Come Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants 71-75 (June 28-July 4) Don't Miss This

hi there i'm david butler i'm emily freeman welcome to don't miss this happy summer happy hot summer if you live in utah or another hot place and happy winter if you didn't if you don't yeah so in some other part of the land you guys this sex these sections that we're in right now you probably know this as as much as we do but we live a lot you know in this kind of instagram world you know because we've kind of put ourselves out there a little bit you know into youtube and instagram but man that place is the wild west sometimes you know and i don't know about you but i feel like maybe some of the meanest things that anyone's ever said to me have been over dms you know or like comments or something like that and man some of the fiercest arguments happen out in that space and these comment spaces and we really live in this um interesting place you know where there is a lot of disagreement um and opinions that you maybe wouldn't say to someone's face but you feel super comfortable saying behind a screen yeah and for good there is so much access to information right now and everybody's opinions and everybody's points of view so that should be celebrated but at the same time it's like oh now all of a sudden i have an overload of a lot of new ideas and a lot of opinions and a lot of points of view and and that is difficult to navigate sometimes and it's so interesting that it's so our day you feel it in the political culture you feel it in the religious culture um everything that we do tends to somehow be influenced by social media in one way or another a lot of the conversations that we have and one of the things i loved most about this lesson as we were getting into it is realizing the same thing was true back then but through newspapers right and that is going to be that fight that is taking place with words that is gonna bring up a lot of upheaval within the church and and this is probably the first place where we really see it start happening that words on paper or words on a screen can be a downfall to someone and to someone's fate yeah um just the same as you know words like printed in the book of mormon could also be a means of strengthening faith and it makes you really think about the power of the written word and your words and your opinions and bandwagons and all of these things and how do you navigate that and that was one of my favorite parts of this lesson was seeing okay let's watch how they navigated it then because what would it teach us now about our own time and even though we're going to be talking about ezra and joseph and sydney i just kept finding myself in this story and thinking okay what could i learn that would help me today yeah particularly as somebody who's like lives in a world of sometimes my faith is fragile and sometimes yours is and how do i and sometimes there are people who are well-meaning and and and just are you know clunky with their words and other times there are people who are legitimate enemies to you like trying to you know trying to fight and trying to and as a disciple of christ i want to approach all of these situations as as a disciple that's why who i signed up to want to be that's who i'm i i trust jesus's approach and it's great to see it happening yeah and how to navigate it right because we're given within these sections how to navigate a space like that and i love that even though it happened hundreds of years ago it's so applicable to us right now so we met um back when we were going out to missouri a man whose name is ezra booth we've talked about him before remember he's the gentleman who saw the the gentleman he saw um the miracle happened elsa's arm was healed um was really disappointed as he went out as a missionary because he kind of thought he could call down fire from heaven and consume people who weren't listening and and just a little bit disappointed that becomes super disenchanted with joseph smith um personality wise and everything and he begins to print articles these actually kind of become officially i guess the first anti-church anti-mormon anti-joseph articles and uh by the time you get to section 71 he's printed seven i think he eventually prints nine of them but he printed about seven by the time you get to this section and i love how joseph describes those letters he says those letters were vain calculations to overthrow the work of the lord which is so interesting that um just the thought of when you're looking at what is being written how many times is it something that is calculated to overthrow what the good that is actually taking place which is such an interesting word because we are coming off of a you know a sunday school lesson where people were talking about you know the dangers of pornography and how many people you know fall victim to it and actually a lot of people that you talk to feel really bad that they have fallen victim and as a bishop and now as a friend or a neighbor anytime there's somebody who has fallen into that i want to say like oh do you know it was calculated for you to fall into that like a lot of money and a lot of research was done you know to try and trick you into falling you know into that like it was so really really really smart people so don't feel bad that you got tricked let's now talk about you know the solution and maybe how to prevent it and you know for other people but that's an interesting word that it was like oh this was like they're written in a way to try and undermine people's faith and it's not an honest approach and sometimes it is right sometimes people have a really honest question for him was calculated and and like you're saying there are we know there will be men in the last days you think about that one scripture i wish i would have thought about it now 89 yeah where they they have calculated evil and despising something like that yeah we've been warned that really is gonna happen and we should be aware that that will be part of the conversations and the culture of our time and i love that this is going to give us an answer for that yeah and and i just think that by the same i can't remember why but i i thought to myself it's like if i am a i'm a god-believing person i believe in miracles and i believe in his presence and his influence in the world and i was like oh i guess it's also important to acknowledge and i also believe in an opposing force i believe in the devil i believe in someone who's trying to undermine that's so you know all of this also like it's it's actual like his existence is you know in actuality so section 71 really is the lord actually pushing a pause button on the work that joseph and sydney are doing they are kind of just merrily going about the joseph smith translation of the bible that's kind of their main effort and work in section 71 you'll see that he pushes pause and he says okay that is so important yeah you're gonna come back to that while you're pushing pause hold you can keep talking oh okay um for one second i was like did we push record we did everyone well you know that because you're watching this so um yeah let's say what they were doing yeah that joseph smith translation work right so they're going through um right now they're in the new testament and they're moving through the new testament and they're asking questions and and actually one of the sections one of the chapters that's in this little block that we're in is is one of those where they like hey i have a question about this that paul actually says to the corinthians and so they're moving through that work and uh it is providing so many catalysts for new answers and new revelations and and new truths yeah it's an important work that is where they should be putting their time right yeah i was gonna say next week we've got one of the most glorious and like fantastic revelations that happens in the doctrine covenants and that comes because they're so heavily in the bible right now working through it and thinking and asking and talking but he says okay pause for just a second and this is what i want you to do and it's to address ezra booth and simon's rider and the attacks that they have been making we were talking about this earlier and it's interesting that you're going to think as you read this that the lord is really interested in them talking directly to ezra booth and simon's writer but maybe zoom out a little bit and think the lord's also very concerned about everybody who's reading those papers within the faith those who are curious about the faith that there are a lot of people that the lord's trying to address in this particular and i love when we get in section 71 and you're going to want to watch dates in these next few sections this would be december 1st of 1831 and he says to them in verse 2 stop what you're doing for a minute because i need you to go proclaim unto the world in the regions round about and in the church also for the space of a season he tells them even until it shall be made known unto you verily this is a mission for a season which i give unto you and he's going to tell them they are going to go out and they're going to answer these questions and they're going to talk about what's happening in from these papers from these letters that are being written and one of the first things i love is just that it is going to be that little season but the second thing that i love that we find in 71 is he says um to joseph in verse 8 let them bring forth their strong reasons against the lord and i love that i love that that he's like it's okay for people to come and question what is going on here um let them bring those reasons because what people are going to realize is there's no weapon formed against this work that will prosper and sometimes the only way to realize that is to watch this struggle back and forth of what is happening yeah we have shared this before but this is a quote we love so much um that somebody actually wrote it about c.s lewis about the work that he did in defending christianity because some people might wonder oh is that is that a contradiction you know like for someone to defend so fiercely christianity and he says this his response back was though argument does not create conviction the lack of it destroys belief what seems to be proved may not be embraced but what nobody has the ability to defend is quickly abandoned so then this line rational argument does not create belief so to have somebody present their strong reasons and then to give very very rational arguments back to it that is not gonna force some that's not gonna create belief but i love this length it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish that if somebody can defend you know and has some sort of answer back to a question it won't create belief but it does create a tension place where faith can actually flourish yeah and grow and so it's kind of like the situation that the lord is setting up here but what we love and what we've left blanks for on the paper here is sort of like uh i guess what you call this the principles of approach to something yeah and i love that especially as you look at these things because we're each gonna have moments where we are called upon to defend um truth at different times in our life and as we were going through this lesson we were like well how do you know when it is appropriate and how it's appropriate to defend truth like what does that look like to defend faith and would we learn anything from joseph and sydney's approach to this little season to going out and saying okay here's all these words against us these strong reasons against us and how would we actually enter into a conversation like that and maybe you've wondered that yourself how do you enter into that kind of conversation yeah so here's just a list over here on that you find from the section right and as as you look through it the first one that we have in there is that they were actually called by the lord to do this and i think that would be really interesting i think this is going to kind of spill into that spirit one but maybe not too much that he actually sends them commissions them to go do this in a public setting and and i think that would be important because there would be sometimes when the lord would say like oh no that is not your mission for this season right now and other times he might say when it is this one seems to be super official but i don't think it leaves out unofficial you know callings from the lord to defend the faith but i just think you would maybe look to him as the you know as the you know when he says pull the trigger i guess pull the trigger yeah and i think there will be times in our life when we feel called to enter that conversation and there might be times when we are constrained where the lord is like this is not the hill you want to die on right now you know and let's let's just uh be patient with this and particularly sometimes even with your own kids right there will be times when you are called upon and there will be times when you feel constrained to wait for a time and it's so important to let the lord be the one who's like okay stop what you're doing and you're gonna do this for a season and i love that they were in the middle of a great work that they were passionate about that that's where their focus was their focus actually wasn't on the seven letters right they were they hadn't joined this bandwagon they weren't like focused on what was happening they were building the kingdom and the lord came to them in their building and said hey could you push pause on that for a minute and for a little season come over here but you're not going to do this forever and then you're going to go back to that great work that you're working on yeah and it's almost as if he gives a hint for you might not see any benefit that comes from this because in verse 10 he'll say if any man lift up his voice against you he shall be confounded in mine own due time like eventually that argument against you or me is is not going to stand so you know no weapon will prosper against you but we do think it's significant that it's like oh the lord says i want you to go do this if you look in verse 1 he kind of says and here's what i would focus on as i talked about this it could easily become um a a slandering of personality when somebody disagrees about something that so quickly goes into just someone's character and it can easily move to be like um just nasty really really quickly and to and too many reasons back and forth and i love the inverse one he's like let me show you the way um for this to be productive for this to actually help the situation so we've got some of these things where he says um open your mouth to in proclaiming my gospel and remember that word gospel is a word that means encouragement and it means hope and it means good news right we're not trying to be right we're trying to like encourage people like if somebody believes something that's anti-gospel that must be oh you're believing something that's anti-hopeful and anti-love so like i want to preach the gospel to you he says the things of the kingdom right um both the current miracles and things that you're experiencing here and the things that you can't anticipate in the future um teach them the mysteries out of the scriptures you would replace that word mysteries with revelations with the truths um with the the stories whatever from the scriptures um find your sourcing there we were talking earlier about you know even if the scriptures were not inspired we think they were but if they were not you have generations of wisdom literature there of people living out their whole lives a lot of time on your hands to look back and and just but he says i want you to be grounded in the scriptures and i think that part so important because so often when we we see something brewing right somebody stirs up a conversation and then people are gonna jump in and and you're gonna hear all these strong reasons going on and we're gonna hear things that are cultural and we're gonna hear things that are opinions and and everybody's gonna weigh in with these reasons and i just want you to think about the last time you saw a conversation like that brewing how many people entered in with scripture and were like hey should we just dive in here and see if we can find some answers here i think it's so interesting we'll say the fourth one and then i'll say what i think is interesting oh and maybe the most important of all it says according to that portion of the spirit and power which shall be given unto you even as i will and just that idea of according to the spirit according to the portion of the spirit that the lord gives you that you would always want to be like reflective and aware of where is the spirit kind of moving me in this particular conversation or whatever it may be what i love about that is as you think about these conversations um that might be heated or that that might be um we would see maybe on social media or in places like that i think sometimes we forget how individual the lord is and how individual his message is and sometimes we try and create a mold for the masses which just usually isn't his way his way is so individual and i love that when he says to us if you just look to the gospel and the kingdom and my scriptures and the spirit then that's going to individualize this topic for you and for the people who are in your circle of influence when you were talking about that lesson on pornography just barely and i had so many people reach out to me and say how would you teach this like what would you do and so many people and i thought to myself i could never create a template for every person because you don't know who's going to walk in the door of that classroom you know you don't know someone who's struggling possibly with an addiction as opposed to someone who might be questioning their own self-image as opposed to somebody whose family has been torn apart um by something that maybe was touched by pornography or um abuse that happens like every person who walks in that door is gonna have a different story and there just is not gonna be a template lesson for those five kids who happen to walk in that door and i love that what the lord says is the template is actually the scriptures all of them so go in there and you pray about those five kids who are gonna walk in and then you turn to the word and the spirit is going to tell you the lesson that is going to be right for your kids and that is one thing i do love about the church curriculum is it is simple enough sometimes we might feel like it's almost too simple when we get in there to try and teach we want to be given an exact what should happen here and i love that the lord is like no because my gospel is individual to the people who are going to walk into that classroom and also i've learned individual to the teacher who's going to teach that lesson you've had certain experiences you have a certain testimony for that block of scriptures you're going to be teaching and the lord knew that about you when he called you to that calling and he knew what you would bring to the table he knew the testimony you would enter in when with just like he knows the story of those five kids who walked in that door and i i wish we trusted that more i wish we could be like yeah i'm gonna take the gospel and the kingdom and the scriptures and the spirit and that's all i need to enter this conversation and i'm going to trust the spirit knows more about my circle of influence than anyone on any social media platform or anywhere that might try and enter into the conversation yeah so there are times for sure there are times to be uh passive and to pull back and to be peacemaker or whatever whatever words you want to use but the lord is also saying oh there's also a time when you can't leave some of these things alone and you need to engage um with them for the sake of the people who are writing them and for the sake of the people who are hearing them for your sake because of what you will learn as you engage in that conversation um but he uses a word in this section um in verse seven where he says wherefore confound your enemies and call upon them to meet and it's like oh that is actually kind of a i mean i use that word to be funny but sometimes but that's could be a kind of a harsh word for the lord to say like these people are your enemies and maybe they are maybe they are whatever the definition in your mind of enemy is that these are people who are legitimately trying to undermine and attack and harm um joseph and sydney and and the members of the of the church at that time right like ezra right he would have been an enemy and sometimes it's just people who honestly have a question or sometimes it's people who are trying to enter the conversation to help so an enemy might not always be an enemy but in this case it was now even though he is even though he's a hater and he's trying to like really like turn everything upside down i think it's really important to remember what jesus said about our enemies that we will have you will definitely have enemies and and his counsel to his disciples on the sermon on the mount is just one we want to keep going back to um he says this i say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you um and then he talks about the sun rises on the good as well as the evil and the rain falls on the just and the unjust and i love that he's saying you know what god god loves everyone and he sees where everyone's coming from and he knew what ezra booth was going through and he had great hopes for ezra booth just the same as he had the great hopes for joseph and for everyone else there and i love that he's like could you just pray for them and bless them and try and work with them and i love i think of that when he says let them bring their strong reasons like let's let's see what we could do in this arena that might be for good and that is such a good thing because sometimes you'll see some of these conversations happening just like they saw those seven letters and we feel like defending means entering in with unkind words right or with we we feel that like rising up in us that we're like no and i'm gonna go in and this and i love his counsel is first of all the gospel the kingdom the scriptures the spirit but second of all and you're praying for them and we want to bless them right and that that's how we enter into these conversations it's not um aggressive when we enter in that wouldn't be the lord's way yeah and that fill the blank we have that we pulled from section 72 72 is kind of instructions for a new bishop that's called but um he uses that word we see in the doctrine covenant so much about stewardship like i have this kind of responsibility or these people to look after or whatever and he just gives that counsel to new okay whitney that i think could be to all of us races just be really wise stewards over the things that you have you know um particularly if you have a stewardship over people because people are complicated and people are you know fragile and you don't know their motives and their and you don't know their future and you actually don't know their past and you really don't know they're present either and so um just be really really wise in in the whole situation and what's great is um as they kind of move on you get into section 73 and actually yeah because is that where you're going to go to the seasons yeah where you just yeah where he just ends it you know in that section 73. if you look at the date here it's january 10th so a month later and the lord says unto them okay it's now actually expedient um that you should translate again um so you go back to translating and what's interesting is there's a group of missionaries there who are just like and what should we do until the next conference that's going to be held and he's just like oh um i have some instruction for you on that i just want you to preach in the meantime until i give you more instructions i just want you to preach and it seems as if this this advice is not only fitting for times when you are confounding enemies or those who are fighting against you but also really good for encouragement and for hope and for all situations that you are going to be in and one of the things that i love is what's happened because of these letters because of these questions and joseph and sydney going out there is there is this fertile ground right now actually for preaching to take place um i love in this making sense of the doctrine and covenants he just talks about for nearly six weeks joseph and sydney continued to preach setting forth the truth and vindicating the cause of our redeemer and then showing that the kingdom was going to come and then we loved these three words that he said that prejudice blindness and darkness filled the minds of many and caused them to persecute the true church and reject the true light and we loved the thought of that that there are going to be seasons that are filled with prejudice and blindness and darkness we're we're gonna find ourselves in seasons where the conversation is filled with that that is missing light and he says um since ezra booth many others have welded weapons against the restored gospel the lord's policy as stated in doctrine and covenant 71 is to let them bring forth their strong reasons against the lord such opposition facilitates agency and fulfills prophecy and then we love this line so much it causes people to consciously choose whether or not to believe and that's kind of the ground that they were working with is this moment of time where there was these conversations taking place that became this moment of choice for so many people and then i love that the lord's like all of you now go out and preach and we want to talk for a little bit about what what was his advice on how to preach in a time like that in a season like that yeah and that word is um i love that word preach you know it has like uh there's it's a little bit different than teach at least in my mind you know when i see those words like teachers like okay let me explain it to you really like logically and whenever somebody uses the word preach like i want to say like oh now you're stirring me up emotionally right you're like helping me see and feel kind of the importance you know of this and another phrase that it reminds us of is is that one from um our baptismal covenants i was talking with a friend just this week and and she is about to enter into covenant relationship with uh the lord and she's just like i just am curious um about this line in mosiah 18 what does it mean to stand as a witness of god at all times and in all things and in all places um that might be a synonym too what's it mean to preach stir people up you know um to god you know and uh this kind of is a list i think of what that might look like and it'll look differently for me and you and anybody and at different times yeah whatever times and seasons you're obviously not going to do all 12 or however many of these we have on this list at the same time but there might be one that you're like oh in this moment this right now so we just want to kind of go through these because they they're just some awesome things most of them are in section 75. this is that conference they just held the conference and now he's sending out missionaries again they all came home for the conference and now it's time to go back out again don't you like that it just doesn't end um and he just says okay it's time to go back out um this verse two the first one where he says listen all of you who have given your names to go forth to proclaim my gospel i love that it is to anybody who has signed up and given their name over history and you love in the footnote it's the word initiative oh yeah that doesn't love that yes yeah yeah or it's like okay any of you who would like to be involved who've kind of taken initiative this is advice for you if you're on the fence right now or on the sidelines that's okay um when you want to give your name over to this um then then this would be really really great advice for you but for those who do i think it's it's nice to say like hey just take some initiative because don't wait you know the lord said that so many times for me to tell you what to do that next verse in verse four proclaim lift up your voice with the sound of a trump again i think like whenever i think of trumpets they're like swelling you know and he's just like i just don't just say the facts you know like show people why this matters and where there's like heart and soul in the whole thing um four is awesome um where he just says um what did i say oh do you know what i read to you section it also and this one says trumps but that's why i was like but it's in this i mixed them up everybody yes the threes three in a row are so awesome together so there's that lift up your voice and then there's labor with your might and then there is this proclaim which also makes you think of that trumpet proclaimed truth right that this that's kind of what your everyday is gonna look like yeah um i did love for the first time i read verse three like that word stood out to me when it says with your might and i just thought about that you know it's like not her might or his might but like the amount that you have right like you like you just labor with your might from your circumstances in your situations that's so good i love in six and seven where he's like okay i'm actually there were some who had been called on a mission who were not doing very well and he's like i'm gonna actually revoke that call from you and i'm going to give you a new call and now you're going to go and do this which there's so many lessons right there you love because i love that just because maybe you didn't do your best job the first time he's not like well you showed you you know you can't be used i love that he's like here okay this one did not work here let's do this one now for you but i also love that thought about being adaptable that sometimes you're gonna be called one place and then he's gonna be like i'm actually you're gonna go here now and sometimes preaching and being willing to enter into those conversations requires us to be adaptable yeah that one that i skipped over in section 73. um i'm when i wrote the wrong thing on there i actually do want to mention that one because i love that it says this um uh i just lost it oh verse 4 section 73 we just snuck this guy in there in as much as it is practicable to preach in the reasons that just has such fantastic advice right you are not under the gun okay like this is god's work it's gonna be finished you don't have to feel like anxiety but i got to do it this way really quickly and by just saying yeah and he's just like if it's practicable you should go out and would you love that word anyways just practicable who even says that jesus um so i'm gonna start using it from now on yeah you love that thought about that practicable and adaptable yeah just he's like let's just make this work according to you know your might and your circumstance and your people in fact this whole chapter is filled with him saying if this works for your family go now if it doesn't work for your family now go in a minute that he's just like um taking everything into consideration and i loved that part of it um he talked about in verse 7 and verse 10 just things that are familiar to us don't murmur he tells them um go out and do the work and don't murmur just be so excited about the work and ask for the spirit i love that one that when we preach anytime we're entering in to that that we just pray for the spirit to be with us even if it's just right in the second before we open our mouth there is such power in that which because of its simplicity can be so difficult to remember to do that it's almost like default it's almost assumed you know you're just like the lord knows that i need the spirit and it's interesting that he says no i actually want you to knock and i want you to ask and i want you to call upon and petition for the power of the spirit i teach 100 000 lessons a day and it is amazing how it's so easy when you keep doing it and doing it and doing it that you'll forget like how meaningful and i'm not just saying this is legitimately meaningful to just for me to step away into my office before class and just call upon the lord for for the spirit it's a you know new group of people new situation and new stories yeah yeah it's so important but so simple um i don't know why we put 24 in order right here but it's just right here so everybody we're just going to it um this is he says um it's the duty of the church to actually assist in supporting the families of those and also to support the family of those who are called and need to be sent to the world to proclaim the gospel and it's i think it's just kind of neat it's like there are some who'll be called out sent forth to to preach and the families are going to support them but we're asking some of the other families to support the families while they are gone and it just kind of gives this idea of like everybody is just all a part of this no matter what you know their particular contribution may be they're all just gonna be a part of this work i had this uh friend tell me the story once that when they lowered the age of missionaries a couple of years ago to go into the ntc how many years ago was that i don't know but is it now a lot of years ago okay well when that happened um there was a surge of missionaries going into the mtc which hopefully we get another surge of missionaries going to the mtc pretty quick here um but a whole bunch of them going and so when the missionaries go in they have to make adjustments on all of their clothes you know change the hemlines for the girls and whatever that's happened so that little sewing shop that's in the mtc got overly busy and they were running out of fabric like additional fabric to kind of use and to mend and and everything like that so someone who was there who worked in that spot in the mtc um would go out to garage sales and try and find extra fabrics so they went to this particular um garage sale and there was a whole like some i don't know what do you call it spools of fabric is that right no but but everyone knows you know those big things of fabric or whatever's sitting there and she asked like how much they're both oh okay bolts oh my goodness why are they stealing home depot stuff at the home depot work okay so the bolts of fabric are there and she was just asking oh how much are these and they were kind of in conversation i'd like to take him to the mtc for the missionaries and the person at the garage sale said oh just come back at the very end and anything that's left over you can just take it you know you can just have it and um soon after this couple kind of like had overheard and and walked up um and they just said hey we would like to actually buy that fabric and at first the lady was like like right out from under my nose you're pumped this is for the missionary um and they actually um just wanted to contribute they wanted to be a part of what was happening and this and this great cause and you know and and so they asked can we just instead of you giving it away can we buy it from you and then we're actually going to give all to you know that lady to take to the mtc anyways and if i remember right the couple was um not even members of our particular faith they just wanted to be a part of something they knew in this valley that was like really exciting and and i just think that's really cool that you have the the ones that um have their plaques on the wall sometimes and then you have everything else that's happening you know to support what is happening there and it's just it's cool for everybody to all feel like they have a part to play and are supporting the cause that's so awesome in 75 11 it talks about praying always and then in um also in 11 and you'll see in 13 and in 14 it says and as much as they do this in verse 11 i will be with them even to the end and then in 13 the very end it says i will be with them even to the end and then you see it again in 14 and lo i am with them also even unto the end and i just love that we can expect him as we're in that moment of preaching and we should that he he's gonna be part of that i don't think there's anything he loves more than that than preaching the word and anywhere where that's happening we could expect him to show up there yeah yeah and i love when he talks about um here's where i want you to go he tells them house to house and village to village and city to city like there's no limits on where we can preach and it gives you that vibe of and we're not going to leave anybody else you know anybody out so just start house to house and then when you've done all the houses there move on to the next village and then move on to the cities and and it's just kind of cool that he's just like don't skip anybody go place to place to place because we don't want anybody to get left out it makes you really have to think about that when we are going from place to place i had such an interesting experience with that and the one that is right below it in verse 19 he says this and whatsoever how she enter and they receive you leave your blessing upon that house and i'll never forget having an experience i might have shared it with you before but it was life-changing for me we were at that um dump in tijuana that we've told you about before where we go down and we work with a little church that's down there and one of the times that i was there i actually was with my next-door neighbor and his some of his family and we had the opportunity after feeding breakfast to everyone to go up and just walk through those dirt roads and meet some of the families and drop off some things in their homes and we got clear up to the very edge of this community that had been built up upon this dump and they're just these little houses we've told you about them before they're just built from the materials that are in the dump so they're built out of old garage doors or pampers boxes or big tarps or whatever people have just made these little places that they live in and we happened to go up to this one home and this woman came out she had three kids she was a single mom she lived right on the edge of the dump and she came out to talk with us and we gave her this little basket of goodies and she talked about her life and what her life was like and she said my kids are just getting older at night and we had asked her she believed in god and she said i pray all night long that my family will be safe and protected and she said you know just on the other side of the dirt road i mean 10 feet away from where we're standing this is where the drug deals happen in my community and i hear them taking place all night long right outside the doors of my house and it's my job to protect these kids and she was tying a big group of this and i was standing next door to my neighbor as i sat there i just thought i wish there was some way we could give her greater protection in that moment and as i thought about it i just leaned over to my neighbor and i said to him is it appropriate would it be appropriate to dedicate her house like is that something you would feel comfortable using the priesthood for in this situation and he thought about it for a minute and then he said i don't see why not and so he started speaking to her in spanish and he described how we do that in our faith how we will dedicate a home and and say a prayer over that home and he said to her would you allow me to do that for your home and just tears came down her cheeks and she walked him in and we all gathered behind and the home was not big enough for us to fit in so we stood out on her little porch and she and my neighbor walked inside that room with her three kids and he knelt down in the middle of that little tiny room that room that was their kitchen and their bedroom and their family room and everything in one room and knelt down and dedicated that home and then we left and as we walked down the street he said to me we may be the only latter-day saints that woman meets her entire life and i am so grateful i have the opportunity to share the priesthood with her and the blessings of the priesthood with her because that may never happen again in her lifetime and what a sweet experience that was and how important it is for us to realize when we go to different cities in different villages and different houses to remember we can still preach while we're there and we can leave blessings of what we have and what we know and how beautiful it is when we do that yeah oh don't you love that thought of like every time you leave a place just like did i leave my blessing you know here is that gonna is that going to linger behind and i don't know you hear that story you're kind of like oh that's gospel that's kingdom that's spirit you know that's what that's what that is that's the that's the intention um to an enemy to a friend whatever it may be that's what god wants to enter their homes in in into their lives and and i love that thought of in every conversation even with an ezra booth did i believe a blessing there that's so good he tells them right after a spot recess and you'll be rejected a lot but be filled with joy and and gladness um you can find that joy and gladness even in the rejecting that happens and and maybe the next verse is helpful he says gird up your loins and be faithful you will overcome all things and be lifted up that to me every time i read that phrase it's a call from him it just says oh don't give up you're gonna be so frustrated sometimes and you're gonna do the wrong thing a lot of times and and you're gonna just you know lose your temper and you're gonna i'm gonna have to correct you and and all he's like just you know gird up your loins for the long haul and don't give up you know on this um you're you overcome and be lifted up on the last day and then there's that very last one that we have that he says hey remember that you have an obligation to provide for your own family that kind of comes back to that practicable thing you know or sometimes he's just like hey uh sometimes under the banner of you know doing the work of god will neglect some things and it's like oh let's make sure that we provide you know for those stewardships that that we have and i love that thought that the greatest preaching you will ever do will be in the walls of your own home no matter where else you are ever asked to preach in the world i know um for me the greatest sermons that have ever been taught the best preaching moments of my entire life a majority of them happened at the kitchen counter that those are some of the sweetest sweetest moments we have had and to remember that those probably are your most important grounds to preach on it's just right within the walls of your home just under your roof i had a friend i taught seminary with and he said to me one time he was just like oh sometimes i put so much effort in to these seminary lessons that i don't i'm too tired for anything left at home and he's like i gotta switch that and i gotta make sure that i am leaving a lot in the tank you know give my best efforts my best lessons you know to those you know that are there and i think it's important to remember just as you say that that probably some of the best lessons are not 40 minute discourses some of our best everybody knows that just in case some of our best preaching is going to take place in three minutes and just be watching for those three minutes the same way you're watching for the houses and the villages and the cities we should be watching for the seasons in a day where we can just stop for a minute and just i want to use the word preach but now that i'm talking about it as a parent to a child you know people hate that word i feel like you're preaching to me um but i liked that thought when you talked about just stirring up um goodness in your conversation and are we allowing for those moments to take place just all through the day yeah be adaptable be practicable you can't do all of these things but really all of this whether you are preaching teaching whether you are approaching those who are fighting against you what's common in all of these is is you are engaged with conversation with another person right and so if this feels a little bit overwhelming or i just you know don't know what to do or whatever it's like oh it is worth the effort it's worth doing it clunkly because it's other people and the experiences that you'll have you know with other people i just keep thinking of that lord's promise when he says where two or three are gathered together in my name you know there i will be also and maybe it's just asking that simple question that we talked about how will i leave a blessing here and and also back to that beginning part um did i leave light there and maybe you might be in a conversation one-on-one or maybe you're writing a comment on a post or or somewhere and just ask yourself that question will this leave a blessing and is it bringing light wouldn't that be a great way to judge how you're entering into those conversations so so many good things right here that are just so applicable to right now yeah a good lesson okay see you next week

Channel: Don't Miss This

Views: 103,562

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Keywords: come follow me lds, come follow me insights, come follow me don’t miss this, don’t miss this, emily belle freeman, david butler, don’t miss this doctrine and covenants, doctrine and covenants, come follow me doctrine and covenants, latter day saints, lds, church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, jesus, come follow me, sunday school, bible study, LDS, family home evening, sunday school study, dmtft, don’t miss this field trips, D&C, d&c, preach, 71-75, leave a blessing there

Id: faz32o5BR9o

Length: 48min 52sec (2932 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 21 2021