Come Follow Me Helaman 13-16 (Aug. 31-Sep. 6)

hi everybody i'm david butler i'm emily freeman welcome to don't miss this another exciting episode in the book of helaman uh i think they get better and better the introductions but this one's this one's kind of crazy it really is like um a pull on your heartstrings kind of section from the book of mormon especially for those of you who will picture like names and faces of of people that you care really deeply about that you feel like have lost their faith or even are like antagonistic towards faith so this section of the book of more i mean it's so easy to say things like oh in the last days like people are going to fall away just as a sign of the time but like now when you think about you know who they particularly are and it's i think really neat in this section to see a reclaiming god one uh what is what does he do what does he continually do um for people as they are are even antagonistic not just struggling but down right yeah and in every step of the process too yeah yeah we watch him all along the way and it's neat to consider a little bit in these chapters what is it that's making people antagonistic this one and next one also leading up to the coming of christ you just get a really intense faith scene like very very snapshot of so many emotions right yeah yeah and it's almost like man like we i know we've talked about divisions before but this one really seems to be although i think it would be really um i think we ought to be really careful to see like there will be people in the crowd with samuel delaney night um while people are shooting arrows and whenever you see the picture you're like bad guy good guy you know like but there's people in the crowd you find out whose hearts are being changed and i think i don't think it's like we always want to like um not categorize someone as bad guy or our good guy because everybody's gray right everybody's on the journey right somewhere in there anyways a really neat chapter particularly for those of you who are this time and next time thinking about this reclaiming this reaching this rescuing this never-giving upping if that's a word um god that you find and what role do we play as friends as family members in that process yeah and we'll watch it both this time and next time and it'll be interesting as you're reading this week's reading and then next week's reading you want to be watching for all of those people you want to be watching for the person on top of the wall you want to be watching in that crowd because we're going to see the people who are on the side of contention and division and we're going to see the people on the side of just trying to hold on to what remains during that time and to the faithful and to keep as many faithful as they can and as you read through we think alma was the great war chapters but it's so interesting because helaman for me and and going into third nephi is one of the greatest spiritual battles for souls that we see anywhere in scripture i think yeah that's so powerful and i was thinking about this friend of ours today that was just talking about um just a struggle that they're dealing with with their own daughter and he just said man i have helped so many people throughout struggles in their life but when it became someone in my own home like it it got real and i felt a little blindsided to it and i felt a little like panicked at what do i do next and i really think these chapters are a great help for those in a in a faith journey and and maybe seemingly slipping you know in that place yeah it's so good so it's 13 through 16 13 through 16. it's fun because it's it's kind of like categorized for you in the book of mormon as the here's samuel the lamanite who is sent as you know as somebody who um as a messenger for god to to reach out it's funny how they i may or may not get into this but how the people debate among themselves what makes good profits and what makes bad profits but it's interesting to me that how much of the character of god that samuel the lame knight shows you know especially when he comes in he's rejected by people and then he's like well then i'll try the wall and he climbs up on the wall and and then he goes that way and it's just neat to see um a reflection of god's heart in in samuel's persistence and samuel thinking outside the box and samuel not giving up on the people of of the city yep and we'll talk about that reflection of god um as we go through this lesson because we're gonna watch god's attributes through this and that reflection of his heart as we walk through this whole process we want to start right in chapter 13 verse 1 is where we're going to begin so it says and now it came to pass in the 8th and 6th year the nephites did still remain in wickedness yea in great wickedness while the lamanites did observe strictly to keep the commandments of god according to the law of moses and um there's a couple things we're going to be watching through these chapters one thing that you'll want to keep an eye on is the groups in the crowd we talked about that and watching this division in contention and and then the faithful another thing that we're going to watch is the lamanites and the nephites all the way through these chapters and it's interesting because do you remember clear back in alma when we talked about ammon and the anti-nephi lehi's and they put their swords into the ground they buried their swords and then there's that one scripture that we loved so much that said and they never did fall away um this that they're gonna be in this group that we're talking about these um lamanites who just stay true until the very end they're just gonna hold firm and um so we're watching at this point in the book of mormon the nephites are not just in wickedness but in great wickedness it tells us and i think it's interesting that word remain because we're going to talk a little bit about repentance and i as i was studying it again i was thinking to myself that's the problem is that they're insistent on remaining in wickedness wickedness is not so much a problem because we're all going to stumble into it or jump into it sometimes the problem is when we decide to remain in it rather than repenting or removing ourselves out of that place so it's interesting that word remain in comparison with repentance so we're going to look at later yep and we are all of those are the things we kind of wanted to start in that place today but before we jump into that we're going to talk about repentance and obedience a little bit and and that um remaining there sometimes when we were read a word like strict obedience right off the bat we hate it yeah it can ruffle some feathers and i had an opportunity um to be with a large group of women probably was it a year ago was that true now you can't even remember dates i think it was last september and um we had the opportunity just to be together and do a lot of learning together over a two-day period and in one of the classes that we were in we were kind of talking about these things and one of the ladies in the room raised her hand and said i have such a hard time with um obedience and when we're talking about strict obedience or exact obedience because sometimes it sends us into a perfectionist mentality and we we start wanting to make checklists and we're measuring everything up and we're not just measuring ourselves up but we're measuring everyone up against this what we think exact obedience looks like yeah and well that just word strict like all the kids started school again today and they're going to come home and they're going to say like oh i got the strict teacher yeah you know yes and it's like you don't want a strict teacher or like a strict police officer but like what if you had a strict doctor like you would like really want you know that so it kind of is like the context what is exact obedience and as i sat there and thought about it i thought you know what this is something i have been thinking about for a lot of years in fact let me tell you how many years because many years ago elder christopherson gave a talk in conference it was in april 2009. so that's been like a decade is that true i'm like is that true you couldn't even remember last summer so how do we know we've been thinking about this and it's this quote which might feel familiar to some of you it this was my standout quote from that conference in 2009 it said in times of distress let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact then you can ask in faith nothing wavering according to your need and god will answer he will sustain you as you work and watch and in his own time and in his own way he will stretch forth his hand to you saying here am i well it was a year for us where where i was praying for some things that we were in desperate need of and my first inclination was to think okay my obedience has to be exact which went to a checklist for me really really fast i started thinking about everything that i had to do it it was so much pressure so quickly um on me and then i started thinking about and maybe i don't know if i'm getting ahead of you here because maybe we get into that place because we think that his involvement or his miracle depends on our exactly right yes that's i think what gives the pressure that is what gives the pressure for sure i'm so glad you explained that and so i started thinking about that because i thought i don't it didn't feel right to my spirit that that would be true because that made god a scorekeeper all of a sudden or a vending machine right if i put this many obedience quarters in right i get what i and that didn't make sense so i started thinking about it and i started thinking well who do i know that has ever been exactly obedient and it was so interesting because two people came to mind me and one was you one was actually surprised me when it came to mine because it was the pharisees they were exactly obedient exactly when we read through they had the checklist they did all the things they they knew how many steps they could take they knew all the rules they knew all the laws they were exactly obedient and their exact obedience actually let them to not see the miracle that's what happened in their life they didn't they didn't see the outcome of faith their exact obedience is actually what prevented it from happening yeah that right and then the other person would obviously be jesus right if we were going to look at someone who was exactly obedient it would be jesus but then i had to go back and start looking at the new testament to try and understand well then what did that mean because he was not exactly obedient to the checklist that the pharisees were keeping he healed people on the sabbath they kept calling him out for these cultural rules that he was breaking and yet miracles were following him and so then i had to start saying to myself okay what is exact obedience then and as i started watching the savior i thought what what he was obedient to is what the father asked and to the spirit that was what he was obedient to and that's how he measured his life and what he was going to do which required his heart to be turned to the father at all times that that's what had to happen obedience was him turning his heart to face the father and every time he did that then miracles came in his life and it's so interesting to think in my mind that everything on the checklist is actually meant to turn my heart to the father the things i would have thought i needed to do the vending machine it's it's not actually to get something it's to turn my heart to the father i go to the temple i read my scriptures i pray i go to church when we can i take the sacrament every week you know it's those that's what we maybe would label obedience in reality it's just turning our heart to the father and looking for his will and our life that comes through the scriptures that's where his voice comes right it comes through church it comes through listening to the prophets every time i turn one of those directions i hear the father and then i am obedient to that and all of a sudden when that was exact obedience when it just was turning to the father so he could walk me through life i do want to be really good at that relationship i want to be strict to that relationship with him and it's such a different way of looking at it that it's less of a set of rules and a checklist and score keeping and it's more of thinking every single day okay how am i entering into this relationship today that's strict obedience it's saying nothing will get in the way of my relationship with god i think that's what strict obedience looks like and if you compared it to any other kind of relationship that you have you would say like those ones that i really am intent on strengthening and i'm intent on like breathing life into you would like you would see it the the same way but we do it with small miracles and the great miracle of salvation where we're like if i do all of these things i will be saved if i do all of these things i will get the miracle that that i demand it's like those are one and the same you know with each other and when he starts talking about this idea of repentance we like thinking about they're on the study guide so what's the relationship between repentance and strict obedience and i think it's exactly what you were saying which is it's not rule keeping and it's not penance because sometimes we think of repentance as this penance idea well let me do my punishment so that i get what i want you know in the end but rather both of them we found this new verse um it's in that chapter 13 while samuel the lama knight's talking in verse 21 well maybe let's go through all of them yeah let's start even at the very top because um i love what he teaches us in verse six because it's so interesting how samuel starts and when are we gonna talk about that part that i love about samuel and his heart it's yeah it comes up um so in six um i love when the very first thing he says when he gets up on that wall is kind of like foreboding because he starts out and this is his first words nothing can save the people that's how he starts to the people which i think would make me so nervous like can you imagine someone standing up right now and being like nothing is gonna save you and then you're like really that's it and i love what he tells him the only thing that is is going to be repentance and faith on the lord jesus christ and then we want to think about that word repentance that we both of us were so drawn to there's nothing can save you you are in that dire of straits except for repentance and and not thinking about it as penance but thinking about it again as that um turning your heart right you're just turning your heart again back to christ because he's the savior so every time you turn back to him that's what's going to save you from this yeah because i i mean i think initially that phrase ought to make people feel uncomfortable where you're like the only thing that can save you is repentance like that ought to like make you jar make you think like wait we haven't finished that thought because he says it's repentance and faith on the lord jesus christ so there's something about it that is is meant to connect us to it yeah they cannot be independent yeah it's not just that turning again but it's actually the faith or putting that trust in or leaning on him right that's going to get you cannot be independent of him or it's not actual repentance they have to be connected look at some of these other verses that he uses to describe it eight he says because of the hardness of the hearts of the people of the nephites except they repent i will now here's the opposites i've repent if they don't repent i'll take away my word from them withdraw my spirit and i will suffer them no longer so if you took the opposites of those you would find a definition of repentance which is the opposite of taking away his word is i would hear his word again all right all right into his word i love that thought of like just enter in here right um i would withdraw my spirit would be to feel again or to live again right these are the these are the ways or in verse 11 that returning is um another word that we look at but one that we love in this chapter you've heard some of those things before is verse 21 where he says to the people of the great city hearken to my words hearken unto the words which the lord has said that's a that's interesting and we'll get into that in just a second he said you're cursed because of your riches also your riches curse because you've set your hearts upon them and we think a fantastic definition of repentance and strict obedience the two of those is just resetting your heart on him the problem is you've got your heart set on this or that and he says i want you to reset your heart and and now put it on the lord or in 22 where he says i i wish that your hearts were drawn out you know toward the lord the same way that they are right now to your your money and i it'd be fun if samuel had said he's going to talk about their riches are going to become really slippery right here and just to reassure them but god won't be yeah you know he's something you can set your heart on and draw out to and you will always find something there which is so good because it's often what we set our hearts on isn't sustainable long term we just don't know what's going to happen that's part of mortality um there's so many things that are uncertain or inconsistent but especially in 2020 i mean everything you're like and then we'll be doing this in august and then we're not and we'll do this in october and then we're not that you love that in this world of change even clear back in clear back here he's saying there is one thing that is constant that you can put your faith in and and just strictly count on um and and that is jesus christ which i love um i love that about him do we want to go back to that first part that we loved because the heart thing yes yeah there's a couple other things here we want to point out that that he says um yeah let's do the heart thing first or we're going to do this one no let's do that yeah um so it's so fun when he starts out as he's going to the wall um that morning or whenever it was and it says um he had come to preach and they cast him out and then in verse 3 it says he did return again and you love already you're just you're already seeing that not only do our hearts turn to god but you just watch god's heart returning over and over again to this people and um it says the lord tells him i want you to say whatever whatsoever things i should whatsoever things should come into your heart that's in verse three and in verse four it says he got up on the wall and he stretched forth his hand and cried with the loud voice and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the lord put into his heart and then he says behold i samuel elaine and i do speak the words of the lord which he doth put into my heart and as both of us were reading through these we were like why why did they put such an emphasis on that three times in a row in just those short verses why did they keep wanting us to realize that the words have been put on his heart and as i was reading i thought to myself it's so interesting because they are clearly helping us to know this is not samuel's agenda this is the lord's agenda he has come he has climbed up on that wall to say whatever the lord wanted to put in his heart and i love that that's how this conversation is going to go because samuel is the instrument but the conversation is the lord's yeah and i think it's really cool i just noticed for the first time that he doesn't say whatever i put into your mind because i i think you would almost hear the lord saying like this is not like about losing numbers of people or anything this is a heart issue for me like i feel deeply for these people like this needs to be emotional and passionate and it's so good it's neat he says a couple things we love this concept of angel dominoes that you'll see on your study guide where it just says in seven he says an angel of the lord declared the glad tidings to my soul and now i've come up on the wall i could declare the glad tidings unto you and you'll see in like the next chapter when people change um then they're going to go out also and so this the idea of the good news being passed on from person to person to person and how neat it is that all of us have that spiritual pedigree right that faith that where did who instilled the good news in me and i think it's interesting too as you think about that i love that in this time of turmoil and as samuel's gonna go um get up on a wall the arrows are gonna be shot at him and he will disappear after this moment and never return again um who's gonna describe that as a moment of great joy you know yeah when i read that i was like it's so interesting that he's like and then the angel was like you go to those people and bring them glad tidings and what's he gonna get for his glad tidings you know that um it's so interesting that that's how the angel has them enter in is you've you have good news you have glad tidings this is happy this being on the wall is happy and you think he was like no it's not um but i love too that um he he says to the people i mean it's just so like innocent and naive i came up here so you would have the happy things that angel told me about too i came to bring you glad tidings of great joy that's what i came and i i think it's so interesting this one line after that in verse seven but behold you would not receive me and it it makes me think to myself well there he is up there and he's like i have a gift and it's a gift that is going to make you smile it's a gift that is going to change your life it's it has all of the good things i could bring and a group of people who are like we don't i don't want that gift and just that choice of agency as you're going through and as we're watching those people in the crowd to realize some are going to grasp hold of that goodness and some are going to say i actually don't want that happiness i don't want that gift right yeah and i think it's because they think they're going to lose a treasure instead of getting a new one yes you know he's like i'm not taking away what your heart is set on i'm giving you a new treasure to set your heart on and i promise you it's better you know than the last one yeah um and it's that thought of important things i mean that's what we're going to talk about now is um that when um the lord comes and looks down he's like these are important things to me you know that's what he's saying to samuel these are important to me and but when you look at the people that's not necessarily true of them and their hearts and as you go through and just look like i love this question we have in the book never underestimate the power of your influence and where can you love and it almost is that thought of who where are the important things and how are you investing in those important things whether it is the father or the son or whether it is your people you know what is your influence because of the love we have experienced for those people yeah and it's neat to think about there's some people in there who will find that good news because samuel was willing to go up on the wall and i just i like i think to myself there's that lying racist because of the righteous that are in this city that the city is being spared and and i wrote in my study guide journal and thank god for them because you know can't you just think of people that you're like were it not for you dot dot dot you know i would have never found this i would have never discovered this in my life i i was listening to a a man uh tell the story and he used to be um he was a comedian and spent a lot of time in vegas and he told a story of a truck driver who came through vegas and stopped by the comedy club and they met and um started this relationship and and he said he is the one who introduced me to jesus and he was older and now owned this restaurant and he says which is why i will never take his his payment for his dinner you know the other guy said which is why i ordered the most expensive thing um but i just thought it was so neat that he's just like man had you never had your truck and you never got off the freeway at that exit you know i never would have found him and it's so neat to think about god sending these different types of angels and our role as him yeah that's so good i have written in my scriptures in that same place um if it's because of the righteous you are saved then every parent every sibling and every friend needs to know the power of their influence that um just in that in that part where you feel like you are in a righteous place um we have so much to offer to other people i was listening this week too to someone talking about a really similar situation and i love that she said you need to um you need to think about as you enter into relationships how could i disciple this person how could i mentor this person and she gave four questions that i've been thinking so much about she says as you enter and you should think to yourself what do i know about this person and what do i not know about this person and how is that going to play into this relationship and it was interesting because she's a single woman who was talking and she said what i what i know about this person is um even though they're married even though there's things that i don't know what it is like to be married or i don't know what it's like to raise children i know what it is like to feel lonely i know what it's like to worship jesus christ i know what it is to read scripture we both know that and to find that and then i love um the second two questions she asked is what do they need from me and what do they not need from me and as i started out i was like that's so interesting to think as you think about your influence to just think about those things as you enter into those relationships because some of them might be easy to navigate but some of them may not be easy to navigate if you are in a place where you where righteousness is working for you right now but you're going to enter into a conversation with someone who that doesn't fit comfortably for to be able to say what do they need right now from me and what do they not need right now for me and that lifting but also the power of knowing is okay when some people are struggling because the lord just taught us right now um that a whole city will be saved whether they're strugglers or not as long as there are righteous there and a whole family might be struggling but the power of the one or the two righteous there can have so much influence in that situation yeah yeah and i think he kind of talks about this a little bit where he talks about to the city we've written it your five my five that's from samuel's point of view where he's just kind of saying here are the things that are really important to you right now and it might be why you're finding life to be a little bit unsatisfactory he's going to use the word cursed which makes it sound like god's cursing them but he's just kind of describing like you know if you're alone at night and thinking about what your life is like you might use the word cursed like it just doesn't feel like it is right like something's wrong and he's like let me tell you why let me tell you what the problem is and then let me tell you the solution or the remedy to that to kind of bring that life and light back yeah so almost as if he's saying here's your five most important things right now and let me contrast that against my five most important things and just see if um if it would make a difference for someone which reminds me we forgot to show people the boards so what if we do right this second because we're going to be talking about all those things right here on this um on this side and we're just coming out right here it is because of those um who were righteous that that city is being saved um right now and then he's gonna go through and show them he's like let me show you what this looks like yeah and again it's really interesting for him to be like listen i'm the one on the wall and i'm afraid of heights and the one having arrows thrown at me or i don't know if anyone's throwing an arrow but you know rocks and arrows shot at me and yet i am the one who is calling this glad tidings you know so it's you almost feel like there's people in the in the crowd who'd be like what is it about you like how come and he's just like well let me just explain it to you so the things that he says to them you know what you were going to talk about that i actually want you to talk about right now is as we get into this part is as we look at god's heart and we we started here where you talked about god's going to reclaim his people whatever it takes and we saw last time if it's a famine then that's what's gonna happen if it's people losing their riches he's not afraid to try that if it's putting someone up on a wall he's gonna do that like we're gonna watch him try and reclaim in ways that maybe feel more natural and normal to us and in some ways that we're like why is he why is he doing it that way but it's just his nature to try every language in order to reclaim as many as he can yeah oh and you were talking about kind of like the literal like the yes yeah because yeah as you read through this these chapters this time and next time you might be a little bit taken back it's some like the strong language that's used um one of that is just translation right we're coming from you know like a 1828 english and like some of the words you know that um would have been perfect to describe things back then have lost a little bit of their you know meeting like words like destroyed you'll see that in the doctrine covenants too he's like i will destroy them if they don't you're like whoa all of a sudden god became like the death star or something and it kind of takes you off but a lot of times a lot of scripture scholars who will just talk about that being a literary device that it will say god will destroy this people when in reality what's happening is god will allow them to self-destruct he will allow their agency in a way to bring about like soul and civilization destruction once i mean this happens naturally once a person breaks down and a family breaks down the civilization civilization is right behind it and it's just like god's not doing it but the literary device that's being used here is i i you know i will destroy this city um and and it makes god seem like me really where you're like whoa and it's like no no really this is just the consequence of and we'll talk about this a lot in the old testament year but that's two years away so let's just give a hint for it right now of this item we're so excited can we just say how excited we are for the whole test that everybody you already can't wait for the old designated year but let's just say this the greatest image or picture of god's heart is jesus on the cross so if ever words or actions of god don't align with who you see in jesus on the cross then we're like missing something then there's something that we just haven't you know seen yet um but you can just assume the best about his heart because he is going to do whatever it takes to reclaim these people so he's going to go through right now we're going to start in 13 verse 21 is where we're gonna start and he's just gonna lay out for them really quickly here's here's the your five most important things right now see if i'm right on this it's almost as if he's saying um and this is this is why the curse is going to come he tells them it's because you're set on these five things um he starts at the bottom of 21 you set your he talks about their riches you set your hearts upon them and not on the words of god that's number one number two is in verse 22 you do not remember the lord your god you're not remembering him as you go through this process and three hooks right into that you just remember your riches but not to thank god for them so you've you've forgotten to remember him and third you've forgotten to thank him for where you are fourth is i'm talking about their hearts they're not drawn out to him instead they just swell with pride he says and um the last one is in verse 24 that you do cast out the prophets and do mock them and cast stones at them this fifth one is actually going to become really important when we get to third nephi 11. so you're gonna maybe want to mark that in helium in 13 24 because we're going to revisit that this this fifth thing becomes what does or doesn't allow someone to be standing when jesus comes at the very end this becomes the marker of that which i think is so interesting and i love that samuel like they weren't left wondering if they should or shouldn't do that here clear back here which this is um 6 bc so how many years they have left minus 33 39 no minus so they have 20 27 years before jesus is going to come am i right no you have to go six up today um that's right so it is that long of a period of time before um that they have to prepare which is a lot of time like samuel's like here let me just give you a hint this is one of the things you're going to be want to be working on yeah listen to the prophets listen to their words don't stone them and we don't stone prophets in our day but i always like to think to myself but do we hm you know yeah but it just does seem to be a little bit more intense than like you know like rejecting their words or like you know i don't know but yeah well and he tells them you cast them out yeah you mock them and you cast stones but then and it is interesting that we do this many years later have that little thing sticks and stones yeah you know won't break my bones but words it's just as interesting as you think about that when i read and noticed that the first time i was like well luckily we don't do that like i don't know anyone who is throwing a rock prison yeah but then it made me just stop for a minute and think but but do we because i wonder if we do fit into this 24 sometimes and what would need to change in order to to reset our heart in that regard yeah um it's interesting to like look at his words and to think like which words were so upsetting to you that you thought you wanted to shoot an arrow at it yes like and i think that's a reflection more on your heart than it is on his teaching yeah yeah um as you were reading those i just thought again about this whole idea of relationship that you know what would my relationship with jenny be like if i had my heart set on my stuff and not her if i never remembered her if i never was thankful for anything that she did if i just thought about my own thoughts only all the time and rejected any of the gifts that she gave me it's just kind of like that wouldn't work just frankly no it wouldn't and you would say like oh this is a cursed relationship you know and it's like well yeah it is you cursed it you know versus where he says well and wait i want to put out this one more sorry oh yeah no no no because it's so interesting that you think of who is the prophet um in that moment and it's samuel right he's the one on the wall he's the one who is um is sharing the counsel from god he's the the voice of the lord in that moment for those people and what are they doing is casting those stones and then i love when he says this behold you are worse than they for as the lord liveth if a prophet i'm in 26 come among you and declareth unto you the words of the lord which testifies of your sins and iniquities you are angry with him and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him yea you will say that he is a false prophet and that he is the sinner and of the devil because he testifies of your deeds and it's just exactly what you were talking about that what were the words that angered them and to think about that even in our own life today are there ever words that we're like i don't know if i wanted him to say that yeah and and just to think about how do we get to the point where we trust the words that have been put in the heart of the mouthpiece of the lord yeah and just to anticipate that every word however it may look on the outside has love in itself i love that you know it's so good whatever it's dressed up as find find the love in it because you will now samuel just says this let me tell you why i can call this good news starting in 1411. he says um listen i hear and i know god and um i know the conditions of repentance this is 14 11. and remember all that about repentance like i know what it means to hear him and and live again and feel him again um and what it takes to repair you know relationships verse 12 i know of the coming of christ i have hope that beats in my veins is what he's saying um that verse also i know the signs of his coming i'm watching for them i'm anticipating him i see his fingerprints and echoes of him like all around and all of those in verse 13 they caused me to believe on his name and experience a remission of his sins through his merits which helps me know him and thank him and again and it's this reciprocal it really is just breeding life in my story again and again and he says this this is why um you're experiencing that and um others are experiencing this i think it's so interesting to think about both of those fives and just think where am i on that list and how could i lean more to have the heart of samuel yeah to let those things be what's important to me i love when he says i know i know this and i know this and i know and there's such good things as he talks about i know the lord i know who he is um and that i know how to reset my heart towards him but i love when he starts saying i i know the signs of the times i know he's going to come again like there's so much hope in that knowledge yeah instead of comparison to you're trying to make me be really strict you're trying to hold me down you're trying to take things away and you're trying to make me have penalties and it's just like oh you you've totally missed what is actually happening here and we love this whole idea as we think through this like what role might we play in this reclaiming and the sprays of leading people to faith because he is so great to say look there is this group of people here's another literary device 15 4 where he says the lamanites he hated because of their deeds had been evil continually god never hated the lamanites it's just a literary device but he says but now salvation has come to them through the preaching of the nephites and he prolonged their days so that that could even happen he's just like listen let me tell you some good stories of people who you know who have found this who have made the change people you never thought would and and they did um i wonder what his relationship is you know to those who buried their swords yeah don't you want to know like were you one of them yeah were you a kid of them yeah were you like did you grow up on those stories because he just comes and it disappears and i'm like what is your tale brother um all all this but this whole idea of this box how to lead people to faith i mean just this is a reflection box here at the end and just think of like what's kind of pricked your heart to think how do i lead someone to know god to see the beauty of repentance to anticipate his coming faith is trust in him and it has to precede obedience right this idea of like i want to know him first be intrigued by him first uh have a sense of like longing for him first you know and it seems to lead to you know that opinion the places that will reset your heart on him which we love um i think it's so interesting as we get into this last line where we're going to talk about become the most believing part and this is going to be in 16 is where we are going to be in verse 6 is where we want to start because once he leaves now there's responses to that message right the message came and now here's the different responses to it and it tells us this but the more part of them did not believe in the words of samuel and so when they saw they couldn't hit him with their stones and with their arrows they they said you take him and you bind him and and they're angry and we want you to notice those words the more part like out of that entire crowd um first of all i think it's awesome that it doesn't say and no one believed right just the more part which is interesting because there was only a few whose hearts were changed by what samuel was willing to do in that moment but i love that god is okay with just reclaiming however many want to be reclaimed in that moment and even if it's just a few he'll put someone up on the wall um for that i love the thought of that um then it tells us in verse 12 and then in 15 and there was but little alteration in the affairs of the people save it where the people began to be more hardened in iniquity um so we first saw the more part did not believe then we saw the more they became more hardened and then in verse 15 there is this one line that is so good nevertheless the people began to harden their hearts all save it were the most believing part of them and we love that line we love the thought of becoming the most believing part what would that look like after we come out of this situation what does it look like to become the most believing part in this situation next week we're going to enter into a really interesting part of the book of mormon particularly as you think about it's going to lead right up to the first coming of jesus christ and we know that the book of mormon is a pattern for our day and so as we read through that we should also see things that would lead into the second coming of jesus christ as well usually when i read my thoughts are so focused on what was going wrong that's what you feel as you're going through we're going to see a lot of contention a lot of division a lot of what isn't working there and one time when i read through i was like i want to watch this most believing part i want to watch those people go through the next seven chapters and see what was it that they did that allowed them to be prepared in that moment when jesus came and what would that look like for me and for my family and for my home and we'll talk about that in great detail next week but i want you to think about that because we're not just seeing this um the more part here that's leaving we're gonna watch that as we go forward we're going to see it as we get then into third knee by seven and all the calamities actually come in chapter eight so right at the end of what we'll study next week it just tells us these things that are so similar um it tells us um the more righteous part of the people had nearly all become wicked so that's what has happened from where they were here in samuel's time by the time we get to right before jesus comes so interesting me that the more righteous part of the people have nearly all become wicked don't you think that's so interesting um it tells us in 35 7 8 verse 8 and unless six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from their righteousness so again and then in 35 7 21 it tells us in that at that time in the 30 and first year there were but few who were converted to the lord and as i was reading through that i thought to myself it's so interesting because a lot of times i'll have conversations with people and um in recent years i've had conversations with friends who um are not religious and don't have religion and they'll say to me it's so interesting that you stay a member of your church because so many people are leaving like that should that should alert you to something that so many people are leaving and i always think to myself it's so interesting when you say that to me because it makes me think of second coming prophecies it makes me think of signs of the times where we're told in revelation the book of revelation and in the book of matthew the signs of the times chapter there and even here as we're watching from samuel the lamanite all the way to the end that what is common is for people not to stay true to their faith to their belief when all of this starts playing out the most common reaction is actually to leave that there's not many people who become the most believing part and stay the most believing part until the end and many many years ago i said to myself i'm going to make a commitment right now that no matter what happens in the world no matter what the signs are no matter if the more part are leaving i'm not going to be that person i am going to be the person who believes until the day jesus shows up whatever day that is i want to be one of the ones standing in that moment even if it is going to be hard even if i watch everyone around me fall away that i just i made a commitment i i know that's going to happen i know that's a sign of the times i know that is what is going to take place in the last days and it reminds me every time someone says that why so many people are leaving religion why do you stay why because i want to be standing when jesus comes i want to that's that's what i want and i think we live in a time where we almost have to stop and make that commitment that i'm going to be the most believing part i'm going to be numbered in that group no matter what happens um and clear back to that one that we talked about i will be part of the righteous that will help save the city i want to be one of those people yeah and it's just neat to think that why not you know like if somewhere to say and why do you stay and you're like well because i know god and i know what repentance looks like and i i reset my heart i anticipate is coming i know the signs i believe on his name those 13 16 13 and 14 i'm experiencing great signs and wonders and angels and like this is what i'm experiencing and this is why i stay and and i think when people are saying like why are you leaving religion they're thinking why are you leaving strictness i mean why are you staying why are you staying with strictness and why are you staying with penance and why are you staying you know with with all of those things and you're like oh i think you misunderstand i'm staying with god and it's that relationship that i enjoy too much um to change the pattern in my life oh that's so good okay so next exciting stuff it's gonna be so good okay see you then

Channel: Don't Miss This

Views: 132,315

Rating: 4.7434869 out of 5

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

Id: V_HNzRLK93Y

Length: 50min 42sec (3042 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020