Ep 289 | 3 Nephi 12-16, Come Follow Me 2024 (September 30-October 6)

hey everybody Welcome to talking scripture a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of the scriptures in come follow me we also dive into the history and cultures of the text thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast for show notes head over to our website talking scripture. org welcome to talking scripture I'm Mike and I'm Bryce and today we're going to be in 3i 12 through 16 Bryce this is great stuff it's it's The nephite Sermon on the Mount it's kind of the equivalent of that isn't it it is and

the most amazing thing about this sermon is it's as simple as a child's understanding but it is deep and profound and something really significant is going on here and I'm so thrilled that this was preserved so let's jump into kind of this difficult concept what's Jesus really doing here there are two steps in our progress to the Celestial Kingdom let me take you back to the old Testament Tabernacle as you came out of the kind of the Gentile Court as you came out of the world which kind of represents the telestial world and then you

come into the holy place now it's the altar of sacrifice and it was the little Bowl where you were washed and anointed and so kind of symbolizing the covenants of the Gospel that allow you to come out of the world and into the terrestrial world the holy place of the temple represented kind of the terrestrial Kingdom and that you've become a good person you're honorable and a lot of Latter-day Saints miss that that the Lord uses the word honorable as a synonym for terrestrial in the doctrine covenants that terrestrial is Honorable it is good these

are good people and so you've come out of the testal and into the holy place and there's phase one of our progress is com giving up the telestial and becoming a terest person the problem is that a lot of people seem to think that goodness is the goal that being an honorable good person is the goal as if the goal is to go to the terrestrial Kingdom but there's a whole another kingdom and so once you've come out of the world through the covenants and you've become an honorable terrestrial person and you're in the Holy

place the Lord now invite you to come into the next step which is to let go of that which is terrestrial and become Celestial so if you go to the very beginning now what we have in third Nephi is some missing verses that you don't get in Matthew's account and that is the first preliminary steps and who this message was supposed to be given to notice in verse 1 of chapter 12 3 Nephi 12:1 right in the middle he stretched forth his hands unto the multitude and Cried unto them saying blessed are ye if if

you shall give heed unto the words of these 12 whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you and to be your servants so listen to the prophets come in out of the world listen to the message make the changes necessary to come out of the world and then notice verse two last sentence blessed are they Who Shall Believe in your words and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost and shall receive a remission of their sins so thou

all of a sudden that sets the stage The Sermon on the Mount are for baptized members of the church who have come in out of the world and are now being prepared to be taken to the next level baptism kind of pre assumes that we've given up some of those telestial sins we've given up some of the things that would have prevented us from being baptized so now Jesus is looking at good honorable people and saying there's one more step you need to make this is great news and this is bad news because we're about

to talk about all the terrestrial things that you need to let go of if you're listening to this podcast I'm assuming you have a desire to do what's right that you're on the path to become a good person that you've made covenants with the Lord and that you follow the Holy Ghost well now the bad news is the Lord says okay folks you're partway there but there's a lot of things you need to let go of in becoming a Celestial person the goal isn't the terrestrial Kingdom the goal is the Celestial Kingdom and we need

to let go of some things so The Sermon on the Mount is going to focus in on what are some of the terrestrial things that you're still holding on to look at the progress you've made look at what I used to command and you're obeying that you've come so far but now what the changes you need to make in order to become Celestial so let me use an analogy president Kimble back in 1976 told a story about a group of researchers who went down to South America to capture some monkeys they didn't want to harm

them in any way so a a snap trap that would snap on their leg wasn't going to work they were too fragile for that but they were way too intelligent for you know the bait trap where you put the banana under the box with the stick the rope and then you wait for them to take the banana and you pull the rope and then the Box falls on top of them by the way that would totally get me they were way too I'm always falling for the banana in the Box trick they were way too

smart for that and so these researchers invented an ingenious way to cture these monkeys they boarded a hole into a tree or a hill or a box or something that was big enough for the monkey to get their hand in and then they filled it full of nuts and fruits that they knew the monkey would like so this is like the equivalent of clickbait basically kind of yeah you got it so the idea here is once the monkey gets their hand inside the hole and then they make a fist holding on to the fruit they

can no longer pull their fist out now the researchers would come out from hiding and the monkeys would freak out and they would jump and be hysterical but guess what they wouldn't do they wouldn't let go so in that analogy every single one of us has a testial box a terrestrial box and a Celestial box in our lives and we all let's admit it we all have our hands in all of those boxes I think there's always a testial sin we're holding on to that's what mortality is for we're trying to overcome these and we

have our hand in that telestial box and we're holding on to telestial fruit and the Lord comes along and says you got to let go that body is destined to be pulled into the testial Kingdom so either you let go of the fruit that's inside of it and let it go leave it alone and pull your hand out of that box or you will be pulled with that box into the telestial kingdom if you can't let go of telestial fruit you will go to the telestial kingdom so to speak that's just my analogy I know

judgment is a lot more complicated than that but bear with the analogy and then I have a terrestrial box filled with all sorts of terrestrial fruits and just as I think I'm making progress by letting go of the telestial fruit I realize how many terrestrial fruits I'm holding on to well Along Comes the Lord and says you need to let go you need to let go of these terrestrial things because this box is destined to be pulled into the terrestrial Kingdom so The Sermon on the Mount is primarily focused on what are the ter now

that you've made some progress you've come into the church you're following the prophet's counsel you've made covenants you've been baptized you have the gift of the Holy Ghost now that you've done that what are some of the terrestrial fruits you need to let go of now Mike's going to go through these a little bit more detailed but let's just do a few examples so go to 35 12: 21 and 22 he says hey you've heard in olden times the original Law the law of Moses or the law of coming into the church so to speak

was don't commit violent crimes don't kill and I would suggest everything that goes along with that um violence in any way harming other people physically don't hit people we learned that in kindergarten right and Jesus says okay but you're holding on to some terrestrial fruits I you're not hitting people but then he says in verse 22 whosoever is angry with his brother and if you if you call your brother names like Rocka or poopy head or stupid or idiot you're holding on to terrestrial fruit because there's something in your heart that you need to let

go of so harming my brother hitting my brother killing my brother would be a testial fruit that I've got to let go of but sometimes I Harbor in my heart anger and revenge that I don't act upon acting upon it would make me telestial but holding that resentment in my heart is terrestrial fruit that I have to let go of grudges bitterness anger in my heart name calling thinking less of someone else I have to let that go how much of that can we take to the Celestial Kingdom we can't I I got to interject

here I I know from firstand experience I I was really mad at somebody for a long time and I remember I was teaching about forgiveness and I just thought I am such a hypocrite because I haven't in my heart forgiven this person I just begged heavenly father I says help me to get to that state and it's a gift of the spirit and when it happened in my heart Bryce I felt so so free it was like this massive weight was lifted and so I want to just testify what you're talking about is like he's

not saying this to us because he wants to grind us into powder and be slaves he's telling us this because he wants to free us right because Heavenly Father dwells in a state of NeverEnding happiness his Commandments are a way of being celestially happy and bring Glory into your life and aren't we glad that heavenly father doesn't hold grudges because man if he did we'd be in trouble and so he's asking us to be that kind of person look at 3D Nephi 12:27 and 28 the big commandment is don't commit adultery but then he says

but some of you are doing those things in your heart in your minds and technically you're not committing adultery yes you're you're you're doing good but you're harboring those inappropriate feelings in your heart and that is not Celestial you have to let go of the images in your head the thoughts and the feelings in your heart chist just reminds me of that scripture that says in the social Kingdom we will see as we are seen and we will know as we are known in other words it's Preparatory to become we're practicing Celestial Behavior right exactly

so instead of looking upon a woman and lusting you look upon people and see value and dignity and honor because that's how Celestial people are and view each other so if that's the kind of person I want to be then I need to be that person in my innermost thoughts and so that's what these changes are all about that's what heavenly father is doing just one more as an example we you know we know this love your neighbor hate your enemy so it's kind of human nature and we feel justified in in hating the people

that hate us have you noticed Mike in our society that everyone decries hater everyone calls out a hater but then they seem to be okay by hating the hater it's so weird so it it's okay to hate someone who hates but you're doing the same thing and Jesus is saying that's a terrestrial attribute now testial people just hate everyone they love themselves and hate everyone else and there's this concept of a terrestrial person that says look you be good to the people who are good to you and you hate the people that hate you there

seems to be this notion that retaliation is okay that if you're mean to me then I'm mean to you that if if you do something against me on the freeway then I'm justified in doing something mean to you if you post something on social media that's offensive then I'm I'm okay and coming after you and trying to get you fired from your job it's a terrestrial way of thinking though and we feel justified in doing it because Justice demands it but Jesus says that's not the celestial away Celestial people do not return evil for evil

they return good for evil now we can talk about Justice and all of that but the attitude here is if you do evil to me I don't have to do evil back to you not outwardly and definitely not inwardly now that in a nutshell is the transition of going from terrestrial to Celestial I remember as a young man I was full of spit fire and Justice and the older I get the more and maybe in another 30 years I'll get even more so but I think there's something about wisdom and age don't you I get

that we are naturally carnal people but we are also naturally Celestial people there is inside of us a Celestial memory beckoning to us we lived in the presence of the most Divine Celestial people we can ever comprehend and their memory has to be ingrained so deeply inside of us that it beckons us to wisdom and action just like the natural man beckons us to be angry and hate there is something inside of us that beckons us to forgiveness and Celestial attributes here and so step one was to let go of the telestial we should no

longer be V you can't be violent and come into the church you can't be an adulterer and come into the church you can't be a hater and come into the church and so coming into the the church assumes that we've overcome a lot of our telestial desires but now the question here is are you on the path of letting go of the terrestrial things and this is painful sometimes for people to realize who who you know they look around and say hey I've become a good person but goodness is not the goal Celestial is the

goal and so now we need to let go of all of these terrestrial so now Mike Mike's a genius at this because Mike can tell you that there's a lot more going on here there really is deep Doctrine and it really does tie to the temple so let's go through each one of these and then as we do I'm going to pop in and say do you see the terrestrial fruit he's asking us to let go of in this process of becoming like the greatest of celestial beings our heavenly father this is a journey of

being in God's presence and like God which means I have to let go of everything telestial and everything terrestrial along the way all right Mike so this is really important that I read this this is right off of the church's website we'll put it in the show notes but there's an overview of the endowment and it says when you join the church you receive two ordinances baptism and Confirmation likewise the temple endowment is received in two parts in the first part you will privately and individually receive preliminary ordinances called the initiatory ordinances those ordinances include

special blessings regarding your Divine Heritage and potential and as part of them you'll be authorized to wear the sacred Temple garment in the second part you receive the remainder of your Endowment in a group setting along with others who are attending the temple and in it the creation is told the story of Adam and Eve the fall the atonement of Christ the apostasy the restoration and so forth and then you get instruction in the course of the endowment you make covenants and on the church's website it says these are the spe specific covenants you make

you Covenant uh to obey the law of obedience the law of sacrifice the law of the Gospel the law of Chasity and the law of consecration in return God promises to bless us and at the conclusion of the endowment the participants symbolically return to the Lord's presence as they enter the celestial room that is a like a two-minute overview of the endowment right off of the church's website that's not Mike talking that's just we're reading from the church's website I love how Elder bedar said it's as dangerous to not talk about the temple when we

should as it is to talk too much about the temple when we shouldn't yeah so The nephite Sermon on the Mount I think is full of temple code and my testimony is the Book of Mormon is all about Temple it's all about coming home to Heavenly Father and Jesus takes us there this and it's given to the disciples in the Greek text in Matthew and it's given to the Nephites here there's some minor distinctions this is a temple textt it's an Ascension text where the Lord's inviting people that have already left the the ocean of

chaos and they've come into the holy place where the Saints are and the Lord's like okay now we got some stuff to do and this is all done ritually and so in your mind's eye just I want you to picture the Tabernacle and before you even get in it you have the altar of sacrifice and then you have the molten sea or the labor as it's called and then you enter into the holy place and when you walk in on your right is the bread of the present with wine Bread and Wine and think about

the church and think about what we do on Sunday and on the left is this manora and it's like this seven branch lampstand that has oil in it and there's light and then you approach this altar before the veil and it's called the altar of incense and in the Book of Revelation John says that that altar of incense and the smoke that's ascending to Heaven represents the prayer of the Saints and then there's a veil and on the other side of it is the the or or the the holy of holies as it's called the

symbol of God's presence KES Kim the the holy of yeah the God's presence the Throne of God and the Ark is sitting in the temple period on a stone the foundation stone and there's a lot of evidence that the ark was actually carved they carved a niche in the foundation stone so that the ark was actually a little bit lower represented the foot stol of God that God would literally rest his feet on the ark and establish his feet in his throne and that God would rule on Earth as he rules in the heavens and

this is all an invitation to us to come back to God's presence and so in I want to point out that the destination is to get to that stone that's where we're going we're going to end up at that stone so think about The Sermon on the Mount and How It Ends because we're going to end up in God's Presence at the stone if you've given up all the terrestrial things and come into His presence you will end up at the stone it's like Helman 5:12 remember remember remember we want to be established on that

rock which is Christ Helman 5 is all about the Temple and so is this sermon and so it begins with blessed are ye if you give heed to these who I have chosen that's verse one or blessed are they who believe in your words more blessed will they be and then verse three blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are all the they that mourn blessed are the meek first I want to talk about that word blessed and the word in the Greek is macaros and to me this is important because that word some Bible

translators don't like the word blessed and they've translated it as fortunate uh a couple translators uh WF Albright and CS man they're distinguished biblical Scholars they've translated it this way this is their translation of the text fortunate are the humble in spirit fortunate are the meek fortunate are those that hunger and thirst and then if you go into their footnotes they explain why they say that the word fortunate works better for them because the word macaros which is the Greek word represents to them a state that the gods are in macaros was the state that

beings in the heavens were in and to these translators they're like well we can't really go with that because Jesus is talking to Mortals and in the theological dictionary of the New Testament if you look up mcos the very first definition they give is that this is the state of those that are gods they are macaros they are blessed so as a Latter-Day Saint you know the Bell starts ringing and I'm like okay Jesus is inviting us to do something different now the distinction kind of softens over time and those that were macaros became the

Uber Elites or the Uber wealth and notice what Jesus is doing here in the passages like look at verse 4 of 352 where it says blessed are all they that mourn or verse six blessed are all they that hunger and thirst the word all is not in the Matthew text that's a subtle thing but here's what I think is going on I Think Jesus is inviting all of us to enter into the Blessed state of the Gods all of us everybody now every one of these be attitudes is attached to a Psalm in the Old

Testament and it has to do with coming into God's presence notice they're and they're all about letting go and recognizing I need help so blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me who say I need thee Lord I need thee every day I need I I need help um blessed are they that mourn and I love those that mourn for their sins and those that mourn I want to be a better person blessed are they who are meek who are hungry and thirsty after righteousness notice it's that Celestial attribute they're letting go of

the world they're letting go of TR there's always that element of something that they're letting go of to be a better person and they're longing to be a better person let's talk about the meek so go with me in your scriptures to the 37th Psalm verse 11 the meek shall inherit the earth and shall Delight themselves in the abundance of peace I Think Jesus is referring to these Psalms these Psalms were used in the first Israelite Temple to prepare the people to make covenants to enter into God's presence and the king and queen would ritually

make these covenants in the in the sight of all the people at the temple and then the people would be under Covenant and the person who would officiate in this drama would say to the people as the king and queen have made this Covenant do you make the Covenant and they would do so and as they did then Justice and truth and Equity would reign in the house of Israel go to the 25th Psalm look at verse 9 this is the promise and here's a quick review verse n the meek will he guide in judgment

now judgment is a word it's a temple word and it has to do with sacral kingship the King on Earth if he was righteous would judge according to True judgments now that's that's a key word and we're going to talk about that later because that's going to come up right at the end when we're getting getting to the throne and that's a quality of priesthood and sacral kingship and the meek he will teach his way now that's another code word the way is a code word for how we get to the top of the mountain

the Greek is hodos and if you're a Star Wars fan I got to throw this out there it is the way right that's a big deal um the way is how we get there verse 10 all the paths we back to that code word of the way of the Lord our merciful and Truth or mercy and Truth unto such as keep his Covenant for thy name's sake the covenant's sake oh Lord pardon mine iniquity what man is he that fearth the Lord him shall he teach in the way his soul shall dwell at ease and

his seed Eternal increase shall inherit the earth and then verse 14 The Secret of the Lord now that word secret is sowed those who have entered into the council the SED is a another code word and it means to enter into the council my testimony is on Joseph Smith experienced in the first Vision when he was 14 God pulled him into his counsel and the first vision is an endowment the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them his Covenant that is the S Covenant the one made at

the council in heaven before we ever came to Earth and so on that word meek there's so much but when Jesus says the meek are going to inherit the earth to me you got to read Psalm 37 you got to read Psalm 25 and what are we talking about sacral King ship endless seed the prear councils and getting on the way the path which also brings up one of the major terrestrial fruits he's asking us to let go of you've got to let go of your pride you cannot come into the presence of the father

with pride and so he keeps emphasizing these Celestial attributes and these Celestial words and every time he seems to be implying that we let go of a terrestrial fruit so if I'm supposed to be meek well who's not meek the proud are not Meek so he's saying let go of your pride and then you can inherit it's it's always that let go of the terrestrial fruit here so there's another terrestrial fruit Pride we got to do Hunger and thirst right we got to do that one so that's verse 6 blessed are all they who hunger

and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled a great cross reference with this is Elma 3240 through 43 now Bryce and I talked about it on the alma 32 podcast so what I want to just draw your attention to is that last part of verse 43 that Bryce Illustrated so brilliantly if you water the tree and the tree is a huge Celestial symbol the tree in the first Israelite Temple was in the holy of holies John's going to put it back if you read the book of Revelation in the holy of holies next to

the throne is the tree if you know the story of the creation there were two trees and to me trees and Isaiah is going to do this when we get to Isaiah trees represent lots of stuff one of the things they represent are people or Divine beings and so the tree there but remember what we talked about in our podcast with Elma 32 if I water my tree what eventually happens the tree Waters you the tree feeds you yes now the problem is think back to lei's dream there's an imitation happiness if you pursue the

wrong tree if you go to the building instead of the Tree of Life there is no fing you can't be filled and so again if you let go of terrestrial things that you think will make you happy guess what they're not going to fill your soul I love this verse in second Nephi chter 27 verse three and those that fight against Zion and distress her shall be as a dream of a night vision yeah it shall be unto them even as a Hungry Man which dreth and behold he eateth and awaketh and his soul is

empty or a thirsty man which dreth and behold he drink drinketh but he awaketh and his soul is faint in other words testial and terrestrial things are like being hungry and dreaming that you eat but someday you're going to wake up and realize that my soul is not filled so the promise is if you will come to the celestial side if you will let go of the imitation it will fill your soul that's what Jesus told the the Samaritan woman if you drink of this water meaning all the world's water all the things that this

world offers you will thirst again but if you drink of celestial water if you eat of the fruit of the tree of life it will fill you it will fill that hunger inside you do you remember when we did first NE I ate in the descriptions of the fruit there are eight of them and every time it's a superlative meaning that the love of God the love that God is offering you and the things of the Celestial Kingdom are sweet above all that is sweet white above all that is white they are the most pure

the most delicious will bring you the most Joy they are the greatest things of Earth but don't be fooled by an imitation let go of the imitations they will never fill your soul like the celestial things do so right here in the Beatitudes we find the Lord saying blessed Celestial are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness because that Pursuit will fill your soul now I got to tie that with verse verse one and it's about 2/3 of the way down but after we're baptized with water Jesus says and I love this he says I

will baptize you with fire that's being filled with the Holy Ghost and it's Jesus doing it and if you think about this you can think you know you could fool somebody and get an ordinance because you know we're Mortals but you can't fool Jesus he fills us and it's not that we're perfect but it's that we're on the way we're on the path and we're trying and he fills us and I love that I got to read this Jesus is quoting the Psalms again these Psalms are related to First Israelite Temple and they're all out

of order because of the Jewish apostasy in the 7eventh century but the text is still there so go with me to the 63rd Psalm and look what it talks about being hungry and and being filled verse one oh God Thou Art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land that's where we are today to see thy power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary we're at the temple this is about coming into God and seeing the

arm of God because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee thus I Will Bless thee while I live I will lift up my hands in thy name that was a prayer stance in the Old Testament to pray with uplifted hands my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed I will meditate on thee in the Night Watch is because thou has been my help therefore in the shadow of thy Wings will I Rejoice now

think about the Ark on top of the Ark of the Covenant this Mercy Seat the wings you're in within the holy of holies and by the way another idea that is related to what being in the shadow of the Wings is to be in the sacred Embrace of the father my soul followeth hard after thee my right hand upholdeth me but those that seek my soul to destroy shall go down into the lower parts of the earth they shall fall by the sword verse 11 but the king shall rejoice in God everyone that sweareth by

him shall Glory but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped to me this is a temple text and it's about coming unto God being filled and I loved about two-thirds of the way through verse one where it says I'm going to baptize you and then in the end of verse 6 Jesus says you will be filled with the Holy Ghost and then watch back in third Nephi when he comes comes watch How often that word is used watch for it in 19 watch for it in third Nephi 20 cuz Jesus is going

to f them and that's a literal but it's also a pointing to a symbolic that if you will come unto Christ and again let go of the terrestrial let go of the telestial and come unto Christ you will be filled yeah okay one more on the being filled there were a number of early Christian sources that looked at the cross of Jesus Jesus as the tree of life and to many early Christians the savior's body was the fruit of that tree and his blood was the Waters of life and in the gospel of philli it

says that the cross was made of olive wood think about section 88 where you know we talk about the Olive Tree being the tree of life now I'm fine with whatever the tree of life was but these early Christian Traditions looking at the body and blood of Jesus as the fruit of the tree I think that's all connected in there I want to talk about verse four all they that mourn will be comforted sometimes when we talk about Comfort we think about like a blanket I don't think that's what it meant I think this is

an invitation that as we mourn as we're Meek as we thirst after righteousness God is going to give us comfort and the comfort is empowerment now the word in the Hebrew is n and it's Rel to a lot of other words in the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon but Comfort it's a deep emotional identification and it talks about this idea of giving strength or power and so it does kind of add some more meat to the bones if we look at the word comfort in the context of the Psalms so go to

the 23rd psalm this is a really famous one so the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadth me beside Still Waters he restoreth my soul he leadth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me those are symbols of kingship and the comfort is empowerment in other words in the midst of the shadow of

death God is saying well he said this to Nephi and he said this to Joseph Smith and he said said this to Elma I know it's hard but I've already set your table you have kingship in my in my kingdom you are a Divine Son of God and the rod and the staff was a symbol for this and the ceremony was the Feast at the end look at verse 5 thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies thou anointest my head with oil that's kingship my cup runneth over the individual writing

this Psalm is talking about the temple right the Lord's going to bring us in past the waters past the valley of shadow of death he's going to be anointed he's going to be given a staff and he's going to be given comfort that word has to do with empowerment and being part of God's Kingdom part of his family to become a Son of God you'll see this a lot in modern scriptures remember when Elma The Elder is over at the Waters of Mormon and here comes amelon and they put tasks upon them and they make

their lives miserable the Lord comes in and says look I'm going to strengthen your backs that you cannot feel this and then probably my favorite example is when the Lord says to the brother of Jared I give unto men weakness that they may be humble Now isn't that the number one reason that Celestial people mourn is because of weakness and sin not only ours but the people we love isn't that why we really cry at the celestial level it's because I've sinned we've sinned or someone I love has sinned and so I give unto men

weakness that they may be humble now watch what he does if my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me for if they humble themselves before me and have faith in me here comes the comfort then will I make weak Things become strong unto them that's the celestial gift if you really do mourn over your weaknesses and the weaknesses of others and you turn to Christ and come to God which this whole process is trying to lead us to then will he we become him and we gain his strength and then will

weak Things become strong that's that whole process of of comfort I really like the idea of just asking for it I'm on the path I'm trying I think sometimes in my mind Bryce I try to just do it by my sheer willpower and every time I fail and I think that's by Design which goes back to that first beatitude blessed are they that are poor in spirit and come unto me you just described that very picture it's the person who says I can't do it without the Lord's help I need his help in my life

I we need his grace and so we come unto him we cry out to him we mourn over our sins we hunger and thirst after righteousness you see that whole pattern of what this image is trying to lead us to that's so good okay we're going to do one more beatitude and it's the verse n blessed are all the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God I think once again we're talking Old Testament stuff so go to Isaiah 52 and we're going to talk about publishing peace Isaiah 52 I think is full

of temple code look at verse Oh there's so much I have to do verse one okay here we go we have to do verse one first awake awake put on thy strength oh Zion put on thy beautiful garments oh Jerusalem the holy city for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised the unclean Shake thyself from the dust arise and sit down o Jerusalem this is used in a lurgical context or a ritual context where the people were making covenants and God said get out of the Dust this is Lehi talking to his

sons arise and then make these covenants and then sit down oh Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy neck oh captive Daughter of Zion we're leaving we're leaving the test get your hand out of the terrestrial and telestial box yeah verse seven how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that publisheth or that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion thy God reth thy Watchmen shall lift up a voice and with the voice together they will sing for they shall see

eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion in the first Israelite Temple they would sing there was a lot of singing in this Temple drama and if you're sing Eye to Eye you're in a circle and you're talking to God and you're singing Break Forth into joy and sing together you waste places of Jerusalem so they're in a circle they're singing to God they have joy and then verse 10 why are they doing this why well the Lord is going to make bear his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations the

Lord is going to be manifest and the Nephites are literally living this they are seeing God so this idea of being called the children of God in verse 9 of third Nephi 12 is to be in the family well if you're in the family you see the father and so he says that and then he says in verse 11 depart ye depart ye go out from F touch no unclean thing there it is so there's the journey to the celestial City there's the journey to the celestial way of life come be in the family but

you got to let go of everything that's holding you back you got to let go of everything that you're holding on to that's keeping you out of the celestial City and the father's presence we ought to just go jump to verse 11 when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake don't return it it's that same idea we talk talked about and this is happening all over our world today we are being reviled and persecuted and people are saying all manner of evil against us anytime

you stand up for anything that's right you have to face the vile and the persecution and the reviling and Jesus says look don't return it it's a sport right now it is you you don't need to hate the people that hate you don't revile the people that revile you you don't return it that's not what celestial people do we return good for evil yeah so good so that's just in a nutshell some of the context of the Beatitudes from a ritual perspective there is so much happening in the Greek I'm going to read through 52

look at verse three blessed are the poor in spirit who come unto me for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so in the Greek of Matthew 53 the word for Heaven is actually the genitive plural heavens and just to have some fun sometime and just type in Google type in Book of Mormon PDF pull up a PDF of the Book of Mormon it's so fun to do word searches Bryce I know you do this type in the word Heavens plural with an S at the end of it and there's over 30 references and it's not

just Isaiah there's like six or eight of them from Isaiah but the Book of Mormon throws this idea out of this idea of Heavens now you don't have to believe this I'm a text nerd outside of the Bible there's this whole tradition in the Enoch literature of levels of Heaven that there's multiple heavens and that the father is in the highest heaven and as a latterday saint this shouldn't trip you up too much if you've you know read section 76 in those ideas and and so in the Greek it's the poor in spirit are going

to inherit the heavens plural now I'm okay with leaving it out because you know it's a text that we're giving to 19th century Protestants that are coming under Christ and Heaven Heavens potato potato but I just had to say that like Anyway languages are fun hence Paul says he was taken up to the Third yeah yeah so there's more than one there there's something going on yeah it's kind of fun anyway for what it's worth so after the Beatitudes there's this stuff about Salt and Light and if you just cook meat on the altar of

sacrifice and there's no salt it kind of smells like burning flesh and so what they were told to do the priest would cut up the animal and wash it and they would heavily salt it because it made a sweet Savor and that represented to God like their work and their sacrifice and so as we go through The Sermon on the Mount I want you to be thinking once again of the structure of the Tabernacle it's a physical representation of everything we're talking about so first you come in and then you put your sacrifice on the

Altar and if you think about this like in a application setting if my salt isn't pure it kind of stinks and if you think about that as Latter-Day Saints if we're too much like the world and the impurities are too bad it's kind of like that story with Cory Anon right where he's like you can't preach the gospel Cory Anon because your Salt's messed up you're not doing it right and so from there we go to this Covenant of obedience look at verse 19 and 20 of thir Nei 12 so we have the sacrifice and

then we have this Covenant of obedience keep my Commandments it says in verse 20 you have the Commandments before you and the laws fulfilled verse 19 and then he says this in verse 23 it doesn't read like it reads in Matthew in verse 23 of third Nephi it says if you shall come to me or shall desire to come to me then get reconciled with your brother in the Matthew narrative it talks about this idea of bringing your gift to The Altar and so I think the invitation is as we come to Christ if there's

any unkind feelings that I have towards my brother before I bring my gift to the altar or before I come to Jesus whether you're reading Matthew or or the thi narrative I've got to to be reconciled reconcilio to sit again with I've got to be able to sit with my brother so that Jesus can receive me so there was that invitation of just not having those hard feelings and then in 3D Nephi 12 27-32 it's about Chastity yep and not just outward Chastity it's inward chasti you know those of you who obey the law of

Chastity on the outside well do you obey the law of Chastity on the inside is that something you need to work on the Lord is inviting members of the church to say are you obedient to the law of Chastity as inwardly as you are outwardly or do you allow yourself to lust do you allow I mean is pornography an issue because how much pornography can you take into the Celestial Kingdom how much of that that's a great question how much of that weakness can you take into the Celestial Kingdom you've got to let go of

that inner lust you shouldn't even be seeing people that way that's not how Celestial people look at people Celestial people see something else and so again this is more than just a don't commit adultery this is uh you need to circumcise your heart if any part of your heart is committing adultery that's what needs to change you got to get your hand out of that box and come to God I think ritually we're right in the Holy place now I can't read this sermon and not examine my life and all of us have things in

our life where we say oh I don't like this about myself and so if you're listening right now and you're thinking about okay there's things in my oh I don't like that about my life I I think to me it's the Savior saying okay Mike when are you going to start are you going to wait till you're in 10 years when are you going to do this because now is the time to do it so I think this is a sermon whatever spiritual level you're at it's just an invitation to change and that's the Brilliance

of this sermon children can read this sermon and understand it and they can see in their lives what they need to change and yet the most spiritually enlightened person can read this sermon and see things in it that they need to change cuz this is an invitation for all of us to move to the next level yeah so be chased so we've talked about obedience and in our feelings and sacrifice and then to be chased and then in the 12th chapter 33-37 Jesus talks about how we make Oaths and he essentially says you don't have

to be really fancy about it it's it's yes or no when you communicate verse 37 let your communication be yay yay nay nay and whatever cometh of More Than This is evil and I think one of the things that means Mike is what does it take for you to keep your promises testial people don't keep their promises terrestrial people keep their promises if you get them to sign and swear with an oath do you remember closing your house yeah signing 19,000 documents so I'll give you a car as long as you sign this piece of

paper promising making it legally binding that you pay for it but what does a Celestial person need to do in order to keep their oath simply say that they're going just say yay yay or neigh neay because if a Celestial person says they're going to do it that's all you need you don't need them to sign a document because they're going to do it like where Nephi where Layman and lemu say let's go home we're not going to get these plates and Nephi says you know what I'm not going to quit we either get these

plates or we die trying cuz that's kind of the attitude of a Celestial person and the next one is kind of eye for eye tooth for a tooth telestial people just go around poking out eyes and taking teeth they're the aggressors they're the mean person who just steals terrestrial people kind of say well I won't be mean to you unless you're mean to me terrestrial people will take a tooth if you took mine poke out an eye if you poked out mine and again Jesus says that's terrestrial you got to let go of that Revenge

getting even you got to pull your hand out of that box because Celestial people do not return evil for evil price it reminds me of that story president Packer told about the guy whose wife died giving birth remember and he just harbored these ill feelings the doctor brought a disease and she died of the very thing that the doctor was treating in the previous he just hated that doctor and you remember what president Packer said yeah he went to the state president and the State president said leave it alone let it go let it go

brother just let it go you hating him is not going to do and then all of a sudden he began to see a overworked underpaid doctor trying to do his ve very best to save lives who came in in a crisis and helped and then all of a sudden he let it go he let go of that revenge and he stopped demanding a tooth for a tooth he let it go we're getting closer to the to the veil as it were in the Ancient Temple so at the end in verse 48 Jesus invites us to

be perfect there's a distinction between the Greek New Testament and the Book of Mormon when Jesus is in Matthew he still is inheriting this flesh that has is subject to mortality right he sweats he bleeds and those things and so he says be perfect or be finished Teo says my father is through nephite he says be perfect even as I and because he's a resurrected being they are standing in front of a god who's resurrected he's got this glorified body and so he says be perfect even as I and I think that distinction is important

I want to just reiterate this we believe in a God he is human Jesus Christ is a human being and his father is a human being and as latterday Saints we stand in a unique position to testify that Jesus is the son of his father and they're like us and I I think sometimes we don't realize we can become like them yes I mean we can be the whole Destiny the whole reason for everything he's done on this Earth is to hand us everything that they have and say we can become like they are so

there's the destination at the end of this road and we're I mean here's Jesus at the very end of the road and he sees us struggling along the path and he's cheering us on saying come on you can do it I'm at the end I made it I'm at the end I started where you started I went down the same path and I made it so you can make it too don't give up keep going get your hand out of that box one day at a time you're going to make it can you imagine someone

from the first century that had maybe a jade necklace or they had some really cool piece of cloth that they wore that kind of separated from their neighbors they thought they were so cool if you transplanted them here where we have things like smartphones and jet planes and yet as silly as that is to a Celestial being the coolest Jet Plane here is lame right come you have no idea what's ahead I hath Not Seen Nor Ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things that God hath for those that love him so

we're getting closer so in the 13th chapter from a ritual perspective we've got to go and get into God's presence and pres Packers says this so many times where he says the way we get revelation is through prayer and so in the 13th chapter in the first essentially 19 verses is Jesus talking to them about prayer notice interesting stuff look at verse three where he says don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing and then he uses this phrase that your alms may be in secret in the Greek text it's krupto

which is hidden or concealed so we're talking about hidden prayer or secret prayer to me this is all a temple text but it's like Bryce said so plain like a six-year-old could read this stuff now the thing I love about chapter 13 is we we've dropped the testial off there's no mention of telestial anymore so we've come out of the telestial we're now in the Holy place and now we've got Celestial and terrestrial left so now we got to say how do I get out of the terrestrial so chapter 13 is all about the difference

between Celestial and terrestrial and both of them do good terrestrial people do good so terrial people do good the difference is terrestrial people do good for the wrong reasons and so if you notice in this chapter it's not just prayer it's prayer for the right reason it's fasting for the right reason it's money for the right reason it's doing good things for the right reason so now he's trying to say okay all of you that have made it this far in the journey are doing good but you need to learn to do good for the

right reason so do you pray so that everyone else can see you pray is that why you pray is that do you look forward to prayers so that you can show off your spirituality and if you bring that into our world why do you do good when you go on a mission do you stand up in front of everyone and say look at what I'm willing to do can you believe what I'm willing to do for God or we give our spiritual resume and we just simply just point out I'm doing good and you need

to recognize it and you need to give me credit well if that's your goal you just lost the celestial of it and you're holding on to terrestrial fruit because you're doing good to be recognized of other people it's such a challenge because we live in a world of instant social media and it's so challenging and I don't know how to totally navigate this sometimes I even think about doing a podcast am I being that guy right and it's just a it's that because he said in the previous chapter let your light so shine let people

see your good works so that they glorify God but there's a such a delicate balance there between doing your good works so that they see you if your desire if your heartfelt desire is for credit and recognition you're holding on to a terrestrial fruit I don't know who said it but somebody wise went said praise can be poison yes yeah I love how CS Lewis described this painter who had kind of lost track and he just says this beautiful phrase you know on Earth sometimes the snare of ink and performance and the praise of the

audience causes us to forget the love of the thing we tell and fall in love with the telling and that's where we cross the line I need you to give me credit he brings up fasting it's so funny fasting is such an interesting thing and it's almost like anytime you fast it's like you need to tell people yes I'm fasting now I'm fasting well why did you need to tell me I didn't need to know that you were fasting but it's just like we can't resist yeah or um I do that too with sugar like

if I go six weeks without sugar I have to let everyone know I'm and I'm like why do I tell people that and I know this is human nature and I I know we need to be careful with this but you get the idea Celestial people don't draw attention to themselves Celestial people don't do good things so that everyone else can notice them I then the challenge is you do good things and people notice so it's this constant battle and we want them to notice our good things so that we Inspire them right and there's

the balance letting your light so shine before men that they glorify your father but not letting your light so shine before men that they glorify you or that you seek their Glory if your desire is for credit and Glory you're holding on to terrestrial fruit that's such good counsil if you fast and you need people to know that you fast if you donate money and you need people to know that you donated money now I'm very grateful that people donate money to universities and to good causes and and and I think we we should recognize

that donation but if in the heart of the donator if the whole reason for donating the money was for the recognition you're holding on to terrestrial fruit and you can't take that to the Cal Kingdom you can't be that kind of person in the Celestial Kingdom remember when Jesus the only time Jesus ever talks about his atonement after the fact in section 19 he doesn't even finish the sentence before he draws attention to the father he is a Celestial being that doesn't need the credit and that's what this chapter is all about so good doing

good for the wrong reason so if we expand that what other things what other reasons do Latter-Day Saints do good why do we do good well one as he points out in Chapter 13 is we want recognition but latterday Saints also do good for other reasons like for example we do good out of obligation we do good out of guilt they pass the list around yeah you don't want to be the guy that do I don't I have to sign up in other words I'm going to do good out of guilt or I'm going to

do good out of obligation now the reality is you're doing good and that's wonderful but if the reason you're doing good is to avoid the guilt or the obligation that comes with it you're holding on to terrestrial fruit you're doing good for a non Celestial reason I think a lot of people are have guilt as kind of a motivator because we kind of feel bad like human nature but again how much do you want heavenly father to to do good things in your life because he feels guilty do you want to guilt Heavenly Father blessing

you Lu good luck that's not the nature of celestial beings they don't do things out of guilt because that could be taken advantage of and that could leave to imbalance and that's not how Gods operate so we have to do good we have to learn eventually if we're on our way to the celestial City we have to learn to do good for the right reasons yeah and it's not out of obligation it's not out of guilt another thing that I've noticed is have you ever noticed people will say well I'll go to the I'll go

to the service project was I need the blessings I I've actually said that in other words I will do good so that I get a reward well it's this exchange we live in this exchange economy yeah I will do good so that God owes me and then oh I'm going to hold that against him I'm going to put that in my back pocket and then when I need something I'm going to pull it out and say hey do you remember when I went to the service project Lord you owe me King Benjamin was like no

no no no no no you are the unprofitable servant but sometimes that's our attitude I will do good so that God owes me and gives me a blessing well then you're doing good for a reward yeah and that's not a Celestial attribute God doesn't do good so that he gets a reward we can't take that to the Celestial Kingdom so think about all the reasons we do good in our society and ask yourself why should I do good what is the celestial reason for doing good and it is simply love I love love you I

love him and I want to please him and so if someone needs if the missionaries need dinner this week I love him and I want to serve his servants Celestial beings do things purely out of love not out of guilt not out of obligation not for a reward not for recognition simply out of love yeah so verse 9 of chapter 13 to about verse 17 Jesus in the key phrase is in verse 9 where Jesus says after this manner therefore pray ye and then right before verse 9 Jesus says that Heavenly Father already knows what

you need and so some of the prophets have talked about this that real prayer true prayer is where I'm tapping into what God will prompt me what to say and I remember thinking about that one time when I was teaching my children how to pray and would prompt them what to say and then they would repeat the prayer and then I would tell them what to say next and that's kind of how I taught my kids to pray when they were little that's kind of how heavenly father works with us he kind of inspires us

and we say those things and we're pardoning the heavens and we're coming into his presence and so prayer can be a revelatory experience and I think that's kind of what Jesus is saying there at least I invite you to consider that as a possibility and then so what does prayer do well John says that that altar of incense now from a ritual standpoint that's where we're standing we've we've had the first Feast of the bread and the wine we've partaken of the light of the Gospel we've definitely left the area outside of the Tabernacle now

we're approaching the veil from a ritual perspective where what's there well look what it says in 1920 and 21 it talks about Treasures that are in heaven uh the the Furnishings in there are going to be all gold in the Helman 5 narrative Nephi and Lehi are standing on a rock and they're surrounded and circled with fire they're ritually standing in the holy of holies or in first Nephi 1 if you remember that when Lehi is at the pillar of the rock or the rock is there and a pillar of fire comes down he is

coming into God's presence and so we're preparing to get there but to really get there what do you got to do well look at verses 22 through 34 the rest of 13 is kind of how we get there and it's complete consecration look at verse 22 the light of the body is the eye therefore if your eye is single your whole body will be full of light in verse 24 you can't serve two masters and then in case we miss it in verse 25 he's talking to the 12 and then he says don't worry about

what you eat or what you drink by the way ritually you've just eaten or for your body or what you will in Duo put on is not the life more than meat and the body more than rment and then he talks about eating drinking and being clothed read 26 through 34 and start circling clothed eating drinking things things is a code word in the Book of Mormon things means words and when we're talking about these things these words these sacred words of the temple the entire book of Mormon's Temple and when you do these things

verse 32 then the kingdom of God will come to you and I think my think there's a deeper level here we often read this as um heavenly father will help take care of you but I think going back to our discussion about letting go of terrestrial things I think there is inherent in us a fear of letting go of what we know makes us happy a lesser happiness and I think part of what he's saying here is don't be afraid to let go of a lesser happiness trust that heavenly father has something better in store

for you do you remember the first time you asked somebody to quit smoking and you put your hand out and they said can I finish this Carton and do you remember holding out your hand do you remember the look in their eye when they with fear in their eyes they're shaking I can't let it go this is my life this is my world because they know that that makes them happy yes and it's that fear heavenly father is asking us to trust that there's a greater happiness let go of all the things I'm asking you

to let go of trust that there's a greater happiness just like he says look take care of the birds they don't have a job I take care of them trust that heavenly father has a greater happiness for you let it go so going back to that concept of pornography and there is a natural high that comes from those from lust lust elicits a drug inside of us and there is a natural high that comes or if you think about the drug industry there's a reason why there's billions of dollars happening right and Heavenly father's simply

saying okay let it go don't worry about that and trust that there that what I'm I'm offering you is greater than what you're holding on to I just I think that's another way to read the end of 13 if you'll go back over those same verses and read it that way and H hear him say trust that you can let go of a lesser and I will feed you you with the greater cuz he says seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of these desires all of these needs all of your yearning remember

how he talked about being filled seek first the kingdom of God and all of those yearnings will be filled all of your Happ you will be happier by obeying Heavenly father's Commandments than by holding on to what you think makes you happy excellent so remember the brother of Jared the brother of Jared's having an experience at this point he's going to enter into God's presence he sees the finger of the lord and there is this exchange of information and well the beginning of the 14th chapter we're entering into that point and so the very first

few verses are all about judgment are you ready to be a sacral king and queen are you ready to be part of the Ben Elohim the sons of God to enter into that sacred presence to be with the gods well you to be a God you've got to know how to judge you've got to know how to see and you've got to know how to to judge and you got to be filled with all those attributes we've talked about in the beginning of the temple context of this passage you got to see right you got

to judge you got to see people clearly yeah that's what God's do which is why he says why do you behold the malat that is in your brother's eye and consider not the beam that is in your own so are you clearly seeing other people so that you can judge them because God sees clearly and I love that idea about going into the presence of the Father by learning to see if in Luke chapter 7 Jesus is invited to the house of a Pharisee who doesn't do anything that you know he doesn't offer to wash

his hands he doesn't give him anything and then in comes a woman who washes his feet with her tears and wipes him with the hairs of her head and anoints him and Simon sees it and there's this beautiful verse that says when Simon saw it it he thought within himself this man is a sinner this man isn't a prophet cuz he would have known what and who this woman is that toucheth him for she's a sinner now Simon only saw the sin Jesus then turns to Simon and says seest Thou this woman it's one of

my favorite moments seest thou this woman or do you only see the sin do you see the person that's what God sees is the woman not her actions and I just that if you're going to come into the father's presence one of the biggest hurdles is how you see other people how you criticize and condemn and judge because of what you filled your eyes with do you see the person he's told you know when um Samuel was told to go find anoint the new king and he was told it was one of Jesse's sons and

he walks into Jesse's house and here comes aliab who was big and tall and strong and Samuel says oh that's got to be the king he made a judgment based on his height and his stature and the Lord says no that's not how I see people I don't see the height of their stature I don't see the outward the Lord lookth upon the heart so if you're going to be a Celestial person you have to learn to see people like the Lord does and look upon the heart that's one of the biggest obstacles we face

in getting to the Celestial Kingdom there's why love my one of my favorite verses is in Doctrine Covenant section 46:15 that just out of in the middle of this discussion on the gifts of the Spirit the Lord shows us how he sees people it's a beautiful verse where he says the Lord suits his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men he sees you in the conditions that you're living in he sees more than just you he sees the whole circumstance and if you're going to be like Heavenly Father you have to see

people clearly CHR don't you think as being a father it's really taught you a lot about this yes yes because I live with my children long enough that I can see beyond what they did in that moment I can see intentions you can also see where they're headed right I can also see where they're moving right and when they need to be corrected because I can see them and that comes with your wisdom yeah do you remember when you were a little kid and you're like my mom and dad know everything right you remember being

that age and then you become an adult and you're like there's a lot I really don't know but I think about the wisdom that you have as a parent that you can see where they're headed you know their Tendencies and then you just expound that the God's wisdom and mercy and he wants us to partake of that divine nature he wants us to see people that way to me I love the going back to third Nephi 14 I love verse 5 you hypocrite cast out the beam out of your own eye cast it out of

your eye and then shalt thou See Clearly to me that's why this is here in The Sermon on the Mount you have to let go of all the silly beams that prevent you from seeing people clearly yeah and you have to learn to see as God sees and see them clearly so when you do then you approach ritually you're almost to the holy of holies now to get in you have to go through this piece of material called The Veil and so in verse 7 it says ask and it shall be given unto you seek

and you shall find knock and it shall be open unto you there's some early Christian literature that says this it says and this is attributed to Jesus this is not found in the New Testament but in this early Christian literature we have Jesus saying quote let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds and when he finds he will be astounded and having been astounded he will reign and having rained he will find rest that's entering the rest of God look at that you seek and you don't stop and when you find it you're

like the brother of Jared you're like what and then when you're astounded you're invited to Reign and when you Reign you find the rest of God I just find that beautiful so you have this three-fold petition as you approach now if you remember Helman 5 and if you remember 1i1 in both cases The Voice spoke three times both times because in both times in 351 and in Helman 5 ritually speaking it's the god of Heaven it's the god in the Oracle he is in the Dee and he is speaking the words the word the bar

that's what's happening here and so ritually it's going to be open in verse 7 and then verse 8 9 and 10 are in exchange of Messianic symbols verse 8 everyone that askthe findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened kind of sounds like that early text and what man is there of you who if his son will ask bread that's a Messianic symbol you'll give him a stone so on one level yeah if I'm a father my my son says I'm hungry I'm not GNA hand him a rock that's a really good reading

but a swed reading a sacred reading would be these are symbols of Christ and we're approaching God we have to know him or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent once again two Messianic symbols and so that the basic reading if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your father in Heaven which is good give good gifts to those that ask him but what we want to do is enter into God's presence and so Jesus is inviting us to ask to

seek to knock oras in this other text we just quoted don't stop asking and I think he's also sometimes we turn bread into stone we turn fish into serpents sometime God's gives me God gives me an experience for my good that hurts and I turn it into a stone cuz I see ill intent in God I don't understand why he would give me this negative experience because doesn't God love me isn't he supposed to only do good things for me do you remember when I benad I came in and said you need to repent and

he was harsh to them and they said no you're my enemy and they burned him and sometimes we do that with God we turn the bread into stone so if you not ask knock and seek means that you know and understand what God is doing in your life and that you don't turn your bread experiences into stone simply because they were painful some of the biggest blessings of my life have been the painful experiences that I went through and it really was bread God doesn't give Stones so to see God as the kind of being

that gives me Stones when I ask for bread to see God as the kind of being who gives serpents when I ask for fish you don't see him you don't know him you don't understand him therefore you can't enter in and be with him if you're going to enter in you need to understand who he is and trust him I love this verse in first Nephi chapter 2 they meaning Lon Layman and lamel they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them that's why we murmur is because we

have not learned who God is we haven't learned to trust him and and so this very end of The Sermon on the Mount is an appeal do you know me do you know who I am so he even addresses that in verse 21 not everyone that will say unto me Lord Lord shall enter into my kingdom but he that doeth the will of my father many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name in thy name have we not cast out devils and in thy name haven't we

done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them you never knew me and I never knew you I love the New Testament version says you never knew me the Book of Mormon version says I never knew you and the idea is you cannot enter into his presence until you have obtained the celestial attributes and you think like he thinks and act like he acts you have to let go of everything that's telestial and terrestrial and this final invitation once you're right there at the veil is to let go of all those last little

bits of mortality and see God as he is because you are that way and if you know him and if you love him you are welcomed in into his presence so we go through the gate 13th and 14th verse straight is the gate verse 14 straight is the gate eight and narrow is the way that leadth unto life and so we come into His presence and so when we're in his presence now what are we introduced to verse 17 we're introduced to a tree this is first Nephi 8 this is the end of the book

of Revelation this is also the creation narrative we are now in Sacred Space with the gods and so the question he asks is well even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit every tree that bringeth not good fruit is heed down and cast Into the Fire wherefore by their fruits you shall know them fruit tree just get your pen out and start circling these we're in the presence of God verse 21

not everyone that says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will so to get to enter in we have to do all these things but when we're in now ritually we're at the Throne of God which is established on a rock the foundation stone that's verse 24 and 25 a wise man builds his house and when we say house we're talking family on a rock and his fruit his posterity they come to Christ right we build our house on the rock and God builds our house when

we build his house he builds our house and so from a ritual first Israelite Temple perspective Jesus is speaking to these guys in the New Testament and in the Book of Mormon and we end on the rock this is Helman 512 Jesus is the stone in fact if you even take the word Stone Eben it's Eben father son Jesus is the father and the son he is the stone we're in his presence he takes us to the father and it doesn't say this in the Book of Mormon but I have to read this because it's

at the end of The Sermon on the Mount narrative and it's the end of chapter 7 and here it is verse 28 and 29 of Matthew 7 it came to pass when Jesus ended these Saints the people were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught as one having power the Greek word is actual power and not as the scribes Jesus is speaking Temple speak and he's saying do you want to enter into God's presence this is the way this is the way you do it and my testimony here is this was given to the fights

because it has clearly has application but also ritually they're in that space they're in his presence and my testimony is the Book of Mormon is all about Temple it's all about coming home to Heavenly Father and Jesus takes us there and I want to add I you I love this story about the wise men build his house upon the rock but we missed the precursor statement that came before that that is to illustrate a point and the point is who so heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them will I liken unto the wise men

in other words you are built upon the rock if you do the things he's just talked about so at the very end of this sermon he ends with an invitation okay I've taught I've given you an expectation now are you going to walk away from this discussion and start to let go of the terrestrial fruit that you're holding on to that's how you build upon the rock by doing the things he's taught you to do otherwise you're a man whose house has no Rock you're not on a rock and everything that comes all the winds

everything that comes in our society is going to wash that house away as we see happening all over the world today who don't have a rock to stand on but the only people who have a rock to stand on are those who do the things he has taught so Mike and I have tried our very best to share with you what the expectation is what he's taught you to do now the question is what are you going to do will you end today with one less hand around terrestrial fruit will you pull that hand out

today and if not now when and when are you going to do it cuz if you won't let go of it that box is going to pull you into a kingdom you may not really want to go to let go of the fruit that really doesn't make us happy and find the fruit that does thanks for listening that was great we'll see you next time talking scripture is not an official production of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the opinions expressed in this podcast are Mike and Bryce's opinions only we refer you to

official Church sources and the church website to clarify any doctrinal questions