh I remember I love this one this is what we were promised here but keeping track of them both here in the scriptures but then because we have modern prophets today who are still giving us those apostolic blessings those things that we can hold on to as a people just such a good pattern for us to be following yeah it's awesome yeah okay my friends thank you and we'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Don't Miss This

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

Id: 68mUaegIAnM

Length: 50min 29sec (3029 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020