[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Come Follow Him Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast is created by the Boise Nampa Institute of Religion for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, we hope to help young adults find relevant principles each week as they study the Assign Come Follow Me in Scripture Block as outlined by the Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode is simply two institutors talking about what they see in the Scriptures that might be relevant to your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not intended to speak for the church or to definitively define doctrines or policies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any opinion shared here are just that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our opinions as we have learned to come follow him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Matt Swanson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But welcome back again, everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be with you again this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are again with Brother Jim Edwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brother Edwards, it hasn't been long, but welcome back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think we had yet ten sections ago maybe as all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's good to have you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, one of the things that we love doing in just our occupation in general, I think is just sitting together as colleagues and talking about what's in the scriptures and what are we going to teach when we teach this block or that block?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's really where the concept for this podcast came from was our opportunity to sit together, one of the
[SPEAKER_00]: in the Gospel Teaching and Learning Handbook.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember a page thirty four top section of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says something to the effect of that we were to help our students have experiences like we have in our offices preparing for our classes and one of my favorite things to do is to sit at the end of a school day and talk to my seminary colleagues and say, well, let me teach you tomorrow and how are you going to teach it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is a great opportunity to do that with wonderful colleagues.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say that because over the summer when we recorded these episodes, we made some concerted efforts to be with the Institute faculty a little more frequently than we usually are on the podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of spread it out during the school year so that nobody has to prep really long blocks and that aren't even in their teaching assignment at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's nice to have you more frequently and it's really the long way of saying thank you for coming back I'm really delighted to be here and I love these revelations
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're pretty great.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be section ninety four to ninety seven today, looking at some things pertaining to Kirkland and to Jackson County, maybe indirectly and talking about some some challenges that the Saints were having and some instruction they were given in in buildings and some things that they're supposed to be doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any context other than that much that you want to give us, things that might jump us into ninety four.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, probably the most important context to remember and all of these revelations is not too long before this just in section eighty eight.
[SPEAKER_02]: Lord gave the commandment to build the Kirtland temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's the first commandment to build a temple in this dispensation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so section ninety-four comes kind of in response to that that in addition to the temple, the Lord wanted other buildings to be built as they build up the city of Kirtland.
[SPEAKER_02]: The hope is that this can be a strong stake of Zion, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: We still have two church centers with a lot of saints in Kirtland and more and more saints gathering to Missouri to
[SPEAKER_02]: which has been identified as the future place of Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so with these two church centers, the Lord still wanting to strengthen and establish and build up Kirtland.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a building committee.
[SPEAKER_02]: This section calls out for Hiram Smith, Reynolds Kuhun and Jared Carter to point to the serve on a church building committee.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so on the surface, that sounds like I really boring revelation to read.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm grateful for a colleague, Todd Knowles, many, many of my colleagues might remember Todd Knowles, but he shared just some of his thoughts about this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love the idea in this section.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there's a lot more to discover than just boring revelation about a building.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, we hope that we learn in all of these revelations.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do we learn about Jesus Christ?
[SPEAKER_02]: Who's giving these revelations?
[SPEAKER_02]: What do we learn about Him?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so maybe we can just dive in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right off the bat, in verse one, the Lord says, barely I say unto you, my friends, this is one of eleven times in these revelations pretty close together in this time period that the Lord begins his revelation by calling these leaders of the church primarily Joseph Smith and others that these revelations are for.
[SPEAKER_02]: He calls them his friends
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just love the idea of that he would look to us as a friend and I think of John fourteen right if you love me keep my commandments and no greater love have any man
[SPEAKER_02]: then this that a man be willing to lay down his life for his friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Jesus Christ truly is our friend in the ultimate perfect sense of that word that he truly gave his life for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the best thing we can do back in that friendship is to keep his commandments and to honor him in that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I love that idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we turn, if we turn one page back, one of the times he says that is in section ninety three, verse forty five, says, very, very, I say, and teach my servant Joseph Smith Jr.
[SPEAKER_00]: or in other words, I will call you friends for you are my friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you shall have an inheritance with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the idea that I could have Jesus as my next door neighbor and inherit the kingdom of the earth together and be his friend and walk down the street and see him across the street and wave and say hi and have some familial conversations about our families and you know that all the things that we do with our friends sit and laugh and be together he wants for us as well because he sees us that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's as much as we want that
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's cool that he wants that as wicked and horrible as I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he wants to.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you think about reconciled to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see that on the Scriptures a lot, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And what is this is President Nelson.
[SPEAKER_02]: He opened my understanding on this and I can't remember what talk it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: He talked about the root word to reconciled as Ray Concelia, which literally means to sit again with.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just used the word of what a friend write you sit with them, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I have someone that comes to the door that's a salesman, I stand at the door, they stay outside and I say, yes, you can come in or know we're not interested in it kind of states like that, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But when my friends come over, if you were to come over, and if it was dinner time, I wouldn't hesitate.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would pull up a chair, Matt, come and eat with us, and you're sitting with us.
[SPEAKER_02]: You only sit with those that you're most acquainted with, you're close friends and children that you have a close relationship with.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I love this idea of being reconciled to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's to sit again with that means that we once sat with him.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're his children.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ and older brother that there's some kind of relationship that we had before that we were intimately connected as family.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we get to have that again.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to be some far-off thing that we will get to have the enjoyment of being with our Heavenly Father again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, I love just that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That wonderful language and the introduction of this revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what you've just proven is that thinking celestially, thinking backwards, celestially and forward, celestially really gives us a better understanding of the plan and our purpose, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That if I sat with God before and he wants me to come back, it's so that I can sit with him again, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What a cool way of viewing things.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's very cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, so let's take a boring building committee revelation and turn it into probably what the Lord intended to teach us anyway, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Which I think if you look at what he commands to be done, let's see what we learn about the Savior's priorities based on the buildings he wants build.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's look at that in verse one.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first building, of course, that he refers to beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion here in the land of Kirtland, beginning at my house.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the starting point for this whole building project plan starts with his house, the temple, the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just have a little note in my scriptures below that that really Zion begins at the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so everything that we want to think about in regards to Zion, it has to start with the idea of a temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you remember our prophet?
[SPEAKER_02]: His first message as President of the Church of Jesus Christ shortly after he was ordained or set apart by his fellow apostles
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, I want to start with the beginning in mind and his first message came from the temple, the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so again, I've just reiterated that the beginning of Zion starts at the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's the center of everything that we do.
[SPEAKER_02]: President Hunter always talked about all things that we do in the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: All roads lead to the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every meeting, every activity, every missionary effort, everything that we do is with the intent that leads to the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so as we think about this exciting topic that the Saints were so excited about is building up a Zion and having the Lord come and live with them for a thousand years during the millennium and just all these exciting things that come with the with the topic of Zion It starts with the temple and so keep that in mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that'll be an important threat through all of these revelations that we're studying today
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's the first priority of the Lord, his house, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then verse three, he says on the first lot, so you could map this out if you wanted to to kind of draw these things out to see what this looks like.
[SPEAKER_02]: But on the first lot, south of that center place of the temple, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: He wants to have built a house for the presidency.
[SPEAKER_02]: for the work of the presidency and obtaining revelations.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what's another priority of the Lord Jesus Christ?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's his prophets and his continuing revelation.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a significant priority for him as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse ten, the second lot on the south shall be dedicated to me for the building of a house for the working of the printing of the translation of my scriptures.
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, it's revelation, but this time it's revelation through the written word of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so printing of scriptures, so you got scriptures, you've got words of prophets, you've got continuing revelation, you've got temples.
[SPEAKER_02]: These are the Lord's priorities.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then verse thirteen, the third lot
[SPEAKER_02]: Servant Hiram Smith shall receive his inheritance.
[SPEAKER_02]: And on the first and second lots on the north, shall my servants Reynolds Kahoon and Jared Carter receive their inheritances.
[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, their homes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what the Lord's priority, it's the home.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's home centered, church supported, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not a new idea that has come a matter of days.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe it's a rediscovery that we've realized thanks to a prophet of God, but it sounds like that's been his priorities from the very beginning of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reminded of a whole bunch of things as you've talked through that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just the order of the buildings that they're supposed to build, I think is instructive to us to learn about Christ's character, learn about what matters most to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: First and foremost, he takes care of the things that pertain to our salvation and then our comfort or learning in the process and then our comforts, kind of maybe take a back seat to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the connection between building a temple and I'm sure we'll talk about this a little more, but our homes being a dedicated place and space.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reminded of President Nelson's talk about renovating and remodeling our homes spiritually.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think is what his intention was.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's interesting to me and we talked about this before a hit record that the Lord didn't instruct them to build a meeting house, a church building where they could just go gather.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, remember that the saints didn't have the endowment session.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have baptisms for the dead at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't really understand all the
[SPEAKER_00]: all the things that were going to come to them in the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when the Kirtland Temple was built, it's just some interesting things that I've learned, the first floor of the temple was a big gathering room, a meeting room, the Saints gathered there on Thursday nights, and they had prayer meetings on the first Thursday of the month, was their fast meeting, and it get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a meeting from ten o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Liza R. Snow said that much of that meeting was usually spent doing just prayer and prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then occasionally there would be testimonies given and where people describe the manifestations of God power in their life at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's just something interesting about build my temple and until I teach you how to use it correctly, we're going to let you use it in all these other ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: They used it on Sunday nights as a choir meeting room.
[SPEAKER_00]: The presidency used it as a space for meetings with the chorom and other weekly meetings.
[SPEAKER_00]: They even had school there for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: About a hundred students would show up and have school in that room where they were worshiping on Thursday nights.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's interesting that the temple, the House of the Lord, is the first space built, but until it was really dedicated as such, it was utilized for a lot of those things, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, that's an important word that you just use, the dedication that these are just not any average building, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse six, talks about when once we have these buildings built, it shall be dedicated unto the Lord from the foundation.
[SPEAKER_02]: according to the order of the priest to according to the pattern, which shall be given unto you hereafter.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this did become a pattern thereafter to this, one of the, whoever has the opportunity to visit with you on the section one-ten section one-on-nine when the curtain temple was dedicated, some miraculous things happened, but it was a very, in,
[SPEAKER_02]: carefully planned and carried out dedication that the Lord did manifest Himself in marvelous ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: And to this day we have dedication of all of our temples and all of our church buildings and our storehouses and our canteries and any of our church history sites, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: All those places are dedicated, including the home.
[SPEAKER_02]: The home should also be dedicated.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I don't know if any of our listeners, we might have young adults out there
[SPEAKER_02]: that are thinking, okay, I know today we don't dedicate any temples until until they're completed and we don't go into debt for any of our temples either, right, that they're owned by the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so some might have some misunderstandings.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a half to be a home that I own.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a half to be
[SPEAKER_02]: Do I have to be free and clear out out of debt before I can dedicate my home or what are the parameters here?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought maybe it might be helpful for us just to look at the church handbook says church members may have their homes dedicated by the authority of the mucasidic priesthood homes do not need to be owned or free of debt to be dedicated unlike church buildings homes are not consecrated to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it says, if there's no magnetic priesthood holder in the home, in this case, might be of our sisters that are living away from home, going to college, a family can also invite a close friend, relative or ministering brother to perform the dedication.
[SPEAKER_02]: So for any of our young adults that may be live in an apartment, maybe with a roommate, it would not be
[SPEAKER_02]: improper to dedicate that that little apartment or even your room if that's what what you felt would be important and so I would just encourage us again the sacredness of our homes and and dedicating that I think just there's a protection there's an extra spirit that comes with that and and I think that could be a really helpful thing for a young adults
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember in a young Galen, one of my seminary classes, who privately had shared some things that were going on in her home that with me that were not good and abusive and some things and we had preceded leaders involved and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember one day in the class she said, you know, I don't have the freedom to worship how I want to in my home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't really dress up on Sunday and go to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I take my dress in a bag outside of my house and then I change before I go into the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't get ridiculed by my family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she said really, even in my room, I share my room with a sibling that's not active and doesn't want me to do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: outwardly with the church and so I have created my bed as my home temple space.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember being touched by it really isn't about the space.
[SPEAKER_00]: The temples are glorious, beautiful buildings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think sometimes we worry that our little space isn't adequate to be dedicated to the Lord, but I think that the tenderness of that little space was probably more dedicated than many grand and glorious buildings that we've built in efforts to give to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that's an interesting little story there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that idea and what a faithful young adult to think of it in that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know the more people are consecration.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just think if there's anything that comes out, maybe before we leave ninety four, if there's anything that comes of this, if there's any action, maybe would be good to just say, are my priorities in life
[SPEAKER_02]: aligned with the Lord's priorities.
[SPEAKER_02]: And for us to just kind of look at our temple, how important is the temple really the center of our life?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that a go-to place when we're troubled when we need revelation?
[SPEAKER_02]: And what would be evidence that the temple was central in my life?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's a good question to ask.
[SPEAKER_02]: And are my priorities aligned with seeking the revelations from profits?
[SPEAKER_02]: How well do I participate in general conference?
[SPEAKER_02]: And is it a once every six months?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'm kind of done till the next six months or do I review their messages?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do I try to own them?
[SPEAKER_02]: Especially our profit if you take this own one message.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would probably do well to really own the prophet's message and so how well am I aligned with prophetic revelation and the scriptures is the next Lord's priority right and I aligned with that priority and what would be evidence that the scriptures are priority in my life and
[SPEAKER_02]: And my turning to them, when I have questions that I'm trying to figure out and big decisions to make, and not just then, but in my feasting on those words every day, yes, and then lastly, home, what am I doing to strengthen my home and what am I doing to
[SPEAKER_02]: to make it a holy place that I can stand in and receive what you've described, even if it's just our room, even if it's just our bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: For those that are husbands and fathers, maybe of young children, are we spending the necessary time and home, are we so caught up in work that we're not there?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is just a great opportunity for us to just examine our own lives.
[SPEAKER_02]: are my priorities in line with the Lord's priorities and what's evidence of that and maybe what can I change and do a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I had mentioned before that President Nelson has talked about remodeling our homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, maybe just let me read a little paragraph here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the new home center, supported integrated curriculum, has the potential to unleash the power of families as each family follows through conscientiously and carefully to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior's teachings and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease.
[SPEAKER_00]: Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that idea that no matter what your home currently is like, if you take the time to remodel it, you know, the home center church supported the come follow me time, I don't know if we talk enough about what we're doing at home with our come follow me on Zasaba, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We were given an extra hour to spend with our children and our families at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about young adults who go to a two-hour church block now and they go home without families, maybe they're present.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as it easy to not have that extra hour at a home-centered space, that the church is giving you time to worship on your own, time that was taken by the church before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we had a ten-hour clock to four o'clock meeting early in the church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we do two hours and ask you to do an hour at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we aren't doing that,
[SPEAKER_00]: I have we remodeled our home accordingly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a lot of room for us to improve in some things that way, maybe.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great reminder.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, should we jump into section ninety five, maybe?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's just a continuation of this theme again, the temple, the temple, the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's look at section ninety five.
[SPEAKER_02]: heading there we've got the background of course this is in Kirtland still it's June first and so if you look at that day it's about five months after section eighty eight came when the Lord commanded the sand to temple so five months ago and what are they accomplished on the temple
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now they had reasons, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: There's tons of persecution that was happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was an addition to the persecution.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of poverty.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a ton of saints gathering in Kirtland.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're busy and preoccupied trying to build their home and you can't blame them.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you had young children and you showed up at a place and you literally were homeless,
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the first thing he would be doing is securing the way to figure out how to shelter your petal in.
[SPEAKER_02]: But she had all this stuff going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was kind of out of sight out of by nobody was really thinking about the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this revelation came five months after their invitation to build the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and chronologically, it comes before section ninety four.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually comes a month or two earlier than ninety four.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's this council about, hey, you haven't built a temple in ninety five, that came before the, hey, here's how to build the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the right order to build all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, I'm reminding you, it's been a month, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for signing me from the dates.
[SPEAKER_02]: This, this has been, if you look in, again, Dr. and Covenant's central is a great resource.
[SPEAKER_02]: there's kind of a history on the discrepancy with the date for section ninety four that it actually had given an incorrect date and I think it wasn't until uh... two thousand and something before it was actually finally corrected so technically it probably should be ninety five and ninety four
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, so thank you for that reminder.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similar to the way section ninety four begins section ninety five begins with the message not a friendship this time but of love.
[SPEAKER_02]: But interesting that message of love is in the form of chastisement.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's an interesting thought just to think about right off the bat is how can that be love?
[SPEAKER_02]: Are getting chewed out by somebody of the experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know any of us have experienced that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Someone that we love and respect and admire and look up to are one of our leaders.
[SPEAKER_02]: I still remember getting chewed out by my mission president when we did follow exactly his instructions and felt like I really remember feeling like I just got chewed out by the Lord himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: But this mission president later that evening called me and my companion into his office.
[SPEAKER_02]: and put his arms around us and said, elders, you know how much I love you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know how much I am counting on you to lead in the sphere that I've given you that leadership.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was an increase of love that I felt, and also like the first time feeling shootout by the Lord, I felt like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressed His deep love for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm grateful for that experience that I've had, and so I've experienced the Lord's chastening as a means of love.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so let's see how He says it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse one, barely, let's say at the Lord unto you whom I love
[SPEAKER_02]: And whom I love, I also chasin.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he gives the reasons.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not because he's irritated.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not because he's impatient.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not because he's sick and tired of us.
[SPEAKER_02]: He chasens us that their sins may be forgiven.
[SPEAKER_02]: For with that, for with the chastisement, I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I loved you.
[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, I'm going to be willing to chastise you because I want you to be forgiven of your sins.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to be where I am.
[SPEAKER_02]: We learned all the way back in section twenty nine.
[SPEAKER_02]: the Lord revealed to the saints, for where I am, they, the wicked cannot come for they have no power.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that He doesn't love them.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that He doesn't want them.
[SPEAKER_02]: He wants them in order for them to be with Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have to have power to be so.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so when we have sin, no one clean thing can dwell with Him, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we don't have the power to even be in His presence.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right now, if you and I were placed on the surface of the sun,
[SPEAKER_02]: It would be, of course, immediate destruction, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: It wouldn't be a slow, it would be an instantaneous poof.
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't have the power to dwell on that kind of glory, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: We have to be changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have to have some kind of power to dwell on that kind of glory.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are brighter than the sun at noon day, can you see why He would say I cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance?
[SPEAKER_02]: because we won't have power in that state of sin to even endure that glory.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so all of everything that he is doing is to bring us back to him so that we can have power to become like him.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's the purpose of that chess diesman is to pair away for their deliverance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that I'm remembering the Great Divorce.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Great Divorce describes the grass when the traveler gets to a place where there's this godly kind of being gathering them up and inviting these people to come with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like ghostly gray figures.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't go, but the travelers like I want to kind of go with this guy and as he follows him, he steps on the grass and the grass is like spikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like hard and like doesn't bend under your feet and hurts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the core over the course of the travel, this traveler just says, I, I, it hurt, it hurt every step hurt and it took, it took effort and I had to, I had to be coaxed by my leader to just continue to follow and, and he says by the end of the journey eventually the, the grass becomes soft and it becomes even comfortable on your feet and it's something you, you kind of relish and
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he looks backwards and sees how the grass wasn't different.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still hurting people behind him, but his body had changed in a way that he had become more capable of standing on the grass.
[SPEAKER_00]: That book is such an interesting revelation to a man that's not a member of the church to understand the purposes of life and the trials and challenges.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you were talking, my mind went to second Timothy chapter three.
[SPEAKER_00]: where it is an interesting maybe correlation to the scriptures, it says in verse sixteen of second Timothy three, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works that we become.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scriptures are a giant chastisement book, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hey, look at this guy and how badly he did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do it like that over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we don't want to be chastised, but I love what you've pointed out in this section that at the whole reason for it is so that we can become like him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why he does it so that we can repent that we're chastised to the point of repentance, that we can be forgiven, that we can be clean and move on and move forward.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's it is totally motivated by love.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely motivated by love.
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe we can address this just because it may be a concern when you read it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's skip to verse twelve and then we'll come back to those other verses.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse twelve, the Lord says, if you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: therefore you shall walk in darkness and so if we're not careful on the surface it makes it sound like if I don't keep the commandments then boy God stops loving me and that's the end and I'm just gonna walk in darkness and and so I want to make sure we clarify this important truth that it's if we stop feeling the love of the Father when we don't keep the commandments it's not because his love isn't there it's because we have rejected that and I think it's implying that
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe we could add if you'd keep not my commandments, and you don't have any interest in repenting.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you turn your back and all together turn from the Lord and walk a totally different course.
[SPEAKER_02]: The love of the Father is not going to continue with you again, not because it's not there, but you won't have the ability to access that love that he's so anxious to give.
[SPEAKER_02]: You want to have the ability to feel it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think of a campfire analogy.
[SPEAKER_02]: As long as we're near the campfire, you can feel the warmth, you can see light, you can see things better, you can see each other's faces around the campfire.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if I walk away from the campfire and turn my back on the campfire and get further and further away from it, I feel less, less of the warmth, and I start to just literally walk in darkness.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't feel the love of the father.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's over there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It hasn't moved, but I moved.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think that's just an important reminder that Heavenly Father, He does not cut us off from His love the second we make any mistake.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean that he doesn't love us always, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think President Nelson gave a talk in two thousand three called Divine Love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, well, Divine Love can be called perfect infinite enduring and universal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word does not appear in the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us and certain divine blessings stemming from that love are conditional.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's interesting that the idea that his love stops
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you're God, you have the capacity to provide things that are a full expression of your love to us, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like eternal life with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine being a parent and saying, because you've made these choices, you can't come into my presence anymore?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, by default, a separation of a child from the father's love, not because of the father's desire to not have you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because you don't want to be there, you are unwilling to abide by the laws and principles that would make you even comfortable in that environment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this idea that God's love is unconditional is really, I think kind of a knee or kind of a knee or way of viewing the father, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We re-scriptures like, if that will walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments, then I will lengthen my days.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a blessing that associated with it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will love you if all those statements that those types of things over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think sometimes, let me read one of their little paragraph here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Understanding that divine love and blessings are not truly unconditional, can defend us against common fallacies such as these.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since God is love is unconditional, He will love me regardless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or since God is love, He will love me unconditional regardless of dot dot dot fill in the blank, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The idea that the Antichrist used to say, God will just love you no matter what you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you think about what the Christian world has done to
[SPEAKER_00]: to God, we have created out of our desire for Him to be merciful, we've created a God that doesn't require anything of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't, other than to think of Jesus and say, I love Him and I want Him to help me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great, but that God has zero expectation on us, which I think is the exact opposite of the plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Satan's way of saying, hey, just come to earth and hang out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll get there no matter what.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it Satan's pleasant?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is planned to be in the beginning to say, regardless of what they choose, I will save them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what he's done in the Christian world is to say, regardless of what they choose, they will be saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he's twisted it into Christ being so infinitely giving that he gives even when you don't want him to give to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, in fact, other president Holland has set on a number of occasions that salvation is not a cheap endeavor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It says not just some
[SPEAKER_02]: quick little thing that I think that I'm grateful the Lord puts us in this physical world to help us understand the spiritual world a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I want to be strong and have a certain physique for example there's there's a price to be paid to do that I can't just read fitness magazines and and eat my Twinkie at the same time that yeah
[SPEAKER_02]: I've got to be up and doing, I've got to be practicing, I've got to be, and when I make mistakes or I get off my workout or, and by the way, I'm not suggesting I have it to see that I'm, you know, just out of analogy, it teaches us the same thing spiritually that
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, we have got to do things to put ourselves in a position to even feel God's love that's always there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think of Layman and Lemuel and Nephine Sam.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you remember the Lehigh's dream?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is first Nephite chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_02]: when the Nephi gets to see his father's vision.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or this is actually, this is actually Lehigh's vision, sorry, itself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse fourteen, this is when he sees Saraya and Sam and Nephi, and it came to pass that I beckoned unto them, this is Lehigh speaking, and I also did sand to them with a loud voice that they should come unto me.
[SPEAKER_02]: and per take of the fruit, which was desirable about all other fruit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we'll learn in later chapters in Nephi when Nephi gets to see the same vision.
[SPEAKER_02]: He learns that the fruit and the tree literally represent the love of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: So here's the fruit is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: The love of God exists.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's there for the taking.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone can per take of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so verse sixteen, it came to pass that they did come unto me and did per take of the fruit also.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it came to pass that I was desirous that layman and land you should come and partake of the fruit also, wherefore I cast my eyes toward the head of the river that perhaps might see them, and it came to pass that I saw them, but they would not come unto me and partake of the fruit.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the fruit was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was there for the taking.
[SPEAKER_02]: The love of God was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: ready for anyone that wanted it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He he offers it to all to come unto him and to for take of that love.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they chose not to.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that turned their back on the campfire.
[SPEAKER_02]: The love of God can't continue with someone that that is not willing to protect of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I just wanted to make sure we understood that without someone feeling like, oh, if I make a mistake, that's the end of the love of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's there's something instructive in this contextually to what's going on to these people are so they've got so much going on around and they're trying to build new houses in generally poverty.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to institute the law of consecration for the first time and trying to figure out what that feels like and how that works.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got persecutions coming left and right, no matter where they're living, Kirkland or in Jackson County.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably worse in Jackson County, but so they're dealing with all these issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this instruction about the love of God being somewhere that we need to focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to focus on the things he's asked us to do in order to receive the blessings that he has in store for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remembering Elder Holland's talk called, waiting on the Lord, where he says that they're really quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, with the apologies to Elder Neil A. Maxwell for daring to modify and enlarge something he once said, I to suggest that quote, one's life cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Elder Holland expands that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says,
[SPEAKER_00]: It simply will not work to glide naively through life, saying as we sip another glass of lemonade, Lord, give me all thy choices virtues, but be certain not to give me grief, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor opposition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please do not let anyone dislike me or betray me and above all, do not ever let me feel forsaken by thee or those I love.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Lord, be careful to keep me from all the experiences that may de-divine
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when the rough sledding by everyone else is over, please let me come and dwell with thee where I can boast about how similar our strengths and our characters are as I float along on my cloud of comfortable Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he says, my beloved brothers and sisters Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That the love of God comes from the struggle, the wrestle with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we feel it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't feel happy or joy without feeling an understanding pain and misery, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just not, it's not that they don't work without that each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to have them both to get it, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So don't resent the chastisements of the Lord when you're standing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when a priest of the poor parent
[SPEAKER_02]: Embrace that chastisement.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't be offended, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you'll feel that love and you'll your character will change.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I love that idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, let's go back to section ninety five now that we've got that kind of beginning intro.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chastisement again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are they being chastened?
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse two, it's pretty strong words, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: You must need to be chastened and stand rebuked before my face.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he doesn't, he calls it what it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have sinned against me a very grievous sin.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not just some minor thing, a grievous sin, in that you have not considered what kind of commandment, the great commandment and all things that I've given unto you concerning the building of my house.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's back in section eighty eight, the footnote takes you there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have not done anything five months ago, I gave you a revelation to build my house.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can hear the anxiousness in his voice, but them to receive his love, for them to feel his love in his house, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse eight, barely I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house in the which house I designed to endow those who might have chosen with power from on high.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's that power again.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, I want you to be with me eternally.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the only way you can endure my presence and be in my glory is to be given this endowment of power that can only happen in the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so again, it's his love.
[SPEAKER_02]: Please do this.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not for any other reason, but for them to be in doubt of power so that they can be where he is someday.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, I love this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what was it, partly besides persecution and poverty that prevented them from really making progress on the temple?
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse ten is another indication of the difficulties that contention can cause, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: My servants sinned a very grievous sin and contention arose in the school of the prophets, which was very grievous unto me, say it through your Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, contention
[SPEAKER_02]: in Pete's progress, contention kills progress.
[SPEAKER_02]: No wonder Jesus is first sermon to the Nephites when he appears to them in their Nephi Eleven, contains counsel about contention, right off the bat, his first sermon, and so it's just interesting to see that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, the Lord's anxiousness for them to build this temple so that they can be endowed with that power.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just to give them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think about
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, again, remember, I think we talked about this last time we were together, that these saints were so young in the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a teen thirty-three.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we were three years in from the day there were six people in the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's not a lot of longevity here, and so learning about how you should counsel together, how the school of the prophets should be
[SPEAKER_00]: It should function and how you interact with one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's very different today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think even today, I mean, I don't know what it would be like to sit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to be of fly on the wall in a council meeting with the quorum and listen to the quorum of the twelve talk about whatever comes up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can't imagine when you get the Supreme Court judge that is elder Oaks and the master of the teacher that is elder Holland and the quiet that is elder Gong, that seem so not submissive but just so willing to absorb and then speak so coherently.
[SPEAKER_00]: you put elder president Nelson in the room and president Irrig and I can't imagine that any topic that comes up doesn't have some powerful like disagreements going on sometimes until they get they get the will of the Lord and they get aligned and yet the it doesn't come with contention it doesn't come with that that one component that will make the spirit leave is never there but it was then early on
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I've heard our modern apostles describe that counseling as they have in those forums as intense and where each of them is striving, they're very best to not be the right one or that their idea is the one that's accepted and to argue for their idea but they want to do the Lord's will and they literally want to arrive at that point and so they're not afraid to interject anything
[SPEAKER_02]: that they think might help us to arrive at that point and they don't want to be right they want to do the right thing whatever idea that is or whoever's idea gets changed that there's no personal agenda they leave all that outside the door and and that's the that's the key I think
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think you and I saw that very clearly in elder, who just came, elder, who just came and visited with young people too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when we have opportunities to sit with apostles and learn at their feet, we have moments where we see them wait for revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It isn't about what they think.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the spirit wants them to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think because of that, those moments are important for learning moments for us to say, hey, I think way too much about it myself and not enough about what the Lord wants me to say or what Lord wants me to think.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can't imagine sitting and watching the council work together that they're not all just sitting pondering what is it that the Lord's telling me to say or to feel right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when that's the way we do it, then there's never contention because it's always going to be presented in a way that allows for the spirit to be present.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, I keep bringing up the point that these are young.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of them have only been members of the church for months.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope that we would give them the grace that they deserve to give in the circumstance.
[SPEAKER_02]: As they earn, just as you and I learn.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, verse eleven kind of is this the here's the hope he says if you keep my commandments, I'm going to give you power to build this house.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Lord then in the rest of this revelation gives the dimensions and a general description of the curtain temple, including how many feet tall and how many feet wide or the width and the length
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a higher part and a lower part.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's some things that are given here prior to this, it should be noted that when the Lord asked them to build this temple, Joseph Smith did have a group of high priests get together, kind of a group of men to kind of a committee to discuss how they could build a temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the best idea they came up with was, well, some said, you know, a frame house of some kind and others said, well, because of our poverty, we probably ought to stick with logs.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the best thing they came up with.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Joseph said, shall we, brethren, shall we build a house for our God made of logs?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, brethren, I have a better plan than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a plan of the house of the Lord, given by Himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then right then and there on the spot, he gives them
[SPEAKER_02]: this plan of how the house should be built.
[SPEAKER_02]: And even later, the first presidency, Joseph Smith, Sydney Rigid and Frederick G. Williams, had a remarkable vision where they got to see a lot of the details that hadn't yet been revealed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they saw details of the house of kind of a virtual vision where they got to see the temple.
[SPEAKER_02]: They got to go inside it.
[SPEAKER_02]: They got to interact, not only with their environment, but with each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're able to
[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord and His mercy was able to really help them see what this needed to look like.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is one of the great stories, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the great undertakings of the churches to build a temple like they did, a remarkable building in their poverty.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Lord did provide a way.
[SPEAKER_02]: He did give them power, just as he promised, as they humbled themselves and decided to keep his commandments, they were able to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I just, yeah, it's an inspiring story of how this all came about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and isn't it interesting that as soon as they built that temple, they started obtaining and, I mean, Kirtland was a pretty thriving city by the time they left it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they had, as soon as they did the things that the Lord asked them to do, he temporarily blessed them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spiritual things he asks him to do, any chastises him about not doing, as soon as those things are in place, the Lord turns around and says, okay, well let's bless you in the temporal things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's what I want for you as well, but you need to do the things that are going to save your souls first.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he focuses there until we're in line and then the temporal blessings come.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that was true and it was true in Navu.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once they got to town and they started really doing it, that thrived.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was as massive metropolis comparatively back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a proof.
[SPEAKER_02]: Any of our young adults are there listening that just that principle of contention killing progress that, whether it's in our families, whether it's in a quorum, whether it's in a
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, a church calling and those relationships that we have or work relationships that just even in a work setting, just that if we can avoid those intentions, that seems to be a common thread that just kills progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, totally agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's do this, Brother Edwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: For time, maybe we just kind of bounce over sections, ninety-six.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a section that has really given to John Johnson, calling given to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks a little bit about establishing Zion in
[SPEAKER_00]: in Kirkland and making it a strong place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we've kind of touched on that concept already.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll come back to it a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think maybe for time, maybe we just jump into ninety-seven and see what I was really in for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That worked great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe just to ninety-seven this is a revelation for Joseph Smith.
[SPEAKER_02]: two Joseph Smith regarding the saints that are in Jackson County, Missouri.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's in Kirkland at the time he receives this revelation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the time he receives this, he has no idea just how bad things are.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I were to give this title, this section of title, I would maybe call it all is not well and Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Zion is actually really some tough stuff happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, Joseph Smith had no idea of the things that had had been happening already.
[SPEAKER_02]: Governor Bugs, the Governor of Missouri sanctioned and allowed a mob to basically demand the church leaders in Jackson County to tell them they have to leave.
[SPEAKER_02]: They ransacked the home of William W. Phelps, they destroyed.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were working on the Book of Commandments and so they had some unbound copies of that that they were in the middle of binding and preparing for publishing and
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were destroyed, that they threw out the printing press from the upper, upper, upper, upper window of wind, wind, oh, of William, up your valves home.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is that inspiring part of church history where we have two young girls, Mary Elizabeth Raul, sister Caroline, that snapped a few of those unbound things before they were being burned and they hid in that cornfield to escape the mob.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's some inspiring heroic things that happened during these, these awful moments.
[SPEAKER_02]: They also plunder the store that was owned by Sydney Gilbert there and independence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they tart and feathered bishop, parteridge, Edward Parteridge, and in Charles Allen in the public square.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's just some really hard things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Joseph Smith had no idea those things were happening at the time he wrote this or that he was revelation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And at the time that it came to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so with that as the context, I think that helps us see some things that might be helpful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse one, here's another one of those references to his friends, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And he expresses gratitude and love for those that are humble, verse one at the end, seeking diligently to learn wisdom and to find truth, blessed our such.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he also, saying, I'll show mercy to the meek.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's some great people and wonderful saints in Missouri, but not all.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's been some tough things.
[SPEAKER_02]: verse six says there's regarding the school the school in Zion the school of the elders which was basically a grove of trees there hadn't been a physical building bill yet and it was really designed to prepare missionaries to leave
[SPEAKER_02]: But again, there was some things happening with the school of the elders and contentions happening in Missouri.
[SPEAKER_02]: Part of the challenge here is you have a lot of saints.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of the saints that were gathered and they did not do so with the prophets permission and they were supposed to be instructed to gather there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you have all kinds of people showing up getting ahead of the prophet.
[SPEAKER_02]: and you've got people trying to build their homes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in some cases, the saints that are gathering to independence are boasting that the Lord's going to give them this land to build up their Zion and that, and the one that gets in their way is going to be crushed by the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're building night homes and they're building nice orchards and farms and so there's jealousy and there's, anyway, there's just, there's a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: problems going on here that independence residents are not having it.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're competing with them in business.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're driving the prices up because of scare cities because things are buying out everything politically.
[SPEAKER_02]: They think differently.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, so there's all kinds of problems brewing and because of the pride and
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... contentions of some of the saints that are here uh... verse seven is says the acts is laid at the door of the trees and so when this revelation's been received joseph Smith doesn't even realize that as as this is happening in Missouri mobs are literally gathering and and and doing those awful things and so so the lord here verse maybe verse eight is probably one that we need to kind of focus on what's the solution to a growing
[SPEAKER_02]: brewing conflict and Missouri.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in any of our lives, this is probably the answer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Veryly I say to you, all among them who know their hearts are honest and are broken and their spirits can try and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yay, every sacrifice which I the Lord shall command, they are accepted of me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So honesty, humility, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Broken hearts and contrite spirits.
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe a key principle here is you need to observe your covenants by sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what he commands them next is a surprise and spite of all of these things.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord commands them of some way that they need to sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's verse ten.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's my will that a house should be built unto me in the land of Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not only the Lord come at a temple to be built in Kirtland, Ohio, but it's also time to build a house in Missouri.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can imagine how difficult this would be with all that they're doing again in Kirtland, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: They're building homes, they're trying to get established and same things happening in Missouri.
[SPEAKER_02]: Through on top of that, persecutions and all the things that they're going through, it's a really difficult thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the solution though, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: All the difficult things we face in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love that, Jim, you've expanded this section really beautifully.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's some, maybe some other context that might be a little helpful in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: June of eighteen, thirty-three, section fifty-seven, one versus one through three, we get Joseph saying, just like he had said in Kirtland, you should build a temple through the revelations, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a instruction that they go build a temple, but it didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're at a point now, you know, July comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in July of eighteen, thirty three, one month after the Council comes to build a temple, we get the signed forced signed agreement to leave Jackson County, which the Saints were given fifteen minutes to decide if they wanted a sign or not, and then they signed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they, not only have they been told to build a temple, they gave up their rights to even stay in the county.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward a little while, we've got Governor Bugs, you know, the extermination order and even on the third of August.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this revelation came out on August second.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the next day, there was a council of church leaders in Kirtland that gave instructions that they were supposed to stay, that they were going to stay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they've signed this document in July.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been told in June to build a temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they signed the document saying, OK, we're going to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they come back a month later, and they say, we're not leaving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph received the revelation about the day before, but they hadn't received it yet, because they're not in Kirtland.
[SPEAKER_00]: which makes the mob's worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then we get Governor Boggs saying, just start whipping women and children and then that turns into an extermination order.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all of the wonderful things you've just taught us comes in the context of all of those strife in their life that are going on in the background.
[SPEAKER_00]: My brother is a podcaster and he actually does really well in the podcaster world.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's maybe a sliver of the talent that I was given was just given to understand from my brother what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he and I were talking yesterday and he has this concept for a podcast that that would be just freeze framing the scriptures that we read and looking beyond that at the culture and the environment around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: to understand what was really going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your description of the Lord's interaction with these people without that context is hard to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to see, you know, that the Lord's saying, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see all the problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: But do this thing and you'll be okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can protect you if you'll just do this thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because they didn't see the relevance in that thing in their life, they didn't do the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they didn't get the temporal blessings that we just got done talking about in Kirtland.
[SPEAKER_00]: in Jackson County because they refuse to go and just do the hard thing in face of all the trials that they were facing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so counterintuitive and it takes the whole faith that's again trusting in those priesthood keys and following those keys you remember one of Isaiah's themed messages for
[SPEAKER_02]: The children of Israel don't make a confederation with other nations.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will protect you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they chose to make a agreement with other nations and alliances instead of trusting the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, they were wiped out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's counterintuitive, but the very solution to the very things that is not to trust in the arm of flesh, but to turn to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's his invitation.
[SPEAKER_02]: You observe your covenants by sacrifice and build this temple
[SPEAKER_02]: and let it be verse twelve by the tithing and the sacrifice of my church.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love the promises that he gives there, and even really the purposes of temples.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at the end of verse twelve that there may be a house built unto me first for the salvation of Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're talking first and foremost.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is salvation, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is exaltation.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is how we get that endowment of power
[SPEAKER_02]: to be able to go in the presence of God to be with Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is also how we get that endowment of power to resist our enemies and to subdue the things going around the chaos around us.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord can do anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's the key verse thirteen.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's also a place of thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if if you've ever had the opportunity or if any of our listeners have that maybe and just pure gratitude for some blessing
[SPEAKER_02]: We feel drawn to the House of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: It just offer up things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think of Hannah in the Old Testament, right, who went to the Lord and prayed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was her place of pleading.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then that was also her place of thanksgiving, once that blessing of a son came and a promise blessing came there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's also a place of instruction for those that are all on missions.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in all there's several callings and offices,
[SPEAKER_02]: that you go to the house of the Lord and we learn and instruct it of him, not just in the language of the ordinance as so much as I think instructed of his spirit.
[SPEAKER_02]: As a state president, there is one of the more difficult parts of my calling is calling a bishop to serve in one of the words.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just as such a sacred calling you want to be just to make sure you don't miss this.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's not a single bishop that's been called, at least in my stake, that wasn't confirmed and sought out in the House of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just that we need to feel that instruction and to even be given the who should call on a particular calling.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm grateful for that promise that I've seen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And verse fourteen talks about another reason and blessing that comes from these temples that we can be perfected in our understanding of our ministry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not only in theory and principle, but in doctrine, it's a place to learn sacred truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ pertaining to the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's just these powerful promises the Lord gives that happens inside of temples.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that verse fourteen.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a number of things in there that we perfected our understanding of the ministry in theory, in principle, in doctrine and all things pertaining to the kingdom we've got on earth, keys.
[SPEAKER_00]: of which the kingdom of God have been conferred upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that, you know, like you said before, we get, it's counterintuitive, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We get wrapped up in the thing that is in our face and we forget that the tools God's given us in the house of the Lord and all the other tools we are given are things that really could bless us in accomplishing the temporal thing that's in our face.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reminded of President Packers' talk in in nineteen eighty-six called Little Children.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an interesting talk, but the quote that comes from it that were many of us were aware of, it seems kind of outside the box of the talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the quote is this, the study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior, quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if we apply that to what the Saints were dealing with in Missouri at the time, well they're concerned for the hatred they were being thrown at them from the community members, became the thing they became focused on.
[SPEAKER_00]: They became so focused on it that they started
[SPEAKER_00]: Just doing those things that would appease that world.
[SPEAKER_00]: They signed the documents as we're going to leave town.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're doing all the things contrary to what they should be doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next line of this quote, I think, is really an interesting line.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a study of the doctor will change behavior faster than a study of behavioral change.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then this preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we get so my opically focused on so-and-so doing this thing, so-and-so doing this thing, we start thinking about all we can do is think about the unworthy behavior of others or myself or the sin that I'm committing, and so I go and study it, and I study pornography, and I study how to get away from it, and I just put my brain so much inside of that issue, whatever the issue is, that
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I think about and it leads to more of that problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is saying here and in the scriptures that focus on the things I'm telling you, do the things I've asked you to do and all these other things will get worked out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why a bishop tells someone dealing with all the issues, read your scriptures and say your prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do the basic fundamental things the Lord's asked you to do and if you do those things, then we can talk because we can move you forward in the temporal stuff that you're struggling with, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a bishop telling someone struggling with financial things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pay your time in first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so counter to everything, but that's where we, again, trust the priesthood keys, trust the Lord, and he'll see through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's the message.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ultimately, what he's trying to do is get them in his presence.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse sixteen, if you build this temple, verse fifteen, he says, and don't suffer any unclean thing to pollute it.
[SPEAKER_02]: My glory is going to rest there, verse sixteen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And my presence shall be there for I will come into it and all the pure and hard that shall come into it shall see God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And why will I be able to because they've been given that endowment of power, which is the whole reason we have temples is so that we can someday return and be in the presence of God and be like Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so verse sixteen is an illusion that pure and hard that we cool expansion
[SPEAKER_02]: of the pure and heart and actually an expansion of an understanding of Zion versus twenty one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let Zion rejoice for this is Zion, the pure and heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so here they are trying to build Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're focused on all these physical things.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're focused on all the difficult things that they've been given.
[SPEAKER_02]: And struggling to physically build Zion because of persecution, because of poverty,
[SPEAKER_02]: And the answer is, before you can build the city of Zion, the physical place of Zion, we need a Zion like people, and that's the pure and hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's those that are humble and contrite that observe their covenants by sacrifice, that are willing to build a house of the Lord, and spite of all these other things, those that are willing to quickly enjoy fully repent.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what's going to build up Zion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Zion is a condition first and foremost over that of being a place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a great reminder that we've got to keep our focus in the right places.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we speak on one thing, maybe to close here, Jim, and maybe your closing remarks can be directed towards the young adults who have yet to go through the temple, who have yet to understand what it means to see God in the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe I'll preface your remarks by sharing a thought or two that literally what we learned in the temple is the way to get through the veil to see God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have the capacity to do it until we've obtained our endowment of power and the knowledge that comes with it to get through the veil to see our father and heaven on the other side and the veil being Christ that we travel through Christ to the Father, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it that you would counsel someone who has yet to go through the temple or maybe who has been a long time back to the temple and has found themselves away?
[SPEAKER_00]: How would you, you know, it's interesting that we're ending on this again because I think in our last recording we talked about, you talked about it at the very end, counsel of the young adults to be in the temple as often as you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that we're ending here again today, I think, is significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you talk to those that maybe haven't gone, help them see a need for the endowment of power?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it used to be that young people were kind of discouraged to get their endowments until they were getting married or they were going on a mission or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's generally pretty different now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe speak to that and maybe some encouragement there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, whatever your thoughts.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm grateful for the experiences that I've had in the House of the Lord and it really is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, it's not just an endowment of power for some future day when we stand in the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is for sure that that's going to be the reason we can stand before Him and can endure His glory.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's more than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's an endowment of power in this life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember the saints before they bring them young led the saints from Navu with increasing persecutions there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we're literally their lives were in danger.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they had finished the temple and hundreds and hundreds of people waited on Brigham Young to receive their endowment.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in fact, I think in two and a half days or two and a half weeks, I can't remember what it was, over five hundred people received their endowments.
[SPEAKER_02]: They felt, and they recognized that if they're going to cross the plains, that alone is a difficult enough challenge, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: and eventually to come to a valley that's uninhabited that really frankly is a desert and to start over and build homes and farms and orchards and vineyards and a temple and to start from scratch that they need the lords and downwind of power to do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was what was driving them
[SPEAKER_02]: to be willing to risk their lives to stay in a view a few extra days to receive their endowment of power.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I would just encourage anyone that's thinking about going to the temple or you're not sure if you're ready that you prayerfully consider ways that you need that endowment of power in this life and recognize that whatever you're wrestling with and whatever you're struggling with
[SPEAKER_02]: the answer lies in the Lord's power and it's to be found in the temple and it's and that's where we find the Lord's love.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's where we feel his love the most is in the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so so whenever it takes as you've invited to reorder our lives to prepare to go to the temple, please do so.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now some of us may feel like there's some things we're working on and trying to overcome and maybe we're not ready for it yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't you make that determination?
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a judge in Israel that has been given to each of us to make that determination for us if when we're ready or not ready to be in the house of the Lord and just to have a frank and open and honest conversation with the bishop and share with them the things you're struggling with if you feel like you're not ready and let him determine
[SPEAKER_02]: what needs to be done to help you get ready so that you can be at the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: So don't delay that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't delay it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't put it off until you get ready to get married.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a young adult and you've graduated from high school, whether you've been on a mission or not, I guess for those that have not yet been on a mission and you're not yet in doubt and you don't have a marriage prospect or anything like that,
[SPEAKER_02]: I would encourage you to spiritually consider the house of the Lord as your next big spiritual move and let the bishop help you get ready for that experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been a great opportunity to sit again with you and learn at your feet and what a beautiful council instruction you've given to the young people there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the idea that their common judge in Israel can make those decisions and they can trust that that will be the right timing when they put their trust in the Lord's leaders in their sphere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just appreciate your time and I know that you're a busy guy doing a lot of good things and grateful for your wisdom here today and hopefully we'll have you back on.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'll take us.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was great with me with you and best of blessings to all our awesome young adults.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: See you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye.