Come Follow Me - Helaman 7-12 (Extended Version): The Johari Window

[Music] when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief May our testimonies be as deep and as strong as that of Jacob who when confounded by one who sought to destroy his faith declared I could not be shaken [Music] hello my friends I'm Jared Halon this is unshaken and I'm thrilled to have you back for some more scripture study this week last week we studied Helman chapter 1-6 we saw nephite Society go round and round the pride cycle and we saw the ministry of Nephi

and Lehi the sons of helan begin to unfold this week we'll pick up where we left off the ministry of Nephi will be our Focus we'll see a few more rounds of the pride cycle that never seems to go away and we'll set the stage for next week when we get to meet Samuel the lonite but I want to start this week talking about something called the Johari window it was developed by a pair of communication Scholars and the name comes from kind of an amalgamation of their two first names and it's called a window

because there are four pains to this what the jari window is trying to make sense of is how well do we know ourselves and how well do other people know us are there things about me that I know and they know we call that the open area are there things that they know about me but I don't seem to know about myself we call that the blind spot are there things that I know about myself but they don't know about me they call that the facade or the hidden area sometimes it's things we just don't

want people to know about us and then there's the area where I don't know about it and neither do they and as far as communication studies are concerned the point of the jari window is to try to get as much as you can into that open area so that you know yourself and so that others know you well if you're open to feedback then you can ask others what do you see in me that I might not see in myself help me emerge from my blind spot and if you're open with yourself and can handle

some greater transparency then you're open to sharing with others things that you know about yourself perhaps some weaknesses or struggles that they might not be aware of in hopes that then they'll help you with it in spiritual terms the basic idea is how do we bring things out of the darkness and into the light of course you can also flip the whole thing around and say instead of this being about me this could be about someone else what do they know about themselves that I also know we'd both agree on that there's the open space

compared to what do they want me to know about them that I do or do not know and what do they not want me to know about them which I do or do not know I introduce this concept today because this is the time in the book of Morman where the gadian and robbers really start coming to the for we saw the creation of this secret band last week and the idea of secrecy is key and to me that's where the Johari window comes in what do they not want me to know about them that's

the secrecy behind kishkumen and Gad Anon but today you'll see the prophet Nephi bringing some of those dark things out into the open and in ways that only a prophet can so if you were to take today's material and superimpose it over the Johari window you'd see nephite Society up in the open area the things that any member of nephite society would look around and say Yep this is the world we're living in these are our days as we'll see compare that to the blind spot area these are things that Nephi knows but the people

seem to be unaware of and so he's going to be crying repentance in hopes of waking them up to those realities Gadi antin meanwhile works on the other axis things that they know that they're doing wrong that they don't want people to know about hiding behind their own facade keeping people in the darkness we'll see Nephi bringing some of that out into the open as well when he miraculously reveals the murderer of the chief judge we'll see that in a few chapters overall when you take a spiritual view of the jari window what amazes me

is to see this tug of war where you see God and His prophets trying to bring everything towards that open space so that we can know as we are known as Paul taught the Corinthians to bring the hidden things of Darkness into light the scriptures talk about our iniquities being spoken upon the housetops or not having a cloak to hide our sins behind unmasking evil or hypocrisy there will be no facade at the last day so things you know about yourself that others don't know well eventually everyone will know and the flip side things that

aren't known to you things that are in your blind spot will you'll be made painfully aware of but painful only for for a short period pricking our conscience opening our eyes to see the things that were in our blind spot so that we can repent of them and bring those into the light again as far as the Johari window is concerned the purpose of God is to bring everything into that open area so you can probably guess what the adversary's goal is to bring everything down into that hidden space his favorite is probably to bring

as much as possible down into that facade area because that's where hypocrisy Reigns it's interesting how often he will try to get us to do things with feigned Promises of anonymity it's what he said to Cain right you can murder and get gain we saw that last week and then the ironic promise and no one will know here we are thousands of years later still talking about it printed in black and white in the most well- read book on Earth the Bible and yet trying to convince us to keep things in the darkness meanwhile he

also tries to keep us in the dark moving more and more things into our blind spot increasing our ignorance or even temp us towards willful ignorance you see those two corners if he can get us into the ignorance and the hypocrisy then he's starting to move things into this realm of the unknown perhaps this is the simplest way to make sense of things prophets are trying to pull us toward the first quadrant full transparency perfect knowledge nothing to hide they pull us out of hypocrisy by showing us that we can't keep the truth hidden from

God and they pull us out of ignorance to show us things that we can't otherwise see especially about our own mistakes they even reveal the unknown bringing to our understanding things that we couldn't possibly know in any other way the adversary meanwhile pulls us away from the first quadrant his ultimate goal is to get everything into that fourth complete lack of knowledge he does that by pulling us towards ignorance denying what we know even a willful ignorance at times and towards hypocrisy hiding our sins keeping those in the darkness and he even pulls us towards

the kind of skepticism and relativism that denies that anything can be known at all all you see God wants us to know all so he constantly invites us to ask to seek to knock that eliminates our blind spot he also invites us to tell to confess our sins for example that eliminates the facade he wants us to be open to feedback what am I not seeing here and to be open about ourselves letting people know about our weakness where we need help all of that requires us to be vulnerable which puts a premium Upon Our

Own humility at the opposite extreme Satan wants us to know nothing so he seeks to minimize our introspection and our confession he doesn't want us to look inward to overcome our blind spot or to let others know who we really are to overcome our facade in fact he wants us to think we already know everything that way we're denying our ignorance which actually makes it grow and he tries to convince us to keep secrets from others especially secrets about ourselves which increases the hypocrisy hiding behind that facade both of those elements thinking we know and

not wanting others to know are centered in Pride in some ways both extremes and both pulls this tug of war are described back in Alma 12: 10- 11 where what's God's ultimate goal that we might know his Mysteries until we know them in full whereas the adversary's goal is that we might know nothing concerning God's Mysteries that's the tug-of war that's taking place across the Johari window and that's the tug of war we'll see today in this second part of helan you'll see the the prophet Nephi pulling people towards knowledge pulling away the facade of

the gadian and robbers and crying repentance to pull people out of their blind spot and you'll see the Gad an and robbers pulling people towards Darkness there is no sin you don't have to worry about how you might feel about those things and we're not doing anything wrong here so don't peek behind the curtain and it's all going to revolve around this episode during the ministry of Nei now back in chapter 5 we saw Nephi teaching throughout nephite territory and the land of zarahemla teaching both Nephites and lamanites later in chapter 5 he goes further

south into the land of Nephi that's where he's imprisoned and he and his brother have that incredible experience there talk about the tug of war between Darkness and Light right then in Helman 6 many of the lamanites moved to the land northward and Ne finally I go there as well to preach unto them and it's there that we'll pick up with them here at the beginning of chapter 7 you see in verse one he and his brother are coming back home to the land of zarahemla from the land northward verse two he'd been up there

preaching the the word of God unto them prophesying many things but in verse three here's the bad news they did reject all his words in so much that he could not stay among them but returned again unto the land of his Nativity unfortunately things at home aren't any better than what he'd seen up north in verse four notice the description of what he's coming home to seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness why because those Gadi Anan robbers filled the Judgment seats they usurped power and authority of the land just like they

had wanted ambition and materialism pride and greed and now that they're in charge what can they do lay aside the Commandments of God not even doing the least a right before him and doing no justice unto the children of men again you change the law you're free to do all of that verse five Society really has been turned on its head they are condemning the righteous because of their righteousness Isaiah described this when he talked about good being called evil and evil being called good people replacing sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet that's exactly

what's Happening Here righteousness has become so looked down upon that it's condemned by the wicked they're not just Unapologetic in their own wickedness they have turned the tables on the righteous they let the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money remember what we saw in the previous verse there's no more justice among the people well if you can pay your way out of problems if power and wealth are on your side then you can do whatever you want have you noticed that sometimes in our society as well there seems to be a

double standard for the wealthy they can get away with things they can either pay their way out of it or there's such an esteem that follows in the wake of wealth and we just let things slide we don't hold them to the same standard we hold other people verse 5 continues those are actually held in office at the head of government to rule and do according to their Wills that they might get gain and glory of the world you see the cycle just keeps deepening and moreover that they might the more easily commit adultery and

steal and kill and do according to their own Wills we've seen a lot of that throughout our study of the Book of Mormon and worse we see a lot of it in the society that we're a part of today do we see righteousness condemned do we see wickedness working its way even buying its way to respectability if it's making you money it must not be wrong if they're trying to get gain and Glory it's the same pride and greed ambition and materialism we keep on seeing if they do that to more easily commit adultery well

added that to the previous two and now you have the three Temptations of Christ all over again stones to bread that's lust of the flesh there's adultery throw yourself from the temple there's Pride there's get the glory of the world and worship me and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world well there's materialism or getting gain in fact right there in verse 5 you see sex violence and money the three things that sell movie tickets the three things that seem to becoming more and more an inherent part of our culture especially that last line

is relevant that people just want to do according to their own Wills you do you no judgment no standard there's the individualism and the Hedonism and the relativism that seem to reign in our day as well and shockingly verse 6 says that this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites in the space of not many years no matter how old or young you and I might be I think we could probably say the same looking back just the past few years have things gotten worse is there an acceleration of wickedness no wonder when Nephi sees

it his heart was swollen with sorrow within his breast hopefully we're feeling something similar not despair not hopelessness but taking sinfulness seriously enough that at least it causes us sorrow but what to do with that sorrow Nephi First turns it upward and then he turns it outward interesting Twist on the two great Commandments love God and loving neighbor well he turns to God first and then he turns out to his neighbor and in verse 7-9 we have a very partial account we'll see that it lasts much longer than three verses but here we have that

partial account of Nephi's prayer to God speaking of that prayer at the end of verse six it says that he did exclaim it in the agony of his soul this is heartfelt this is deep for him in verse 11 it says that he poured out his soul unto God sounds a lot like enus there Soul hungering lifting his voice High until it reached the heavens in verse 14 the way he describes that prayer of pouring out my soul unto my God I love the personal pronouns there this is my soul and I am pouring it

out to my God a very personal connection here between heavenly father and a son who needs him in fact before we get to the prayer itself notice verse 10 11 and 12 where it happens and what's happening as he prays in verse 10 it came to pass that it was upon a tower which was in the garden of Nephi which was by the highway which led to the chief Market which was in the city of zarahemla this seems to be a very visible place although he does not seem to be doing this to be seen

of men this is not Nephi's ramum if anything it's a lot closer to King Benjamin's Tower the better to cry repentance from which is what he's going to do here but he does go up and away from the world around him this is in some ways is a closet of sorts a separation from his surroundings in hopes of connecting instead to God but what's amazing about it is as he's praying and again this is What suggests that it's a lot longer than what we see in three verses in verse 11 there were certain men passing

by this was a busy street right the road that led to the chief Market in zarema as they are passing by they see Nephi pouring out his soul unto God upon the tower and so they run they tell the people what they'd seen and the people come to together in multitudes so that they could also know what's the cause of such great mourning for the wickedness of the people and then in verse 12 when Nephi arises from his prayer he sees the multitude who' gathered together this must have been such an intense prayer that he

was completely oblivious to the fact that the multitudes are gathering in the middle of it honestly from my own experience those seem to be some of the most powerful public prayers I've ever offered is where the public seems to disappear and as I close my eyes it really does feel like I'm alone with Heavenly Father speaking to him instead of speaking to the congregation sometimes our prayers devolve into some kind of horizontal communication alone but will people think of me I I hope they like my prayer instead of closing our eyes and in the process

closing out the World opening our minds and hearts to God Alone instead that seems to be Nephi's Focus just blinders on can you imagine giving this kind of a prayer and multitudes Gathering that seems like it would be kind of loud or disruptive but such was the intense focus of Nephi he seems completely oblivious until it's Amen and then looks up and thinks whoa where did all of you come from and what was it that he'd said in that beautifully powerfully focused prayer we saw hints of it last week in introducing the beginning of the

book of heilman but let's read it a little more closely here verse seven oh that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem remember when dad helon had named his sons Nephi and Lehi he told them every time you remember your name remember the people I named you after remember how good they were and try to be good as well well this Nephi must have taken that advice but the more he thought about that ancestor Nephi the more he thought man I wish

I could have lived in those days if I did then I could have joyed with him in the promised land because by now my people seem to take this promised land for granted they no longer care about the responsibilities that go along with the rights attached to this land of promise and as we know from the doctor in covenants if we do not do what God says then we have no promise then they took the promised land seriously then were his people easy to be intreated either he's choosing to forget about Layman and lemel here

or perhaps he's focusing on the period after the split when the Nephites are intentionally choosing to follow Nephi placing their faith in his prophetic guidance it's that group that was firm to keep the Commandments of God that was slow to be led to do iniquity that was quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord again still nostalgic in verse 8 yay if my days could have been in those days then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren instead what does he feeling sorrow in the wickedness of his people verse

9 he then says that beautiful phrase we talked about last week but behold I am consigned that these are my days now the word consign can have multiple meanings one is to commit to assign to entrust I've been entrusted with these days it's my responsibility to make the most of them like Elder Irene said that we quoted last week not just to endure the storms but to choose the right we they rage I've been consigned to that then again there's a more negative connotation of Consign and that means to relegate as if to get rid

of something we sometimes talk about consignment stores like that I don't need it anymore I don't want it you take it and hopefully Nephi is not feeling like that I've been consigned to these days some of you are in difficult circumstances trying to help build faith in a very struggling Branch we're trying to raise kids in a community that doesn't care much for right and wrong perhaps you were called to serve a mission in a place where people didn't necessarily gravitate to the Gospel of Jesus Christ I hope you choose the right definition of consign

that you weren't relegated you weren't sent to some offthe grid location as an an attempt to get rid of you you you can't do as much damage over there no you've been consigned committed assigned entrusted with a difficult circumstance will we live up to that responsibility will we embrace our days knowing that God has put us into the position where we are for such a time as this that's actually a third definition of consign to submit to agree to consent to be resigned to one's fate that's yielding like King Benjamin said yielding to the enticings

of The Spirit Well in this case it's yielding to the time and place that God has placed Us in these are are our days may we be consigned to that I think that's the point that Nephi is getting to and he's ready to roll up his sleeves and get at it this wrestling that Nephi is going through to try to come to grips with the time that he's living in these dark days that are his own actually reminded me of of a few of my favorite quotes from The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR

tolkki in The Fellowship of the Ring there's a point when Frodo realizing what he's up against and what he has to do in destroying the ring turns to G Dophin says I wish it need not have happened in my time you kind of get a sense of that Nostalgia that Nephi is feeling I wish I'd lived in earlier easier days but Gandalf's response to Frodo so do I and so do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide all we have to decide is what to do with the

time that is given us Nephi is coming to grips with that these are my days and I'll make the most of them fast forward two books and by the time you get to the Return of the King Gandalf puts it this way it is not our part to master all the tides of the world but to do what is in us for the sucker of those years wherein we are set uprooting the evil in the fields that we know so that those who live after may have clean Earth to till what weather they shall have

is not ours to rule I hope you get a sense of that as we watch Nephi's Ministry unfold I can't do everything I can't solve all the world's problems I cannot affect the future permanently but these are my days great then let me take a hold of them and make a difference in them confident that there will yet be later gardeners planting flowers pulling weeds praying for good weather making a difference in their days just like I'm trying to make a difference in my own now more fully resigned to his fate more consigned to his

days lifting his head seeing the multitudes having assembled he shifts from speaking vertically to God to speaking horizontally to this gathered multitude and from verse 13 all the way to the end of this chapter is Nephi's sermon he begins with a question in verse 13 again he's probably startled to see all these people there and he wonders why behold why have you gathered yourselves together in other words why are you here He suggests one possibility at the end of that verse that I may tell you of of your iniquities that's an interesting curiosity are you

here out of voyerism you just want to see somebody pouring out their heart to God again if people are being condemned for their righteousness then perhaps it's so rare you don't get to see this kind of pouring out of Soul very often but what feelings what desires lie behind your desire to view this if you're here to find out about your iniquities is it out of Pride almost rejoicing in this sin almost a ner ner look at the pain we're causing this so-called Prophet there does seem to be a certain hardness that I sometimes see

in society wanting their own wickedness to be on display for the world I'm curious to see how people are going to react to it almost the the shock and awe of sin or is yours a more humble approach have you come in hopes that I will open up this Johari window and help you see your blind spot so that as I testify of your iniquities you'll be able to recognize them and repent again what is your attitude in coming what was my attitude in climbing this Tower it wasn't to be seen of you verse 14

I've got upon my tower to pour out my soul to my God because of the exceeding sorrow of my heart and that sorrow grows out of your iniquities important details here this is sorrow it's not anger it's not frustration it's not pride in fact it's not about Nephi I think sometimes we get caught up in this I'm supposed to be serving in this calling or I'm supposed to be succeeding in this mission and all these people are getting in the way of it it's about me and they're stopping me from finding the success I always

pictured I don't sense any of that in Nephi it's not about him it's about them wickedness never was happiness I get that my great grandpa taught that to my great uncle and so it's your sorrow whether you recognize it or not that is causing my own verse 15 because of my mourning and lamentation ye have gathered yourselves together and do Marvel and that's good you have great need to Marvel you ought to Marvel but not marveling at my sorrow not marveling at my prayer marveling at your own wickedness marveling that you are given away that

the devil has got so great hold upon your hearts interesting phrase to be given away in fact they've given themselves away to the devil it's interesting because if something is given away then possession has changed hands and whose were they they were meant to belong to the Lord he did purchase them with a price after all and yet here he doesn't even say they have sold themselves that phrase appears elsewhere in scripture instead they've just given themselves away which is actually more accurate than selling themselves since Satan has nothing to buy you with we either

allow the Lord to purchase us except his redemption or we have given ourselves away to the adversary there's a simp similar phrase in 16 Y how could you have given way in 15 you are given away now you have given way to what to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to Everlasting misery and endless woe to give way to someone who wants to hurl away your soul why would you yield to that when we should be yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit verse 17 that seems to

be his invitation oh repent ye repent ye why will ye die turn ye turn ye unto the Lord your God why has he forsaken you beautiful invitations and rhetorical questions in that verse turning is repenting it's the same invitation and death or being forsaken by God that's the same result of ignoring that call to change verse 18 it is because you have hardened your Hearts that's what happens when the devil has such a great hold upon them like we saw in 15 he hardens those hearts and hopes that they're not fleshy tables for God to

write upon yay ye will not hearken unto the voice of the Good Shepherd yeah you have provoked him to anger against you and instead of gathering you except you will repent behold he shall scatter you forth that you shall become meat for dogs and wild beasts this is strong language it actually reminds me a lot of ainad trying to paint paint very graphically the consequences of sin since softer invitations don't seem to be doing anything verse 20 how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you talk about a

short memory that has to be willful ignorance that's Echoes of the pride cycle as well right in the very day he's delivered you what's the next step in the cycle you turn to Pride and that's exactly what He suggests in verse 21 it's to get gain to be praised of the world if that's the only reason you're in the prosperity portion then no wonder Deliverance doesn't last long you're being pulled towards Pride before you even get to settle down in the prosperity stage get gain Praise of men that ye might get gold and silver you've

set your hearts upon the riches and the vain things of this world for the which you do murder and plunder and steal and bear false witness against your neighbor and do all manner of iniquity you see he had seen all of that back in verse 4 and 5 right we saw at the beginning that is well known to him but back to Johari's Window he wants to make sure it is known to them you cannot afford to keep wickedness in your own blind spot or you'll never repent of it and it will lead to your

destruction so he is bringing it out into the open verse 22 for this cause woe shall come upon you except you shall repent if you will not repent this great City all the other great cities round about you'll have no place in them because the Lord will not Grant unto you you strength as he has hitherto done to withstand against your enemies we saw that last week too man for man Nephites are no stronger than lamanites and since numbers always seem to be on the lonite side we're in trouble your pride kicked out God's presence

in your life and without his enabling power the strength of the Lord you're left to your own strength and it will not be sufficient verse 23 confirms that thus sayeth the Lord I will not show unto the wicked of my strength to one more than the other save it be unto those who repent of their sins and hearken unto my words it's that turning that repenting that humbling of oneself that pulls you away from the destruction side because it introduces God's strength back into your life end of 23 and end of 24 he then Compares

his nephite audience to the lamanites that they tend to look down upon and he says it's going to be better for them than for you because you are sinning against a greater light and thus we receive a greater condemnation verse 25 the problem here is that you have not just allowed great Abomination to come among you but you've actually United yourself unto it yay to that secret band which was established by gadianton now we're getting closer to this facade side of the Johari window and he's going to call out the gadian and robbers scary dangerous

thing to do but he's got the guts to do it 26 yay woe shall come unto you because of that Pride which you have suffered to enter through your hearts and making it more and more clear this is the pride cycle we're dealing with and that Pride Has Lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceedingly great riches there seems to be a goldilock Zone there too of how do you feel about yourself is your self-esteem high enough to recognize that you are a child of God who is worth worlds to him

or has your pride lifted you up beyond that which is good so 28 again the call to repent except you repent You Shall Perish your land shall be taken from you you shall be destroyed from off the face of the Earth just wait for the chair to swivel Pride always leads to destruction and in verse 29 I'm not saying this for my sake I'm saying it for yours and I'm not saying it just because this is my own opinion I do not say these things shall be of myself because it's not of myself that I

know them I know these things are true because the Lord God has made them known unto me therefore I testify that they shall be now Nephi's post prayer sermon is over and what has he done in terms of the Johari window if there's any ignorance in the Sin of the Nephites he has pulled them away from their blind spot out into the light this is what is going wrong this is what you're doing wrong and this is how you come home you've got to repent meanwhile what's he doing to the Gadi an and robbers some

of whom are among this mixed multitude he's pulling them out from behind their facade he's making known to others what they were hoping to keep to thems elves this secrecy and notice everyone's response in chapter 8 the first 10 verses describe the people's reaction verse one there were men who were judges who also belonged to the secret band of gadianton and what's their response as we might expect they were angry now verse four tells us why they were so angry they were angry with him because he spake plainly unto them concerning their secret works of

darkness you see those two words side by side plainly versus Secret they're trying to keep things in the darkness Nephi is trying to pull them towards the light he's getting them out of the facade quadrant of the jari window and they don't want that so they want to put a stop to what Nephi is saying but they can't and this is ironic because they're the judges right they're the leaders of the people if something has happened a Miss if Nephi has done something illegal then they have every right themselves to arrest him to punish him

to silence him but they can't do any of that because Nephi has done anything wrong and they know it in fact they're worried that the people might know it too notice the end of verse four they D not lay their own hands upon him even though those are the hands that bear The Authority right but they can't lay their hands upon him for they feared the people lest they should cry out against them this is like in the New Testament the Pharisees knew they couldn't say anything against John the Baptist because he was such a

popular people's Prophet so these judges are worried about popular opinion as well so what's their hope their only hope is to turn popular opinion against Nephi again I can't do anything against Nephi I keep trying to change the law but as of yet Nephi hasn't done anything against it so I don't have any authority to silence him but if I can get the people to go from supporting him to opposing him then they'll take care of the Dirty Work This is pilate washing his hands see ye to it I've already admitted I find no guilt

in this man but if it's true that vokes pop will is V's day the voice of the people is the voice of God then let's try to turn public opinion against him notice how they do it in verse one and two they cry out against Nephi saying unto the people why do ye again it's all about you you need to do this we can't why do ye not seize upon this man and bring him forth that he may be condemned according to the crime which he has done there's the irony if he really has committed

a crime then the those judges themselves have every right and every responsibility to take care of it but they know there are no crimes done we see that confirmed at the end of verse three Nephi didn't speak anything which was contrary to the Commandments of God and hadn't done anything contrary to the laws of man either but these judges can twist his words to at least make it look like he's done this verse two why seest thou this man and heest him revile against this people and against our law not Nephi's done neither he hasn't

spoken out against their law he's confirmed the right law to their condemnation they're the ones that are breaking the Commandments of God again this is such an echo of abinadi before King Noah and the wicked priests accusing him you have reviled against our law no I've spoken in support of your law to your condemnation same thing's happening here so you take some kind of sacred cow even though they're the ones that are destroying it the law you see the hypocrisy there we're the ones trying to change the law to make righteousness more easily condemned and

wickedness more easily supported and yet here's this so-called Prophet that's speaking against the law and he's speaking against this people come on folks you got to take this personally he's reviled you instead of what Nephi has really done separated Sin from Sinner and asked these Sinners to overcome their sin repent why else would you die turn to the Lord come to him verse it's more of the same they cry unto the people saying why do you suffer this man to revile against us you see we're part of you he's not he's the outsider he's reviling

you he's reviling us for behold he doth condemn all this people even unto destruction which wasn't correct either he was only condemning the wicked that's what would bring upon destruction he isn't condemning all this people and the moment you repent you're no longer under that condemnation at all but these dire threats threats stoking fear these are great cities shall be taken from us we shall have no place in them and then taking a page from the wicked people of amah's book they say in verse 6 we know that this is impossible we are powerful our

cities are great therefore our enemies can have no power over us sound like Layman and lemel defending the people in Jerusalem again sound like amona oh even if you said that this city should be destroyed in one day we know that couldn't possibly happen or any of us whenever we try to deny the consequences of sin oh it won't happen to us we're strong enough to get out of it verse seven This Is How They stir up the people to anger against Nephi this is how they raise contentions among them that's an interesting tactic as

well to raise contentions among them it's like splitting this group into subgroups in hopes that they'll start fighting each other either way that contention is of the devil we'll find out in 3 ne1 drives out the spirit of the Lord just get people angry you don't even care what they're angry about or who they're angry against but there are some in verse 7 who cry out in Nephi's defense let this man alone and they base their defense on two details number one he's a good man there's the witness of character and number two he's right

about what we've been doing wrong you see for some of these people it wasn't blind spot it was facade that was the problem and Nephi saw straight through it and they recognize that middle of verse 8 we know that he has testified a right unto us concerning our iniquities he's ripped off the cover he's pulled aside the curtain he knows things about us we didn't want anybody to know and who can do that but a prophet that's the sense in verse 9 behold if he had not been a prophet he could not have testified concerning

those things and if he's been right about our present and our past then why couldn't he be right about our future that's the sense they're getting at the end of verse S those things which he saith will surely come to pass except we repent verse 8 all the judgments will come upon us which he has testified unto us again because we know that he's testified a right concerning our iniquities now in verse 10 those people who sought to destroy Nephi were compelled because of their fear not to lay their hands upon him he'd gained favor

in the eyes of some others were afraid of his influence so Nephi saw an opportunity to continue speaking and that's exactly what he did and from vers 11 all the way to the end of this chapter we see his sermon continue picking up where he left off in chapter 7 this time though he calls some additional witnesses to the stand after all although some people seem to be supporting him down below he probably feels a little lonely up there on top of his Tower well he's got a whole cloud of witnesses to call upon verse

11 he starts with Moses behold my brethren have you not read that God gave power unto one man even Moses to Smite upon the the Waters of the Red Sea and they parted hither and thither in so much that the Israelites who were our fathers came through upon dry ground the waters closed upon the armies of the Egyptians and swallowed them up now what's he getting at by invoking The Exodus verse 12 if God can give unto this man such power then why can't he give me power too why dispute among yourselves and say that

he hath given unto me no power whereby I may know concerning the judgments that shall come upon you except you repent ah that's why you invoked Moses it's kind of like Nephi with his brothers if God can help Moses get Israel out from Pharaoh's thumb then why can't he help us get the brass plates from laan or as he says later as they're building the ship if God can help Moses part the waters then he could do the same thing to me and compared to that him telling me how to build a ship is a

piece of cake same thing here if God can part Waters and free Israel for Egyptian bondage then why can't he inspire me to know know how to tell you to escape the bondage of your own sin and then he takes that example of Moses and turns it to the real point he's trying to make here verse 13 but behold you not only deny my words but you also deny all the words which have been spoken by our fathers and also The Words which were spoken by this man Moses it's like speaking of Moses here's something

he taught So speaking of Moses what did he talk about he had great power given unto him and the words that he spoke were concerning the coming of the Messiah ah here's the point I'm trying to make this is not about Moses this is about the Messiah so I call Moses to the stand basically to testify of God's power in allowing the impossible to become possible God did that in Moses's case he's doing that in my own but while I've got you on the stand Moses what is it that you really want to talk about

oh I want to talk about the coming of the Messiah verse 14 did he not bear record that the Son of God should come and as he lifted up the Brazen serpent in the wilderness even so shall he be lifted up who should come remember Nephi's point is to cry repentance and repentance only comes about through the Redemption of Jesus Christ so let's talk about him that's the point of this discourse if chapter 7's sermon was about what you're doing wrong then chapter 8's sermon is about what the Lord will do to make things right

he will be raised up like the Brazen serpent verse 15 so look and live as many as should look upon that servant should live even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith having a contrite spirit which is what I'm trying to draw out of you through these cries to repent if you do you'll live even that life which is eternal now 16 Moses wasn't the only one to testify of these things all the holy prophets have from Abraham on down 17 Abraham saw the messiah's coming it filled him with

gladness he rejoiced 18 Abraham wasn't alone in that there were many before the days of Abraham who were called by the order of God yeah even after the order of his son and this that it should be shown unto the people a great many thousand years before his coming that even Redemption should come unto them you see what Nephi is trying to do to convince this jury to pass judgment upon sin and wickedness to pass judgment upon the gadianton judges themselves and to repent and turn to the Lord I call Moses to the stand I

call Abraham to the stand I call Holy prophets before and after in 19 there have been many prophets who have testified these things I call Zenus to the stand he testified boldly for the which he was slain you see Gadi an and robbers I know what you're after too to silence the prophet so no one stands in your way in verse 20 I call zenic to the stand and isias and Isaiah and Jeremiah in fact let's stick with Jeremiah for a second since he testified of the destruction of Jerusalem just like I'm testifying of the

destruction of nephite civilization if we don't wake up and repent we knew he was right about that too with the benefit of hindsight which is always 2020 we know that Jeremiah was right after all 21 are you going to dispute that Jerusalem was destroyed it's one thing for Layman and lemel to wonder and say no it probably didn't happen it couldn't possibly have been destroyed but we can't make those kind of glib denials the sons of zedekiah King in Jerusalem at the time yes his sons were slain but not all of them what about muck

who came to the Americas just like Father Lehi did we know from them that Jerusalem was destroyed verse 22 how about bringing Lehi and Nephi our ancestors to the witness stand Our Father Lehi was driven out of Jerusalem because he testified of these things Nephi testified of these things almost all of our fathers even down to this time yay they have testified of the coming of Christ and have looked forward and have rejoiced in his day which is to come I'm not just here to give Prophecies of Doom and Gloom I'd much rather declare the

Good Tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people I want to rejoice in the Lord with you but to turn you to him I have to pull you out of your blind spot and remove the facade that you're hiding behind you need to know as you are known youve not to clearly see where you stand and once you do you'll know you need Christ and you will look forward to his coming and rejoice in that as the only hope we have verse 23 he is God and he is with them he's with all

of those Witnesses he manifests himself unto them they were Redeemed by him they gave unto him glory because of that which is to come are you ready to do likewise are you ready to to join them and join me and most importantly join the Lord to be with him as he wants to be with you that he might manifest himself unto you that you can be redeemed of him so that you can glory in him just like these prophets that went before you come into the cloud of witnesses now 24 now seeing you know these

things and cannot deny them except ye shall lie again he's pulling everything into the open space that open Forum I know it you know it sure you can lie and keep things in this intentional blind spot this willful ignorance on your part sure you can keep sinning and hope that it doesn't come out into the open up till now you've rejected all these things not withstanding so many evidences which you have received again this is the court case that Nephi is laying out before them he's called witness after witness to the stand and he's laid

out all of this evidence now they need to decide as judge and jury you have received all things both in heaven and all things in the Earth as a witness that they are True Q Alma's testimony against kahor unfortunately verse 25 up till now ye have rejected the truth and rebelled against your holy God he's yours if you'll have him and you'll be his because he will have you even at this time instead of laying up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where nothing doth corrupt and where nothing can come which is unclean ye are heaping

up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment choose what you want to pile up there Heavenly Treasures or Divine wrath you are heaping up constantly one or the other verse 26 at this time you are ripening because of your murders and your fornication and your wickedness ripening for Everlasting destruction and except you repent it will come unto you soon it is now even at your doors you sense this urgency on Nephi's part yay go ye in unto the Judgment seat and search behold your judge is murdered he lieth in his blood and he hath

been murdered by his brother who seeketh to sit in the Judgment seat wow this must have even taken Nephi by surprise I doubt this was some kind of intentional Crescendo he was leading up to it just came out of his open mouth as God filled it you want more evidence that I can see the sin within you speaking rather generally well then let me speak very specifically of one particular sin that has just been committed something that I couldn't possibly know you see as a prophet trying to pull everything into that open space on the

Johari window you see even if you have just good mortal eyes if you're quick to observe then you can probably do a lot to pull people out of the blind spot and out out from behind the facade but to pull things out from the hidden space that nobody knows well only a God can do that or in this case a god inspired Prophet I'll tell you something that not only you don't know or that you don't want others to know I'll tell you what nobody knows including me without the help of God the judge is

dead and his brother did it and then verse 28 behold they both belong to your secret band not so secret after all whose author is Gad Anon of course gadianton doesn't deserve all the credit and the evil one who seeketh to destroy the souls of men talk about bringing Darkness out into the light talk about making the Unknown Known talk about speaking plainly of what others want to keep in secret and the irony here both victim and perpetrator are part of the same band there is no loyalty no love loss on that side of things

vain ambition always spells the death of Brotherly Love it's just now being personified right before you go and look you'll see the painful truth well in chapter nine they do go and look and they do see the painful truth verses 1-5 tell the tale five people that were there at the foot of Nephi's Tower go running to the Judgment seat to see what they can find now it says in verse two we don't believe believe what he said but now at least we'll have evidence I'm going with skepticism disbelief is my default here but if

it's true then I'll believe him this would be the sign that I need the evidence he talked about that in chapter 8 well this is the evidence that I would want there's no other possible way he could know this so if he knows this then I definitely trust that he knows the future consequences of our sin and that he knows the gravity of those sins to begin with now when they get to the Judgment seat and see that it was exactly as Nephi had described then they do believe verse 5 when they saw they believed

fear Came Upon them lest all the judgments which Nephi had spoken should come upon the people and they quaked and they fell to the earth now here we start to see different levels of belief or different kind of timetable almost you have a Nephi who believes without having to be shown anything I'll open my mouth and I'll let God fill it and I'll Trust everything that he reveals to me then you get some people that we met back in chapter 8 who believe in Nephi as a prophet because he was right about their wickedness they

recognize at least that much now then you have this next level these five that go out in search of their sign I want real proof something that Nei couldn't possibly know in any other way and now they believe but then later we'll also see there were others that even with that proof that evidence still refuse to believe in simplest terms number one there are those who believe without seeing that's Nephi number two there are those that believe only once they see those are these five who fainted and then third there are those who will not

believe even when they see and that describes those judges and other members of gadian and's secret band now we don't need to get into too much detail in this story but the five who run to see if it's true they faint out of just shocked that it actually was right but as they're passed out at the scene of the crime with the body of the judge right there in front of them well people that didn't know anything that was going on at Nephi's Tower come by see this scene and think wow God must have stopped

them in their tracks he halted the flight these five must be the ones who killed the king and so they sent him to prison well some more time passes eventually this multitude they weren't as quick as the five but they come over and start wondering what's going on end up asking the people well where are the five people who came to check it out first and they're like well I don't know anything about five people coming to check it out but we do know the five people that killed him they're in prison well wait this

is sounding kind of coincidental who are these five they bring them out and realize oh these are the ones that came immediately to see if it was true they did not do it they've got a good Alibi we can all back them up for that and so they're free and in fact right as they're free this is Verse 18 they begin rebuking the judges in the words that they've spoken against Nephi and contend with them one by one in so much that they did confound them in fact if you jump ahead to verse 39 some

of the Nephites believe on Nephi's words and then there were some also who believed because of the testimony of the five for they had been converted while they were in prison these Skeptics turned converts then turned missionary and started sharing with others in prison you got to trust in this Nephi guy he can know things that no one else could know I guess we could add one more entry then on our list of how people come to believe or not believe those five only believe when they Sofer themselves and yet the people that they taught

believed on their words a lot of different ways we can come to know for ourselves well where are the members of the Gadi antin band in all of this go back to verse 16 you see if they were worried about popular opinion backing up Nephi before then it's only going to get worse now he's just given them a sign provided them with a miracle was enough for the five right now in 16 what do they do they come up with a new possibility they try to explain it away they say in 16 behold we know

now we know really well no this is your insinuation your guess but your accusation we know that this Nephi must have agreed with someone to slay the judge that he might declared unto us that he might convince us unto his faith that he might raise himself to be a great man chosen of God and a prophet talk about the pot calling the kettle black accusing him of the kind of self-aggrandizing manipulations and intrigues that they themselves were guilty of you're the ones that are trying to raise yourselves into some great men you're the ones trying

to convert the multitudes to see things the way you do in fact you're the ones that agree among yourselves to let the wicked Go free if as long as they can pay their way remember the secret Oaths and plans of the gadian and robbers such hypocrisy here accusing Nephi of doing everything that they are doing themselves well in spite of those five newly converted that are there defending Nephi in 19 those other judges caus that Nephi should be taken bound brought before the multitude and they begin to question him in diverse ways that they might

cross him that they might accuse him to death just like the priest of Noah had done with abedi in 20 they say thou art Confederate who is this man that hath done this murder tell us acknowledge thy fault and then shockingly they say behold here is money so bribing him and not only bribing him with money bribing him with his life also we will grant unto theee thy life if thou will tell us and acknowledge the agreement which thou Hast made with him that's an interesting plea bargain if you've been an accessory to the murder

of the judge I don't know how leniency could even be an option here but you see what they're trying to do is we just we have to character assassinate Nephi we have to remove any possibility of influence he's the one standing in our way so if we can discredit him before the multitude I mean we don't care what happened to the chief judge big deal political assassinations happen all the time remember Gad Anton's band was on both the receiving and giving end of this one but we've got to get Nephi out of the way so

we won't punish you in fact we'll pay you whatever it takes to remove your street cred among the multitude 21 Nephi sees straight through it oh ye fools ye uncircumcised of heart you blind you stiff necked people do you have any idea how long the Lord your God will suffer you that you shall go on in this your way of sin 22 you ought to begin to howl and mourn because of the great destruction which at this time do await you except ye shall repent he's picking up where he left off in chapter 7 and

in chapter 8 here in chapter n he then sums up the accusation that they are throwing at him that sorum who's the chief judge is dead because I agreed behind the scenes with his brother sanum to kill him well here's what you need to do I'll give you another sign since the first one seems to be insufficient for your hardened Hearts verse 26 go to the house of cantam the brother of sorum and this is what you need to say 27 has Nephi the pretended Prophet who doth prophesy so much evil concerning this people agreed

with thee in the which you have murdered sorum who is your brother and he'll say no and then second followup question ask him confront him more directly well have you done it and then he'll stand with fear he won't know what to say he'll deny it he'll act completely surprised rised he'll act astonished he'll declare his innocence but look closely in 31 you'll find blood upon the skirts of his cloak and when you confront him with that evidence and accuse him directly that this is the blood of your brother that you slain then he will

tremble look pale even as if death had come upon him and you'll know that he's guilty with that even greater fear will come upon him and he'll finally confess and deny no more the he's done it and then he'll say verse 36 that I Nephi know nothing concerning the matter save it were given unto me by the power of God you see I am Confederate in a way but I haven't made a deal with santum I've made a covenant with God and it's that companionship that has allowed me to know of these things which otherwise

could not be known once all this happens then shall ye know that I am an honest man man more importantly that I'm a holy man one sent unto you from God now two interesting details really quick here one is the wisdom of Nephi in setting up the interrogation the way he did you see if he had started by establishing sanam's guilt it may have been more difficult for him then to establish his own innocence because seanm if he's anything like the adversary that inspired him remember the devil in second eepi 2 is described as wanting

all men to be miserable like unto himself well if sanam's going down and he knows it then as one who probably opposed Nephi from the start since cantan was part of GAD anon's band as well then couldn't he have lied about Nephi's involvement so if I'm going down I'm going to take Nephi down with me yeah he was Confederate I told him all about it in fact those gadian and judges were going to let Nephi off the hook with a plea deal maybe they'll do the same for me after all their ultimate goal was to

discredit Nephi well this could still happen so I think it's genius on the part of Nephi to start with his own innocence and then prove sanam's guilt you see as cantam is still in the dark about all this to go with an initial hint of accusation in 27 hey has Nephi agreed with you about killing your brother you see if he said yes to that to prove Nephi's guilt then he's proven his own as well and that's what he's trying to keep from happening so it's kind of amazing how Nephi sets it up that santum

in order to try to preserve his own innocence actually vouches for the innocence of Nephi from the beginning the other part I find fascinating is the specific things that Nephi is prophesying that santum will do listen to this in order there will be a recognition of guilt a feeling of fear a confession of sin and then a testimony of the prophet's words because that's exactly what Nephi is hoping for among the society at large a recognition of their sin as he's crying repentance a feeling of Godly sorrow for what they've done a confession of that

sin to God real repentance and a testimony that what he has said as God's servant is true that it comes from God what Nephi is doing with santum is a microcosm of what he's trying to do in neite society it's amazing well everything happens exactly as he says as a result in verse 4 there were some among the people who said that Nephi was a prophet well go figure but then ironically verse 41 there are others who said behold he is a God for except he was a God he could not know of all things

he's told us the thoughts of our hearts he's identified what happened to the chief judge nobody could do this but God it's amazing that the adversary doesn't care what side we fall off of as long as we fall off the celestial center of the straight and narrow path he preferred keeping them on one extreme this is not a prophet of God don't listen to him and instead of correcting he ends up overcorrecting well he must be God himself worship Him you picture Nephi going can we find the happy medium I'm neither all man or all

God I'm neither uninspired nor infallible I don't know everything but I do know more than most and it's because God is with me and God wants to be with you you can only be with him though if you will repent so repent or the destruction of sorum and santum will merely be previews of Coming Attractions or in your case coming destructions that is always what happens when we do not choose to repent now in the aftermath of this scene the miraculous identification of the chief judge's murderer the multitudes disperse and Nephi is left alone this

whole episode began with him in a ver vertical conversation with god that then turned into a horizontal crying of repentance to the multitudes well now the multitudes have dispersed and the horizontal returns to the vertical chapter 10:1 the people divide hither and thither and go their ways leaving Nephi alone as he was standing in the midst of them so in verse two Nephi begins going home and what does he do along the way he Ponders upon the things which the Lord had shown unto him I love that this is always on his mind verse three

it came to pass as he was thus pondering cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites remember this was never about him it's not a matter of Haha I've been Vindicated I showed them who was boss that I knew and I was right no it's about them and they're still wrong they're still Wicked they've got to repent so cast down by this wickedness by their secret works of darkness no matter how much he's done to draw them into the light it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart

Behold a voice came unto him so in chapter 7 Nephi was cast down by the wickedness of the people and spoke to God in chapter 10 Nephi is cast down by the wickedness of the people and God speaks to him verse four blessed art thou Nephi for those things which thou Hast done for I have beheld how thou Hast with unwear declared the word which I have given unto thee unto this people and thou Hast not feared them and Hast not sought thine own life but H has sought my will and to keep my Commandments

What a Beautiful verse I became one of my favorite words in Spanish on my mission because it had so many syllables indea indefatigably would be the exact translation fatigue you can hear it as the root of that word you just don't get tired you never quit you don't stop Nephi you have fully embraced your mission in your days and with unwear you pursue it you don't seek your own will you seek mine talk about a perfect foil for the people he's trying to teach who only cared to do their will now as a result of

that verse 5 because thou Hast done this with such unwear behold I Will Bless thee forever you see if you never get tired of obeying me then I will never never grow tired of blessing you I can be unwearying too I will make thee Mighty in word and in deed in faith and in Works mightier than you already are because you've made yourself Mighty in those things through a lifetime of discipleship and then comes the ultimate promise yay even that all things shall be done unto thee according to Thy word really all things you say

it and it'll happen can you imagine getting a blank check from God well how can God afford that degree of Delegation last line of verse 5 for Thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will you've proven that already Nephi you've proven that you can be totally trusted that has reassured me that my power is safe with you so you can have it now he explains more about this blank check this power we would call it the sealing power from verses 6-1 I love how he begins it behold Thou Art Nephi and I

am God as if to say keep it straight Nephi I'm giving you my power but it is my power I'm giving you you're Nephi and that's awesome you're incredible but I'm God so don't lose sight of the power source here he then calls some additional witnesses to the stand himself having already seen similar things happen in previous chapters behold I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels that ye shall have power over this people you want to Smite the Earth with famine with pestilence with destruction according to their wickedness then you say

it and it'll happen verse 7 I give unto you power whatsoever you shall seal on Earth shall be sealed in heaven whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven thus shall you have power among this people not over this people which is not what Nephi was ever after to begin with remember he wasn't trying to raise himself above them as they accused but to have power among them so that as one of them he could help lead them in the right direction bring them all home you seal it on Earth I'll seal

it in heaven you loose it on Earth I'll loose it up here talk about complete power of attorney that is what God is giving his Prophet here now that complete power of attorney that sealing power is the same power that Jesus Promised Peter when he gave him the Keys of the Kingdom back in Matthew 16 the same sealing power that was promised Joseph Smith with the coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple in 1836 it's that same sealing power that binds a family together in the temple and can assure that family that they will be

bound eternally in the heavens as well as they are faithful now belief in that power given to a mere mortal requires a lot of faith on our part and it's that faith that we're about to see manifest in Nephi beautifully but let me take a quick second and just share an experience I had years ago where it was faith in the ceiling power that was exactly what was needed I was living in Tennessee at the time I've been invited by another congregation to come and explain the restored gospel to them I had done a lot

of that when I lived there the Presbyterians the methodists the Catholics the episcopalians the Disciples of Christ great experiences and most of it was spent Q&A just what questions do you have about the church that I can help you understand it was one of those Q&A sessions that a sweet little old lady turned not so sweet for a moment as she almost got in my face and said why couldn't I go to my own granddaughter's wedding now you don't have to be a genius to figure out what she was referring to sure enough she' had

a granddaughter who had joined the church met a latterday saint decided to get married in the temple and that's when Grandma couldn't come to her own granddaughter's wedding there was a lot of personal feeling here I recognized that and so I found myself saying something I'd never said before you see often we talk about the need to be worthy to enter the temple but I realized if I focused on that then what have I done to this sweet Grandma I've just branded her unworthy the reason you couldn't come to your own granddaughter's wedding is because

you weren't worthy to go that's probably not the case she was probably just as worthy as everyone else that was able to go so what was the issue it wasn't worthiness it was faith and so I asked her do you believe that Joseph Smith saw heavenly father in Jesus Christ and that kind of took her back she said uh no offense but no I don't believe that I said oh no offense taken I can't blame you for not believing but I do believe that that happened so next question do you believe that Joseph Smith had

priesthood Keys restored to him by Heavenly Messengers from ancient dispensations and she was like well I didn't even know you guys believe that but no I don't believe that oh and I can't blame you but I do so with those priesthood keys do you believe that Joseph Smith received the sealing power to bind on Earth and have it Bound in heaven do you believe that and again she said no no offense but but I don't believe that I said none taken but I do you see in a Latter-Day Saint Temple ceremony the couple is not

just married till death do you part but they are sealed for time this life and all eternity and that takes authority authority to stare death in the face and say you have to bow to this ordinance you cannot break this couple apart this will not be till death do you part you see I am binding them together on Earth and they will be bound in heaven that's what the cealing power does and so I said to this sweet Grandma when I go to an LDS temple ceiling it is not as a spectator it is going

as one meant to add my faith to the stockpile I am willing something into existence I am believing in the impossible to say to death you can't break up this couple nobody has the guts to say that that's why every Minister every Justice of the Peace will always say till death do you part I've got no control on the other side but for a sealer with the sealing power to be able to look at a couple in the temple and say that death cannot separate you that takes Authority that no one in the world claims

except those who truly have received it from God so I said to this sweet Grandma when I go to that Temple ceiling it is in full faith that what is happening there is being honored in heaven if you don't believe those things are happening then number one you haven't missed anything come to the reception party with everyone I know you care about this probably more than anyone else it's your granddaughter after all but in the ceiling ceremony itself it is your faith that unwavering belief that we need and you don't have it and I can't

blame you for not having it but I do I shared with her the story of the daughter of jerus who Jesus raised from the dead when that sweet little 12-year-old girl passed away friends and family from all over came remember when Jesus went into the house the place was filled with mourners devastated at the loss of this sweet little girl they were worthy to be there they were motivated out of love but when Jesus said don't mourn because I'm here to raise her I'm here to do the impossible to make the impossible possible and what

they do they laughed him to scorn and I can't blame them that was an extreme amount of Faith he was asking from them and they didn't have it but guess who did Mom Dad Peter James and John those five Faith filled people Jesus brought with him into the room where the body lay can you picture this Faith was brought in and doubt was kept outside not unworthiness not lack of Love simply lack of faith in the impossible but there in that room surrounded by people who could add their faith to the stockpile Jesus did The

Impossible he commanded death to step back and release its captive he raised her and then he immediately returned her to the crowd who had been there mourning not as an I told you so but rather I know you love her Rejoice with her and she with you you understand how we view the temple it's that little group in the room of the daughter of jerus believing against doubt hoping against hope telling death to back down and I believe that death obeys that someone has bound on Earth and had it Bound in Heaven by the end

of our conversation she said that makes more sense from that perspective I don't belong in the temple and wouldn't want to be there without faith to add to the stockpile the real rejoicing will happen at the reception and that's where I'll be it is an incredible amount of faith that God asks us to exercise in that sealing power well Nephi has the power and he has the faith to bring it forth now in verse 8 9 and 10 as the Lord finishes this promise to Nephi he gives some interesting examples of what that sealing power

might actually accomplish tearing a temple in half for example or reducing a Mountain to nothingness or even smiting these people with some kind of punishment for sin do we have faith in those who hold Keys priesthood Authority even when what they do with them seems counterintuitive why would you tear a temple in half or seems unnecessary why do you need to reduce a mountain to Rubble or even seems hurtful why would you smite this people well because often God's ways are higher than our ways and if Nephi is told that he would never ask anything

contrary to the will of God it's that same laser-like focus on God's will that is motivating those with ceiling keys in our day can we trust them confident that they are only using Authority as God would have them use it and God does make it clear one more hint what Nephi was supposed to do with that power verse 11 Now Behold I command you that you shall go and declare unto this people that thus saith the Lord God who is the almighty there's one last message I want you to deliver to them from me except

ye repent ye shall be smitten even unto destruction same thing you've been saying to them all along but I hope that they know it's coming by way of authority now in 12 Nephi does what prophets seemed to do as soon as they get a message from the Lord he immediately acts upon it remember when Alma was leaving amanah and the angel said uh give him another chance and he turned around and ran back no questions asked same thing here verse 12 when the Lord had spoken these words unto Nephi he stopped what he was doing

he didn't go into his own house he returned unto the multitude scattered about upon the face of the land and began to declare unto them the word of the Lord unfortunately in 13 in spite of the fact he just performed a miracle among them they still Harden their hearts they still wouldn't hearken unto his words in 15 it repeats their hardened hearts and unhearing ears but adds that they reviled him sought to lay their hands on him cast him into prison just what the judg has been hoping to do before but verse 16 the power

of God was with him they could not take him to cast him into prison even if they could he'd had experiences there before and what had happened encircled about by this protective sanctifying fire in this case however he was taken by the spirit and conveyed away out of the midst of them and thus he did go forth in the spirit from multitude to multitude declaring the word of God even until he had declared it unto them all or send it forth among all the people God wants to make sure the water gets to the end

of the row and so even if it takes some amazingly miraculous Spirit conveyance from one place to the next the word of God will go forth no boldly and independent even miraculously when necessary now chapter 11 continues that downward spiral of hard-hearted people not hearkening to the voice of the Prophet seen in that light is just another round of the pride cycle beginning and that's exactly what chapter 11 is another round of the pride cycle verse one and two contentions increase there's Wars throughout all the land the secret band of robbers continues its work of

Destruction and wickedness there's the pride and wicked nness segment of the cycle so what does Nephi decide to do well he's going to nudge things towards destruction again not in some kind of angry let's get this out of my system kind of a thing but in hopes of turning them on to repentance and humility in verse three he cries unto the Lord and verse four this is what he prays for and to be honest it's surprising that he would need to pray at all he just got the blank check one chapter ago right doesn't he

remember whatever you say it's going to happen he does remember that but he also remembers what the Lord said Thou Art Nephi and I am God keep it straight well he's keeping it straight so he prays to God that God will use his power I hesitate to use power of attorney when the actual person is present to do his own will verse four he prays oh Lord do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword but oh Lord rather let there be a famine in the land to stir them up in remembrance

of the Lord their God and perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee that perhaps Echoes the sometimes of Alma 32 when someone is compelled to be humble sometimes they repent now if they choose to be humble then they choose to repent that's it's all the same Choice really but for those on the cycle itself for whom pride and wickedness naturally leads to destruction I hope that destruction wakes them up and makes them choose to turn to the Lord for deliverance but there's something here about the choice of Destruction that's interesting it's like Nephi is

saying yes destruction is the next step on the cycle the one hope that we have to pull them back to the Lord's Side of the line but can we not use the sword can we use famine instead because the sword well we saw that at the end of the war chapters yes it softens some but it hardens others fighting amongst themselves sometimes that makes people worse not want to be better but famine who are you going to fight there's nothing you can do about it your only hope is heaven and so hopefully we turn to

him you see this way the solution they will know when it comes that it was beyond their control that they didn't just win their own Deliverance you can't just call down the rain you've got to ask God for help and in doing so it will turn them to him I hope so anyway well verse 5 so was done according to the words of Nephi well of course it was going to be done God had already given him the sealing power you want to seal the heavens he specifically had said that back in chapter 10: 6

if you want to Smite the Earth with famine then you got the power to do so again I love that Nephi has the power but then acts as if he didn't he doesn't just declare or pronounce a famine he prays for one thank you for the blank check God I'd much rather that you draw money out of your own account account but so God does now the pride and wickedness in verse 1 and two now turns into destruction in verse 5 and six no longer destruction By The Sword but destruction by famine the Earth was

smitten it was dry it wouldn't yield forth its grain in the season of grain the whole earth was smitten even among the lamanites as well as Among the Nephites sometimes the righteous are called upon to suffer alongside the wicked if you remember the plagues of Egypt there were some plagues that completely separated the two it affected the Egyptians but not the Israelites but there came a time where even Israelite crops were being destroyed sometimes the righteous are called upon to suffer as well especially if that keeps the wicked from somehow feeding off them unrighteously but

again it's always worse among the wicked as it says at at the end of six they did perish by thousands in the more wicked parts of the land but as long as we trust in the pride cycle and hope for the best what's the next stage verse 7 when the people saw that they were about to perish by famine they began to remember the Lord their God they began to remember the words of Nephi and they began to plead with their Chief Judges and their leaders to ask Nephi for deliverance behold we know thou art

a man of God therefore cry unto the Lord Our God they're starting to claim him again that he would turn away from us this famine lest all the words which thou has spoken concerning our destruction be fulfilled and those judges did exactly that now in verse 9 when Nephi saw that the people had repented and did humble themselves in sackcloth he cried again unto the Lord he prayed that the cycle would go from pride and wickedness to destruction and now watching that their destruction led to their repentance and humility he's now praying that that might

lead to deliverance and his prayer is a fairly long one especially considering that he's got the sealing power he's got the blank checked but again I'm I'm going to act like I don't remember the old saying work like it all depends on you but pray like it all depends on God Nephi is doing that Nephi's prayer itself lasts from verse 10 through verse 16 and it is beautiful to see a prophet pleading with the Lord not just pleading interceding for his people the way Moses interceded for the people when he was on SI the way

Jesus intercedes for all of us notice how Nephi by Praise oh Lord behold this people repenteth they have Swept Away the band of gadianton from amongst them in so much that they have become extinct and they have concealed their secret plans in the earth notice he's appealing not just to God's mercy in forgiving them but to his Justice because they have repented it's like they are fulfilling their part of the promise will you fulfill your part as well of course we know you will but I love love that here is Nephi explaining to God things

that God already knows obviously but vouching for the people they are repenting of their sins they're sorry this is a good lawyer for the defense not trumping up claims of Innocence that do not apply but rather explaining the people's repentance and because of that verse 11 because of this their humility wilt thou turn away thine anger you see they finally shifted to the Lord's Side Of The Pride cycle can it now work in their favor instead of working against them they've turned to humility wil thou now turn away thine anger pull them away from destruction

because they've pulled themselves away from wickedness verse 12 oh Lord wil thou turn away thine anger yay thy Fierce anger and cause that this famine May cease in this land notice by the way how often Nephi says wilt thou again honoring God's Authority this is not me writing on the blank check this is me asking you wilt thou he says it in 11 and 12 and 13 and 16 verse 14 oh Lord thou D hearken unto my words when I said let there be a famine that the pestilence of the sword might cease and I

know that thou Wilt even at this time hearken unto my words for thou sayest that if this people repent I will spare them in other words Nephi is saying heavenly father I only want you to do what you planned to do what you promised you would do I want you to follow your will not mine I'm just here to report on my stewardship for these people that they are beginning to do thy will they are repenting of their sins he's not twisting the Divine arm saying well you said you do this so now you have

to it's wilt thou keep thy word I know that thou art a god of Truth is now the time on their behalf I plead with thee verse 15 again pointing to their repentance thou seest that they have repented because of the famine and the pestilence and the destruction which has come unto them the pride cycle has served its purpose and now oh Lord wil thou turn away thine anger spin the chair one more round and try again if they will serve Thee I love the way he puts that Lord will you try again with us

because we are trying again with ourselves I testify that God will always try again when we do it's always us who gives up first as long as we keep trying God will keep trying in return if so oh Lord thou can bless them according to thy Words which thou Hast said this is not a PumpUp speech from the prophet to the Lord this is not giving God permission to do anything we'll see this more clearly when we meet the brother of Jared when he asks for a miracle and says to the Lord thou C do

this by which I think he meant I'm not saying this to reassure you that you really can do this I'm letting you know of my faith in thee I know that you're able to do that this is saying more about the brother of Jared than about God this here is saying more about Nephi than about the Lord now we saw Prosperity go to Pride we saw Pride go to destruction we saw destruction go to repentance now we get to see repentance go to Deliverance verse 17 the Lord did turn away his anger from the people

and cause that rain should fall upon the Earth in so much that it did bring forth her fruit in the season of her fruit it did bring forth her grain in the season of her grain just like Nephi had prayed a few verses earlier but I do love the slow natural cycle this time the growth cycle to complement the pride cycle we've been studying it's not a matter of we repented today and our pantries are full tomorrow no it's a matter of we are repenting and God is now allowing the rain to fall we still

have to plant the seeds we still have to wait for them to grow we still have to harvest the fruit there's still some hungry days ahead but at least the gifts of Heaven are beginning to rain down upon us once again I think there's something beautiful there as if the Lord is saying my children I need you to relearn the law of the Harvest you swed pride and wickedness and reaped destruction you are now sowing humility and repentance and will reap Prosperity but you have to have faith in these things because sometimes destruction doesn't happen

immediately otherwise who would sin and sometimes Deliverance doesn't happen in the moment otherwise who wouldn't come to the Lord there has to be time to develop patience and faith so while your Gardens are growing I hope you're planting seeds of faith in the soul and not just the soil I promise there will soon be a harvest of food I hope you are equally eager to produce a harvest of Faith well even in the meantime the people are rejoicing in verse 18 rejoicing and glorifying God the whole face of the land was filled with rejoicing they

did no more seek to destroy Nephi but they did esteem him as a great prophet and a man of God having great power and authority given unto him from God and then this beautiful aside verse 19 oh yeah Lehi the one we don't get to hear much about but the one who always seems to be by his brother Nephi's side Lehi his brother was not a wit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness I hope we recognize that in people that we don't tend to recognize that being the most well-known doesn't automatically make someone

the most well-favored that greater reputation does not necessarily L equate to Greater righteousness that not being in the spotlight doesn't mean that you do not know the light of the world God is aware of every contribution and the less known are not the less noble I hope we can look past the outward accolades titles or positions and recognize that sometimes it is the quiet service the anonymous acts of kindness that make such a difference in people lives such that God would say that person that you don't know is not one wit behind that other person

that you do if you're a Nephi remember that about the Lehi all around you and don't let Pride start you on a spin cycle and conversely if you're a Lehi I hope you know that you are known of God and your contributions are valued by him and that you are not one wit behind anyone else if Mormon had granted us more than the 100th part I'm sure we could have chapters and chapters on lehi's contribution that would be equally worth reading well I wish we could end the chapter there but we can't there's still more

rounds of the pride cycle to pass through in verse 20 you see words like Prosper again build up multiply cover the land 21 is peace and peace and exceedingly great peace 22 they had peace save it were uhoh brace yourself we're starting already to go from Prosperity towards Pride peace save it were a few contentions but notice these particular contentions in the past it's always seemed to be over land or over power ambition and greed were the problems right but now it's a few contentions concerning the points of Doctrine which had been laid down by

the prophets now that's a fascinating form of Pride Orthodoxy do you see things the way I think you ought to see them we'll see this clearly in a few weeks when we get to third Nephi chapter 11 that there can be disputation even over good things establishing true Doctrine and yet the Lord seems to favor Unity even over Orthodoxy I'm not saying he doesn't like Orthodoxy this is my Doctrine there is no other Doctrine right but the way we arrive at that the way we preserve it and protect it has to be done in the

Lord's way and that is not contentious so beware of even that kind of Doctrine starting to come in if you're the doctrinal Watchdog in your ward great but be very careful that you never become contentious in establishing points of Doctrine verse 23 shortly thereafter it led to much Strife now thankfully that didn't last long if the cycle is constantly pulling us towards Pride can we nip it in the bud and jump back over to the Lord's Side of the cycle Nephi and Lehi along with many of their Brethren who I'm sure were not one wit

behind them either those who knew concerning the true points of Doctrine how do they know it having many Revelations daily they always checked it against the source right capital S therefore they did preach unto the people in so much that they put an end to their Strife in that same year great news unfortunately the chapter doesn't end there either constant pull towards the adversary side 24 you meet certain number of denters these had gone over to the lonit they had taken upon themselves the name of lamanites and then mixed with the true descendants of layman

and lemel we're starting to see lamanites by choice we saw a little of that with am malakiah and amaron in the war chapters going from nephite to zorite to bold lonite but this is going to be important when we get to samon the lonite and then into third Nephi lonite by choice rather than by lineage kind of like the people of Ammon who become Nephites by choice instead of by lineage 25 they commit murder and plunder then they Retreat back into their secret places hiding themselves so they can't be discovered this is the secrecy and

subtlety we saw with kishkumen at the beginning of helan this is trying to stay behind the facade in Johari's window I don't want people to know about all that we're doing and unfortunately these secret bands keep growing the secrets out they receive daily in addition to their numbers in so much as there were denters that went forth unto them wickedness can snowball just like righteousness can and 26 in the space of not many years it doesn't take long they became an exceedingly great band of robers they searched out the secret plans of gadianton and thus

they became robbers of gadianton remember just a few verses ago as Nephi was explaining to the Lord the repentance of his people he said the gadianton robbers had become extinct that their secret plans have been concealed in the earth well unlike the anti- Nephi leis who buried their weapons of rebellion and never dug them up these people Unearthed those ancient Secrets dusted off the plans of gadianton and what had become extinct is now unfortunately alive and well or as we'd say alive and not so well wreaking havoc as before 27 not just any old Havoc

it's great havoc and great destruction among the people of Nephi as well as among the people of the lamanites in the next few verses armies are sent into the mountains to try to root out the gadianton robbers but they're unsuccessful by the end of 31 those robbers infest the mountains and the Wilderness and 32 they increase and wax strong they defy the armies of the Nephites and lamanites and cause fear great fear to come unto the people upon all the face of the land now that bad news was not entirely bad because in 34 as

destruction often does it prompted some to continue the pride cycle in the right direction by turning to the Lord now this great evil which came unto the people because of their iniquity did stir them up again in remembrance of the Lord their God however by 36 they began again to forget the Lord their God they began to wax strong in iniquity and they did not mend their ways 37 they waxed stronger and stronger in their pride and in their wickedness and thus they were ripening again for Destruction by now I hope that both I and

Mormon can be forgiven if we take a second and sigh or let off a little steam of frustration after everything we've been through so far in 11 chapters of helan are you not a little frustrated yourself seriously over and over and over again I mean the way chapter 11 ends is the worst because it happens so quick L they're getting destroyed oh but they're repenting and remembering oh but then they forget really that quick it's almost like the pride cycle is getting faster and faster with less time in prosperity before it swings back towards destruction

these are painful realizations by now if you've got read it fast enough especially I hope we can be forgiven for our frustration I actually remember years ago I was going to teach Old Testament in the Seminary year coming up and it was during the summer and I was trying to prepare I'd read the Old Testament before but realized if I want it to be freshh in my mind I just want to read it all over again to have all that momentum going into the school year I check the calendar and realized well if I read

about a book a day I can finish the Old Testament before school starts again and so I started I was flying 50 chapters of Genesis in one day yeah that's a lot of reading 40 chapters of Exodus on to Leviticus and numbers and Deuteronomy I was flying I looked forward to days like Obadiah there's a chapter dreaded things like 66 chapters of Isaiah he's hard to understand even when you go slow but I still remember the day I read the Book of Judges and I had an experience with it that I don't think I would

have had if I'd been reading a chapter a day because the Book of Judges probably more than any other single book in the Bible is the pride cycle it's kind of like the Bible's equivalent of the book of helan where the pride cycle is played out before you so clearly in fact each new judge in the Book of Judges is a new round of the pride cycle the judge was called up by God to be the deliverer of isra because they had finally repented from their last destruction and so that judge based on the righteousness

of the people their newly humbled repentant Souls that judge would lead them against the enemy and deliver them from the Philistines or whomever but it only lasted a certain amount of time until their prosperity and deliverance led to Pride and then to wickedness and to destruction until they finally licked their wounds and mended their ways cried out to God for deliverance and he raised up another judge now like I said if you go slowly through the Book of Judges you don't see the same cycle repeat quite so frequently but sit down and read it in

one sitting and you'll get dizzy seriously I did and by the end I was so frustrated with Israel in fact I was kind of frustrated with God I remember thinking seriously you're going to forgive him again no really another judge you know it's going to happen just give it another couple verses they're going to f oh see yep already happened why why do you keep giving them second third 15th 20th chances you know they're going to blow it again and right then mid complaint the spirit whispered very forcibly to me because I do the same

thing with you and that woke me up because I go through my life so slowly that I don't seem to recognize the pride Cycles the rounds adding up sit down and watch it all at once and you'd get dizzy watching my life unfold and I am so grateful that God delivers me yet again let's try it again let's go for another spin I'll try again Jared if you will maybe this time you'll stay a little longer on my side of the line in fact one of these rounds you'll decide to stay with me forever I

am grateful for that personal reassurance to help offset all of the frustration I sometimes feel with myself as well as with those I see in scripture Mormon seems to have a similar experience Because by the time he is done AB bridging this record and putting the pen down he then interrupts The Narrative and in chapter 12 gives the longest thus we see interruption in the entire Book of Mormon you see chapter 11 ends thus ended the 80 and fifth year and chapter 13 skip over 12 begins and now it came to pass in the 80

and sixth year see what Mormon as a historian is doing finishing one chapter on this year next chapter begins with the next year what is chapter 12 all about again the narrative will flow more smoothly if you get rid of this chapter but leave it in and you see Mormon poking through the text a historian that cannot hold his peace I have to break that fourth wall stare into the camera no more Anonymous chronicler I want to speak to you readers to make sure you're seeing what I see other iron gave a beautiful talk years

ago called and thus we see and he pointed out how generous Mormon was in making that pronoun plural not just saying and this is what I see through my prophetic eyes no this is what we see if we'll have the eyes to see it this is a lesson I think the Lord is trying to teach all of us do you see this too and so in chapter 12 verse one starts thus we can behold middle of verse one yay we can see beginning of two yay and we may see that's what chapter 12 will be

all about these are the things that Mormon and in a Discerning Book of Mormon reader will see based on what we've studied so far in the book of helan first thing he hopes we see is our bad news how false and how unsteady are the hearts of the Children of Men that's what we're up against the old joke is that the one Christian doctrine that does have empirical evidence of its truthfulness is the fall because look at us look at how we treat each other look at how we act it does not take prophetic Vision

to see the false and unsteady Hearts within each of us but what else can we see same verse we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness and it has to be infinite because we are constantly draining the supply drawing upon that goodness thank heavens it is infinite and in that great infinite goodness the Lord doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him so in spite of who we are our falseness and unsteadiness do we know who God Is His Infinite goodness his desire to bless and prosper us that's the

segment of the pride cycle he wants to keep us in eternally Eternal progression would be Eternal Prosperity after all but based on all these rounds of the pride cycle we've seen through the book of Helman verse two we may see at the very time when he doth Prosper his people yay in the increase of their fields and flocks enlists all kinds of beautiful blessings he pours down upon us doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people yay then is the time that they do Harden their hearts the swivel chair has just turned

they Harden their hearts and forget the Lord their God they trample under their feet the Holy One and this because of their ease and their exceedingly great Prosperity again this is Mormon's great moral of the story and he is spelling out the pride cycle spin by spin verse three thus we see that except the Lord doth chasen his people with many afflictions yay except he doth visit them with death and with Terror and with famine with all manner of pestilence they will not remember him the natural consequence of sin has to be destruction because the

natural consequence of prosperity doesn't seem to be remembering God it seems to be forgetting him the great John Wesley founder of the Methodist Church as he was trying to revive anglicanism feared that no Revival would ever be permanent because as soon as we turn to God He blesses us and in our blessings we forget him Wesley understood the pride cycle as well verse 4-6 what is wrong with us how foolish how vain how evil and devilish how quick to do iniquity and slow to do good quick to hearken to the words of the evil one

set their hearts on the vain things of the world quick to be lifted up in Pride quick to boast quick to do all manner of iniquity but slow to remember the Lord their God to give ear to his counsels how slow to walk in wisdom's paths it almost seems like you need to take The Pride cycle this merry go around that we always seem to be spinning on and tilt it because there seems to be a downward slope where things happen quickly how quick we are to forget and yet this other uphill swing it takes

so much longer it's so much slower on our part no wonder God had to let the fruit and grain grow you've got to learn that some things take time and deal with this slow spin in fact try to level out or even reverse the tilt on the pride cycle if we could be quicker to remember God yes I messed up again but I was faster at recognizing my need to repent or I was doing so well and then I fell but I was doing so well for so much longer than usual I'm getting quicker to

remember God and slower to forget him again reverse the angle tilt it the other way verse six Again part of our problems they do not desire that the Lord their God who ha created them should Rule and Reign Over them and this in spite of his great goodness and his Mercy towards them they set at not his counsels and will not that he should be their guide take Nephi as the personification of the opposite remember what God had said about him in giving him the sealing power I know you won't do anything with it that

would be contrary to my will you've proven that from verse 7 through verse 19 Mormon then continues this lament about what Humanity in its Fallen nature is like and he Compares it in verse 7 to the dust of the Earth how great is the nothingness of the Children of Men In other words as we're studying the pride cycle what do we have to be proud of compared to God we're nothing that was King Benjamin's message he lends you breath right that's how lowly we are we don't even own the air we breathe we are less

than the dust of the earth he says in verse 7 and then he explains it in verse 8 which is amazing most of the time when we try to explain what does it mean to be less than the dust of the earth we talk about well we were made from from Mortal physical element ashes to ashes and dust to dust right Adam created symbolically from the dust of the earth well that's all we are we're just dirt but I love how Mormon explains what's his take on Dust of the earth verse 8 behold the dust

of the Earth Earth moveth hither and thither to the dividing asunder at the command of our great and everlasting God and then he goes through a slew of verses giving examples of that if God tells a mountain to tremble and Quake it will if he tells that mountain to disappear and become a valley instead that's what happens over and over In this passage it's the voice of God that does it his voice in nine his voice in 10 his voice in 11 his voice in 12 if he says in 13 if he says in 14

14 and 15 according to his word verse 16 if he says 17 if he says 18 if the Lord says 19 if the Lord says 20 if he says 21 if he says all of this this long extended passage if God says something to dirt dirt obeys go reread the creation account in the book of Abraham it's so cool in its differences between Genesis and Moses in that one more than any other it almost suggests the agency of element itself CU it talks about God commanding the elements in creation and then watching them until they

obey I love that it's like there was some obstinate dirt particle and no I got my eye on you see and land I said divide and I'll stay here until you do my wife and I always quote Abraham when we ask our kids to do something and then leave them unsupervised when we come back and what we ask them to do has still not been done oh yeah the book of Abraham taught us differently I have to see that I am obeyed kids are getting better at that I'm still not sure if they're up to

dust level but they're on their way see how Mormon is doing this we're less than the dust of the Earth because the dust does what God tells it to do we all that talk about his voice his word him saying things what's Nephi been doing this whole time speaking for God crying repentance will we listen what pulls us to God side of the pride cycle we hear and heed the voice of God through him through his Spirit through his servants through his scriptures we respond what pulls us away from him in the very day that

he prospers us we plug our ears we Harden our hearts we shut our eyes to the Glorious light all around us we decide that for some reason we're better than dirt and we don't have to listen to God we don't have to move hither and thither at the command of our great and everlasting God what's interesting in this long passage is over and over when he's talking about the elements of the earth it always obeys human beings seem to be the exception of that except when you get to 20 and 21 in this instance if

if the Lord shall say unto a man because of thine iniquities Thou shalt be accursed forever then it shall be done God's will is imposed instead of just offered 21 very similarly if the Lord shall say because of thine iniquities Thou shalt be cut off from my presence that's the ultimate Curse Of God right he will cause that it shall be so there's a tragic irony that the only time God's will will be done on humanity is in an area that it's not his will to be done I don't want to condemn you I don't

want to cut you off from my presence my whole work in glory is to bring you home immortality and eternal life but you have forced that will upon you by refusing to yield your will to mine remember back in second Epi 2 when Lehi is explaining agency to his son and he says God has created two types of things things that act and things that are acted upon agents and objects in other words which are the elements of the earth well we would say objects that seems to be the case In this passage though Abraham

might say well there's some agency even there but Humanity God's Sons and Daughters now those are agents through and through they've been created to act not be acted upon and Lehi would agree with that with one exception he says in second Nei 2 that the only time that men are acted upon is when they are judged for their deeds that seems to be the suggestion in helan 1220 and 21 God's will had to be worked upon them and like I said before sadly tragically it was never God's will that that take place I meant for

you to act but to act in accordance with my will this is not some weird end around this isn't God trying to trick us into doing what he wanted us to do all along it's trying to retrain our reflexes Mighty change of heart born again like we've seen over and over again in the Book of Mormon he has to wean us off our own will reconcile our will to his so that when he offers us the gift of Salvation we don't put our Dukes up we don't fight him anymore we yield we surrender that's what

God is asking of us it's what he intends for us it's what defines himself God acts he's not acted upon he wants his children to grow up in him and learn to do likewise and so Mormon concludes this Interruption better yet this explanation of what he's been trying to teach us through this history woe unto him to whom he shall say this for it shall be unto him that will do iniquity and he cannot be saved he can't be as much as God would want it to be otherwise therefore for this cause that men might

be saved hath repentance been declared remember remember the conditions of repentance we've seen several places in the Book of Mormon God has laid out those conditions so that there's hope for us to come home therefore 23 blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God for these are they that shall be saved once you know that difference those who cannot be saved versus those who will be all based on the conditions of repentance then verse 24 becomes the Highlight may God Grant in his great fullness remember we saw

his infinite goodness it never runs out will his great fullness you'll never completely tax his patience his grace will never run dry may he Grant in that gratefulness that men might be brought unto repentance and good works that they might be restored unto Grace for Grace according to their works that's the goal I want you back into this right relationship I want you on my side of the pride cycle so that the spins the rotations just bring you back to greater and greater prosperity and greater and greater righteousness remember we saw that earlier they waxed

stronger and stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in their faith and so God could pour out his blessings upon them that's what Grace for Grace is all about see there's a passage in section 93 of the doctrine of covenants that's a little confusing once you get it it's an incredible thought section 93 talks about Grace for Grace same phrase as this but also adds Grace to Grace until we receive a fullness he uses those phrases to describe how the Savior progressed and received his fullness and how he expects us or invites us to

progress to become more like him now for the Grace to Grace picture a staircase and for the grace for Grace picture and exchange when it's Grace for Grace let's say you're on a certain step on the staircase you're at a certain level and the Lord offers you his grace and then holds back and sees what will you do with it Grace after all is enabling power so what is it enabling you to do not to earn salvation you didn't earn the grace to begin with I'm giving it to you it's a gift but here when

it's according to their works that's the idea of what are you going to do with the grace that you've been given this is like the parable of the talents I've given you five what will you do with it or I've given you two what step are you on oh you're on the one Talent step versus the two or the five that's great no problem no rush on my end I got believe me I'm Eternal I got all day but wherever you happen to be here is Grace free gift because I love you what will you

do with it will you respond with grace to my grace in fact will you return Grace for Grace with whatever measure of increase you might muster heavenly father look what I did with thy Grace I repented I tried again and I tried harder I forgave I loved I served I pulled weeds and planted flowers I took what you offered me and cast it upon the waters I fed multitudes with thy Loaves and Fishes I did everything that I could and thine be the glory here is your grace with increase it's amazing what God does to

multiply his gifts to us but having returned Grace for Grace We're then ready to progress from Grace to Grace all along the path to God's fullness oh you've done more you're prepared for Greater Grace that I can give you trusting that you will give it back to me and Grace for Grace progressing Grace to Grace eventually we receive a fullness that's the cycle God wants us to be on that's Eternal progression otherwise the opposite outcome awaits 25 and 26 end on kind of a sad note those that refuse Grace that do not bring forth repentance

or good works those are the ones that will be cast off from the presence of the Lord the cycle will pull them away instead of bringing them home the choice is ours we can do good and have everlasting life or we can do evil and have everlasting damnation thus it is amen he ends and then picks up the history again again this is his aside the thus we sees and the amen at the end this is it thus it is I'm seeing it are you seeing it I hope we're seeing it clearly that is the

moral of the story so far in the book of helan round after round of the spin cycle until hopefully we stop on the Lord's Side Of The Line perhaps my favorite little phrase is what Mormon interjects at the beginning of verse 25 I would that all men might be saved why do you think I'm spending a lifetime abridging scripture in hopes that the voice of God will tell you pieces of dust to move and that you'll move towards him that you'll accept his grace and return it to him Heaven wants you home I would that

all men might be saved can you hear God saying that he sent his son to back it up can you picture Jesus Christ saying that he gave his life to back it up can you hear prophets in our day saying that they are wasting and wearing out their lives to back it up brothers and sisters what are we doing to back up our desires our own salvation and the salvation of others if we would that all men might be saved then join them and cry repentance and then respond to that cry yourself change the Lord

is waiting for us on his side of the cycle that's what we see if we have eyes to see him ready to welcome us home [Music]