VIDEO: Come Follow Me Insights (Doctrine and Covenants 84, Jul 26-Aug 1)

Come Follow Me Insights (Doctrine and Covenants 84, Jul 26-Aug 1) – powered by Happy Scribe

I’m Taylor and I’m Taylor, and I’m Anthony. This is Booker Centrals Come, Follow Me Insight’s Today Doctrine and Covenants Section eighty four.

It’s good to have Anthony join us again on this particular section because this is a this is a big one.

I’m just honored to have me back first.

Well, I mean, we’re going to see if we can get it right this time.

Yeah. Yeah. Try to fix me this time. Thanks for letting me be here.

But wouldn’t you agree that Section eighty four would have to be on probably our shortest of short lists of what we would consider kind of those mountain peak sessions in the doctrine?

And I would say not only is eighty for one of those top mountain peak sections, as you said, that’s well said. But I think there’s three or four verses in here that could be Mountain Peak versus four. To summarize the entire purpose of the restoration, like getting at the heart of what is it that we have to offer the world? I think there’s a few verses in here that are like that. There you go.

Yeah. And and that actually helps a lot in our messaging when we interact with people of other faiths or even with our children, raising them in our colleagues to help people stay focused. You’ve heard the phrase keep the main thing. The main thing.

Yeah, that’s what Section four is helping us to do. And you want me to tell you what verses they are or you, like, thought that was really good. Kallangur here, thanks. So let’s begin, Anthony, S.A.T. for help us help us understand the setting, what’s going on, this is what some people have affectionately termed The Book of Mormon day, September. Twenty second every year is The Book of Mormon day. So this is the day that Joseph Smith finally receives the plates out of the hill.

It’s also that day when he went every year to visit with with the Moroni September. Twenty second. I don’t know that that necessarily ties in beautifully other than it’s in the section where we are reminded when you talk about the forgotten The Book of Mormon, it’s a good tie and it brings us back.

I hadn’t thought about that. Yeah. Yeah. What’s going on in context? I hate to say that it’s a relatively calmer time because Joseph didn’t have many of those in his life. But September of eighteen thirty two is a relatively calm time in the church. Joseph has moved back. We’re in the Ohio period and Joseph lives in Ohio and he’s moved in with the witness is upstairs above the Newell store where he’s doing a lot of this work.

Yeah. And he has what they call a revelation or translation room. And some six elders have recently returned home from a mission and they’re, in essence, giving a mission report to Joseph. And they kneel down and pray together. And after the prayer, Joseph rises and starts to dictate this revelation. So there’s not a ton of like historical weaving in, but that’s the setting that brings us about. And it’s good to know that he’s talking to six people who just come home from their mission because this section is extremely missionary centric.

I mean, I think up front, what I would want people to know is the section eighty four is really the missionary section, particularly the second half of the section. It almost acted like missionary guidebook, the first missionary guidebook that that versus sixty to one hundred and twenty is all on guidance for missionaries.

There must be an effective mission in the latter days. Yeah, it’s beautiful. So it’s, it’s a fascinating thing to note here that with these six elders returning, one or two of them point out something significant from their perspective, that when they watch Joseph, when when they finish this prayer and Joseph starts going into prophetic conduit from heaven mode where he’s actually giving words from the Lord Jesus Christ, he said something shifts in Joseph. He’s no longer the the farm boy.

So he’s not speaking like your typical twenty six year old frontier man at this time. There’s something serene that comes across him, the cadence of his speech, the tone of his voice, the the body language shifts.

Yeah. It’s Stephen Harper in his book Making Sense of the Doctrine Covenants. He he summarizes this great story that when Joseph starts to dictate like that to these elders after they arise from prayer, Joseph starts to dictate this monumental mountaintop revelation. And this is what Father Harper writes. Joseph begin to dictate the revelation just as Oliver Cowdrey entered the room and sat near the fire, the other brother and sat as if transfixed, watching and listening. Joseph finished, boys, if you got that written, all of rest but no one had thought of writing, can you imagine that?

Like that was epic there. Just transcendent. Oliver then put his pen to the paper to Scribe for the Revelator, Joseph made a few corrections as all of us read the text aloud. That’s fascinating.

Yeah. So the other thing to consider here is you’ll notice in the heading that it starts on September. Twenty second finishes on September twenty third, probably going late into the night, a little bit over the cut. It’s probably a well everybody’s a little tired. Let’s go to bed. They come back twenty third, pick it up. So the, the rest of the section is given on that next morning and it’s probably in verse one or two and one, two, three, by the way, there’s three three copies of this revelation that exists, the original and then two copies that were made of it.

One of those copies is in the Bible. You herald Lehi Library, but the break is probably between verse one or two and one of the three that that in those copies of those revelations, there’s a clear break between at the end of one or two, forever and ever. Amen. And then one on three and again, very, very same view. It is expedient that one of three probably is where Joseph picks up the next morning on it.

Yes, it’s beautiful. OK, let’s jump in to the actual verses. We’ve talked around the section and about the section. Now let’s dove into the section. So as we pick it up in verse one, I love the fact that he opens this similar to the way he opens many revelations, a revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant, Joseph Smith Jr. and six elders as they united their hearts and lifted their voices on high. You’ll notice he’s establishing this relationship of who he is, who they are, but I love the fact that he’s acknowledging you asked.

Yeah, you weren’t just sitting there waiting for something to happen. You were proactive. You use your agency, you ask.

So here’s a revelation. I’m going to give you some revelation.

And I, like you, probably know me well enough that I like, particularly in big sections. I like to break them down to give myself a framework. And I know how much Tyler likes to write on the board.

You so I’m going to write and you’ve got better and you got way better handwriting than I do. I like to call this I break them into six sections in this revelation, the place which is verse one to five guys, going to talk about the place of the new Jerusalem, which is on their mind, the lineage, which is verses six to 18, or the Lord’s going to explain some priesthood lineage and how it came to be next. The power verse nineteen to thirty two or the Lord gets into ordinances and the power they give us in our life.

Then the oath which works out to talk with the oath and cover on the priesthood. That’s thirty three to forty two. Forty to the oath. Thirty three to forty two. The word verse forty three to sixty. There’s this great connection there that we can look at and and then the command for missionaries and I, I summarize the rest of it. Sixty one to one twenty. I just say this is the command and he gives all these directives for four missionaries, but it’s kind of just a great way to break down what’s going to happen in the section.

He’s going to talk about the new Jerusalem, the lineage of the priesthood, the power of priesthood ordinances with its oath and covenant of the father, what the word does to bring us to that oath and covenant and then how missionaries are supposed to go out.

This is this is so helpful, Tony. And remember that this is one set of lenses that we can put on. Look at this. This is not and this is the way it is now. Exactly. But what I’m saying is, is when you’ve got a section that’s that Mehdi, that big, that substantial, it’s nice to be able to break it into bite size. And this is one way to do it. And I love it.

Probably a poor way, but.

Well, I love it. It’s great. So let’s begin, Tony, with the place, the place referring obviously here, as he’s already mentioned to Zion there on that western frontier.

Yeah. And so it’s good versus the universe, too, that we’re going to stand on Mount Zion, the city of New Jerusalem, and it’s good to understand it. Zion has lots of different definitions here. He’s talking about literally the city of New Jerusalem, which Joseph Hadari been out twice. And in the summer of eighteen thirty one, he had dedicated with Sidney Rigdon and others. They had dedicated the spot to build the temple that had already been done in the summer of eighteen thirty one.

So now we’re a little over a year later. But it’s good to have that context as he’s talking about these verses.

Yeah, just as a side note here, the fascinating tie in is he keeps referring to it as Zion or the New Jerusalem. You look, for instance, at verse four, really this is the word Lord that the city, New Jerusalem shall be built. And he told you in verse three that it’s going to be built sintered first on that temple and then going out from there.

First, the western boundaries of the state of Missouri dedicated.

Exactly. Now, if you look at ancient Jerusalem. Roughly, that’s the shape of the walls around Jerusalem at the time of Christ, so here you have the Kidron Valley, there’s the garden that we call Gethsemani. Over here is the Hannum Valley. And right here, right down the middle of Jerusalem is the Tyrolean Valley. The temple is built right here on the on Mount Moriah. Over here, the high point, this is Mt. Zion. That’s higher, actually, than Mount Moriah Herod’s palace could look down into the Temple Mount, that is the high point physically of the city.

But the temple, the holy of holies is the high point of the whole world, the whole earth in the Bible. If you’re going to Jerusalem and you’re an Israelite, you’re going up to Jerusalem. Doesn’t matter, north, south, east, west or what the geography is, you’re going up because that is where heaven meets earth, the holy of holies, the presence of God. And yet, ironically, in the Old Testament and throughout antiquity, they would often refer to all of Jerusalem as Zion.

So this is the old Jerusalem or this is Zion. Now, what are we doing in the restoration of the new Jerusalem? We’re building a new Zion or a new Jerusalem. Is this mountain where God can come and meet women and men on the earth, on the fallen earth. This perfected, glorified God can bring his kingdom down to the earth. So there’s this tie in. And with the gathering of Israel, Joseph is very tuned in to the tribes of Israel and to the biblical promises of old Jerusalem and New Jerusalem and the land and The Book of Mormon promises back to The Book of Mormon de Mormon.

You know, you get into what is ether 13. That is the quote. That chapter Mary where he talks about this city of New Jerusalem will be built on the American continent. So those things are on his mind. And that’s a good segue into verse four and five.

Exactly. So now with that context of old Jerusalem and and the city where Jesus performed the most important act of all time, that infinite atonement where he was slain for the sins of the world and paid the price to to redeem our souls from the death of hell and the grave. Both of those deaths look at verse for early. This is the word of the Lord that the city, New Jerusalem, shall be built by the gathering of the Saints beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation, definitely wants a temple built there.

And it might be good, though, just since you’ve brought it up to look at footnote four, there’s a great cross reference when it says this temple will be reared in this generation.

And the covenants, one twenty four and fifty just highlight that footnote. It takes you to document one twenty four, which is given in our view. And the Lord basically says, hey, you went forward and tried your best. And the Lord basically says in verse forty nine, really, really saying to you that when I give a commitment to any of the sons of men to do a work under my name and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work and see another diligence and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work we hold.

It behooves me to require that work no more at the hands of the sons of men, but to accept of their offering. So it’s almost like the Lord later goes, I recognize that you guys try to do this and your enemies came and stopped you. And so I’m not going to hold it over your head.

And another way to look at that is you combine it then with version five, where he says, for Verilli, this generation shall not pass away until and the House shall be built unto the Lord and a cloud shall rest upon it. Which clouds shall be even the glory of the Lord which shall fill the house. I don’t think that any of those six elders, possibly not even Joseph at that time, knew that that prophecy was actually going to be fulfilled from verse five right there in Curtaining Kirtland very, very shortly.

Yeah. As far as the timeline is concerned, that’s that’s a good connection with it and with the cloud resting in verse five. And one of the reasons why that could be I mean, the cloud that’s Old Testament language, you know, cloud by day, pillar of fire. Right now, it’s the presence of God. And in that Kirtland temple, I don’t know if we had more heavenly outpouring and manifestations, revelations, visions, the cloud, so to speak, the presence of God and in the Kirtland temple.

Absolutely. Now, let’s shift gears the lineage. What is what is the big deal with priesthood lines of authority? Why do we care who gave you the priesthood, who gave him the priesthood and so on and so forth, up to Jesus, Christ? Why is this why is this long list of Moses in verse six who got it from Jethro and Caleb and Eli who? And Jeremy and Gad and all the way back to Abraham and then eventually back to Adam.

Why is that significant?

Yeah, that’s really before I answer that question. Verse six is the longest aside in scripture, if you notice, and verse six and the Sons of Moses, according to the holy priesthood, which he received in the hand of Jethro, then we’re going to get in this lineage, but then go all the way to verse thirty one. Therefore, as I said, concerning the sons of Moses for the son, it’s almost like verse six all the way through 30 isn’t a side where he goes and the sons of Moses own him.

Let me talk about the lineage and the power. OK, now let me get back, as I see it, about the Sons of Moses. I love it. And so there’s this lineage. He really does want to say, where is your where is this priesthood coming from? Which is where you want to talk about this lineage? Yeah, it’s it’s a big deal. Authority matters. It can’t be just driven by well, I want to do good things and I, I want to I want to prevent bad things from happening and promote good things.

It would be like it would be like me coming out and seeing Tony driving 80 miles an hour through a school zone and me thinking, that’s wrong.

That’s terrible.

And noticing there’s a police car right there that happens to be idling and the policeman is not in it. So I want to do a good thing. So I go down and get in that police car and flip on the lights and I chase you down and I pull you over and I give you a ticket because I’m doing a good thing. Right. There’s a problem. I have no authority to do that. I can have the best of intentions, but I wasn’t authorized by the people whose right it is to give me that authority to administer that justice or administer that ordinance, so to speak.

Yeah, that’s a good way to say it. The reason why we care about it is because, in essence, when we’re saying the priesthood, you’re joining this lineage or this this covenantal that we’ll talk about this covenant, family of God. And really what we’re saying is, where did you get your priesthood, your lineage? How did you join the family? How did you come into the covenant? And you can say, well, I was brought into the covenant by the authority of so-and-so and they were in the covenant or in the family.

They got brought in by so-and-so and they got brought in by so-and-so. And that’s important, by the way, for women also equally to men is sometimes when you talk about priestly lineage, it can be male centric in the sense of it’s who can perform the ordinances, who has the authority. But there’s also a way to think of it as who brought me into the family, the covenant family of God. And where did they get their authority to bring me into the Covenant?

We’re all being brought in by somebody who was brought in by somebody who was brought in, who had the covenantal authority from God to do so. I love it.

Notis verse 17, which priesthood? So we’re talking about we’ve made it all the way back through our lineage, back through Adam. Now we shift leading into this power looking for 17, which priesthood continuous in the Church of God in all generations and without beginning of days or interviews. It’s this. He’s basically saying to me that this is not a flash in the pan. It’s not this fly by the seat of our pants. Oh, let’s try this.

For this generation, he’s saying no priesthood is this one powerful thread that comes down through the generations. What is it? It’s his tone. He’s talking. It’s not just limited to men. This is the power of God given to mortals on the Earth to do the work of God, which is the work of salvation through bringing people in to the gospel, covenant, connection with God, as well as teaching them the doctrines and the commandments that are associated with that covenant as well as.

Giving them the ability to now spread that covenant into the whole world that they have capacity to reach and to teach, this is powerful. If we look at priesthood in section eighty four through this lens of this is simply God revealing, look, this is how I do my work of salvation among my children on the Earth, powered by the infinite atonement of my son, Jesus Christ. I give them I share my power with people on the earth to bring all this to pass.

And that’s a good way. And it’s to transition in the nineteen, twenty and twenty to. Know, when I when I said when we started that there might be some verses that summarized the restoration, I think there verses twenty to twenty two as a whole. Because what you were just saying, Tyler, really what we are saying, we don’t feel like we have a corner market in the world on faith in Jesus Christ or or wonderful teachings about the savior or truth about God.

That’s not our position and the restoration. If we go all the way back to section twenty two, when the church was organized, the Lord said this is all old covenants have passed away. This is to be a new and everlasting covenant, and what the Lord is saying is back to what you just said, what what we’re offering to the world is the covenant. It’s pretty unique Latter Day Saints language to talk about the covenant family of God. And I love Titti verse twenty twenty one, twenty two to even the first vision.

That’s what Joe’s what Joseph is getting at is. What who has power, the power of God? How do we get the power of God? What church has this salvific or the power to help us be saved in the presence of God? And when the Lord appears to be a young boy, Joseph, I’m not sure Joseph understands this, but the Lord says to Joseph a very interesting phrase. He says that the the churches teach truth and there’s some commandments of men in their.

But then he says a really important phrase, he says they have a form of godliness, that they deny the power thereof, and it’s a really interesting phrase, what could the Lord mean by they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. Well connected, diverse 20. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, that’s of the priesthood, in the ordinances of the priesthood, the power of godliness is manifest, that just tied all the way back to the first vision, the Joseph, there’s lots of great churches and things out there that teach wonderful things.

The question is, do they have the power to perform the ordinances of the covenant? And then the Lord says was twenty one, because without the ordinances thereof and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest until men in the flesh fourth out. This that pronoun would be these priesthood covenants and ordinances. No man can see the face of God, even the father in live, or in other words, come into his presence to be exalted with him.

Our church, if I could say it so boldly, what we are offering to the world through the restoration is we are saying that the covenant has been restored and the authority to administer that covenant, to bind us to God and to one another has been reestablished on this earth. That’s what we have to offer. That’s power that is so monumental as far as what you hear, our profits and apostles talking about the gathering of Israel on both sides, that is what we’re offering them is come into this covenant connection with God.

We’re providing the authoritative means whereby you can actually come into Christ and be perfected in him.

Yeah. And and that’s why I love our prophet has continued to say, President Nelson, how many times, as he said, continue on or stay on the covenant path? It’s all about the covenant. And that’s why I might be over. My rhetoric might be too strong here. So I apologize. But I really think verse twenty to twenty to get to the heart of the restoration of what we’re doing as a people as a whole and the power of godliness that those ordinances can bring into our life.

I love it. Let’s let’s just very quickly pause here and do a quick review of the nutshell definition of these covenantal connections we have. And it shows up throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament. And it’s in the Book of Mormon, this phrase, these phrases where he says, I will be your God and you will be my people. Now we talk about Abraham, a covenant. We talk about Mosaic Covenant or Sinai Covenant. We talk about the temple covenants and baptismal covenants and and marriage covenants and ceiling covenants and all these other covenants in the church that come up in our discussion.

At the end of the day, if you peel back all the layers, peel back all of the the trimmings and trappings down at the very core of every single covenant we make in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Church of Jesus Christ, you will find this God is offering us the arms of his mercy and his love to come into his fold as his people, and he promises, I’ll be your God. So now, with this in mind, notice what all prophets, through the history of the dispensation of this Earth have have sought to accomplish.

It’s to bring people out of the world, out of slavery and bondage to sin. And in Moses, this case literally in bondage to Pharaoh and bring them out into the wilderness and say, you know what, instead of worshiping the gods, the false gods of Egypt, I’m going to introduce you to the real God. And he’s going to be your God. You’re going to be his people. Look at verse twenty three. Now, this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness and sought diligently to sanctifies people that they might behold the face of God.

Yeah, but their response, they’re twenty four. They harden their hearts. Yeah they do. And they’re in essence like we’re afraid of that God Moses. And we’re not sure we want this.

So they want this. They want this intercessor, they want Moses to go and talk to God and then come back and tell us what we need to do rather than Moses getting out of the way and connecting them, which is what he had wanted to do, which which introduces a kind of a unique doctrine to what we believe in the church regarding that experience of Moses coming down for the first time and seeing what’s going on. It’s really key with what you’re teaching here, Tyler.

The God wants all of his people to come up into his presence. That’s really what the temple back to tying in this whole new Jerusalem. I want to prepare a people who are a nation of priests and priestesses, people who are my people who come up into my. Presence that the temple is giving us this metaphorical symbolic journey. And I’m going to give you the ordinances to do it, but they say, nope, let’s just let Moses be our intercessor.

And so it’s really interesting to go to verse twenty three that you just mentioned, that they Moses diligently to sanctify his people, that they might behold the face of God, but they harden their hearts and could not endure his presence. Therefore, the Lord, in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is a fullness of his glory or a fullness of the priesthood.

The Lord’s will fine. You can’t have a fullness of the priesthood. Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst and the holy priesthood also. And there gets to be some confusion here, like, oh, well, they didn’t have the priesthood or they lost the Melchizedek priesthood. People ask Joseph Smith, this did did God take away the Melchizedek priesthood when when he took away Moses and Joseph? Because, hey, it’s all Melchizedek Priesthood. All priesthood is Melchizedek.

Joseph says there’s just different portions or degrees. So what is it that the Lord took away then? So I would go make sure you highlight footnote twenty four E that takes you to this Joseph Smith translation of Exodus thirty four first one to two and it gives some new insight. And in that we learned that when Moses came down off the mount, what was he carrying. We’ll look at if you go to that footnote, this is the Joseph with translation for X three for one or two.

The Lord says hew the two other tablets of stone like under the first that Moses break. And I will ride upon them also the words of the law, according as they were written at the first on the tables, which the outbreak estamos. But then here’s the key. But it shall not be according to the first four, I will take away the priesthood out of their midst. Therefore, my holy order and the ordinance is there of shall not go before them, for my presence shall not go up in their mouth lest I destroy them.

In other words, it seems that the Lord took he was ready to give them all these higher ordinances of what we would call today the temple. He was ready to give them the fullness of the priesthood and to come into this order of the Son of God. They rejected it. Lord took it away and said, I’m going to give you a base one. What’s significant about the restoration is the Lord through Joseph Smith is having Joseph be a new Moses.

And I personally think if Moses were to walk into a temple session today and see all these women and men receiving these ordinances, I think Moses would go, Joseph, you’ve created the Kingdom of Priests and priestesses. Good job. That’s what Moses was trying to do all along, that we’re reestablishing here in these sections in the restoration.

So just to clarify the the distinction between what they’re calling in this section, the lesser priesthood and the greater priesthood, as Tony pointed out, Joseph Smith made it very clear all priests ultimately is Melchizedek. But there there is a lesser order of that priesthood called the erotic. So just to clarify, here you have the 12 sons of Jacob or the tribes of Israel. One of those is named Levi, that third son, Joseph or Reuben Simeon Levi. And then Judah.

That third son is Levi. Four hundred years down the line, you have these two brothers, Aaron and Moses, who are both descendents of Levi. Four hundred years before them. You’ve got this Egyptian apostasy in the middle here. Moses holds that higher priesthood that we would today in our church just say he’s got the Melchizedek priesthood. Erin is given that what S.A.T. four is calling the lesser priesthood or the Iran YK priesthood, often in the Old Testament, it’ll be called the levitical priesthood.

It comes down through his line. Just to clarify, in New Testament, you get things like the parable of the Good Samaritan and in their talks about a Levite and a priest, anyone who is a descendant of the tribe of Levi is a Levite. Anyone who is a descendant of Erin is a priest in that New Testament context. So all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. So this lesser priesthood, as it’s described in section eighty four, holds some powers.

It holds some abilities. It’s not like they the rejected God. And he said, fine, I’m not going to give you anything. This to me shows me God’s attribute of mercy, that he will give you as much law and as many commandments isn’t as much of a covenant connection as you’re able to handle without totally condemning you and dooming you to failure. And I love the fact that he went for the Moses went for the big connection. They didn’t take it.

And so he then gives them as much as they’re able to take and we call it the Law of Moses. But keep in mind, a lot of Moses isn’t bad. Sometimes we talk about it in derogatory terms. The law of Moses was given by God. As as a connecting point with these people who weren’t willing to connect at this level, but they were willing to connect at that level of Moses level, and so these next few verses describe what they did retain.

Verse twenty seven, the gospel of repentance and of baptism and the remission of sins and the love carnal commitments, this this outward law so we can see God’s mercy, a play in this ancient story. And guess what? It’s a play today, because if I’m struggling with some of the commandments, we have a savior who is who is doing everything he can to help me be as find as much enduring joy as possible. He’ll give me as much as I’m able to handle.

That’s a different conversation with people of other faiths. When you when you don’t have to make them feel like they have nothing and you have everything, but rather this inviting, hey, bring all the good that you have, bring it with you and let’s see if we can add to it some additional covenant, some additional connecting points with God.

Look at you quoting President Hinckley.

There you go.

I do think it’s important to keep this focused on covenant and ordinances, because sometimes when we get into this Mukasa dictionary, we get lost in offices of the priesthood. Yes, you can teach your priests, elder 70 in this context, the Lord. This is why it’s good to keep the context of his teaching. He’s teaching about covenants and ordinances. And that is so important to grasp when he’s talking about because that’ll set up for the next part as we talk about the oath.

I do. Just to make one aside, before we move on to that, in verse twenty eight, speaking of all of this and John the Baptist for he was baptized, speaking of John, at the end of his twenty seven, he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood and he was ordained by the Angel of God at the time. He was eight days old. And there are some people are like pictured, you know, John the Baptist receiving the priesthood, oath and covenants and ordinances.

I’m not sure that’s what I’m saying. I think maybe a better word would be he was blessed or he was chosen or he was specially set aside for this.

But he’s not receiving priesthood offices and ordinances for this. And when he’s eight days old. Yeah. So as you see right here, verse thirty one, therefore, as I said, concerning the Sons of Moses, he’s picking back up all the way from verse six about the sons of Moses and this lineage and this power of the priesthood that for the Sons of Moses and the Sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the House of the Lord.

And if I could make another cross reference, cross reference that was different covenant section one hundred and twenty eight, verse twenty four, where again, back to what you’ve just taught here, Tyler, about the sons of Levi and sons of Aaron. Well, the sons of Moses and the sons of Aaron. Who are they today? Joseph Smith says he quotes that the Lord will purify the sons of Levi, that they will offer an offering in righteousness unto the Lord.

And then Joseph gives the interpretation. He says, let us therefore, as a church and as a people offer an offering under the Lord and let us present when it is completed. In his Holy Temple, a book containing the records of our dead is back to ordinances to bring them into the Covenant family of God through performing ordinances in their behalf. And it’s all connected back to the temple.

Isn’t it interesting Tailers talked about this before, the significance of this word. He keeps using that word in association with priesthood and the word that is directly related to it. Yeah. So do you see any significance there that would help us understand as we get ready to launch into the oath the covenant of the priesthood, the fact that those two are at the core of what we’re talking about?

Yeah, and remember, when we say the order, the phrase that comes to me is the order of the son of God, the holy priesthood after the order of the son of God, or as we just read in that Jesus translation, the Lord took the holy priesthood and the order priesthood is something that we enter into by a covenant relationship with God. And as we’ll talk, this is for women and men. When we when we only talk of priesthood as these offices we hold, we miss the order.

And I like to think of the word order almost like a pattern, elder Robert E. Hale said. In the temple, we establish patterns of righteous living and through the Holy Temple, we enter into this order of priests and priestesses that teach us a pattern of holy living so that we can come into the presence of God and receive his power. It’s that is powerful. That’s amazing. It’s an order of living. It’s a process. It’s a sequence.

It’s a pattern. It’s a way that people mold their life after Jesus Christ, who was the great high priest. That’s what we’re all trying to do is Latter-Day Saints today, men and women. I love it.

So that whole process begins with an initiatory and this endowment of power. And you keep going back and you keep established, you keep repenting, you keep forgiving, and he keeps working with you. And sometimes we get so focused on our imperfection that we forget that he has infinite perfection to share with us as we progress in this order. Another way to describe this would be the Jacob’s ladder or the Covenant Pass or the straight and narrow path or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints being in full fellowship.

Lots of ways that you can describe what God is doing with men and women as they progress in this order. And some of that progression we can think of it as instead of thinking of it like a corporate ladder, like offices that we climb to think of it in terms of the order like am I receiving the order or ordinances of the erotic priesthood? Am I receiving the order or ordinances of the Melchizedek priesthood now? So baptism, the gift to the Holy Ghost, the endowment, which teaches us erotic and melchizedek orders or ordinances, this is how priesthood becomes more inclusive of the entire church.

And to put it concretely to back to what are we doing? And I would invite everybody to go look at the general handbook of instructions section twenty seven. That’s extremely nerdy that I know this is going to say, wow, that’s amazing.

Section twenty seven on Temple Ordinances. The the the leaders of the church have given a great summary of the five major laws and covenants. Obedience, sacrifice, the higher law of the gospel, chastity, consecration, the. And they give definitions of then they’re publicly for everybody. These are the kind of orders in the Holy Temple when we go into there. The Lord is trying to teach us these patterns of righteous living. To come into his presence and regain his power were chaste.

People were consecrated, people were obedient people for people who are willing to sacrifice for the Lord so that it’s not too abstract. So we see some concrete application.

That’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. Now let’s dove into verse thirty three. Let’s hit, let’s hit the oh. Kind of the needy section here regarding this, this priesthood. And keep in mind as we jump in. So we mentioned at the beginning, the middle and the end. This is not referring just to the men. In fact, we’ve been told by by our our leaders of the church to be careful because in the past we’ve often referred to the men of the church with a label will often say the priesthood is going to meet over in this room.

It’s it’s a misnomer. The men are not the priesthood, so we’re going to start talking about this oath and come to the priesthood that we’ve see beginning verse thirty three. But let’s actually start in verse 40 and let’s read this. And I want you to pay attention to some words like the word receive verse 40. Therefore, all those who receive the priesthood receive this oath and covenant of my father, which he cannot break. Neither can it be moved.

Now, I want you to think about what are the things you receive in life. You get baptized and then you receive the Holy Ghost. You don’t own the Holy Ghost. You don’t create the Holy Ghost. In fact, you don’t give the Holy Ghost. You receive it. And I think this is significant when we think about the oath and cover the priesthood. People often think they’re the ones who are making the oath and making the covenant. They’re not.

God has made the oath and he has made the covenant. And he invites us in like the Holy Ghost. We are invited to receive even. And what’s powerful here is earlier we had this little infinity symbol here that God is infinite. He has everything. And he wants to fully invite us in and the order, the priesthood is the way to make that happen. So as you engage in this covenantal relationship. God is trying to point out what he is offering, he’s offering everything, and then he invites us to do certain things and sometimes we get so fixated on what God asks us to do.

We sometimes miss what God has fully and entirely offered. I love what it says here. That’s a great insight into he. Cannot break that he is actually talking to God. God cannot break the oath and covenant, he is eternally bound. In fact, if you go back to Abraham Genesis 12 verses one to three, this actually is part of the same oath and covenant. God comes to Abraham and says, here’s all these things that I’m going to give you, Abraham.

I’m going to give you priesthood, posterity, property and prosperity. I’m going to do all these things for you. And he binds himself an eternal oath to Abraham and to all of his descendants. And so when we look at section eighty four, it’s actually in some ways, it’s an explanation of what Abraham received way back in Genesis 12, that we all have full access to total and full access. And what we’re learning here in eighty four is what can we do to fully enter into this relationship so God can give us everything?

And so if you ever feel discouraged, like, oh, man, am I good enough, know that God is good enough and know that God will continue to work with us to bring us into this relationship. He is deeply anxious to be in relationship with us. Earlier, as we were preparing for this lesson, we talked about a marriage relationship. You guys are talking about how God often you brought this up. Yeah, God often describes himself in this marriage relationship with us.

If you think about all the revelations, God wants to be with us, like almost in a marriage relationship, an intimate relationship, you become unified and everybody pools all the resources and you think about it. God is everything. Yeah. And, you know, it had a little bit. We have yeah. We’re bringing a dollar to the marriage maybe. And he’s like, so infinite plus one. My kids like to do that. I know of no bigger than infinity but we become part of this total, total infinite.

So I just want to focus on that verse because we get into these offices, these really fascinating verses, beginning verse thirty three about, you know, Aaron and Moses. But sometimes we miss what God is trying to teach, that this is God’s oath and his covenant, that he’s inviting us to receive the inverse forty and out mark and highlight that receive, as you mentioned, just to recite this oath and covenant of my father. It’s his oath, right.

Is a covenant that he’s inviting us into, not the oath of the covenant of any member of the church. And it’s for women and for men, because God’s power is priesthood, power and all of us receive it, just like the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is for women and for men and all of us can receive. And what power is the power to be saved and exalted and to become like him, which we all are given through the grace of Christ and this covenant relationship to do?

That’s a beautiful insight tailor to set the stage as we now go back and jump into verse thirty three with this powerful intro that he gives where he says For Whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two pieces of which I’ve spoken and the magnifying they’re calling our sanctified by the spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. What did you just tell us?

Well, I would again frame this under the covenantal context of priesthood through ordinances who was faithful into the obtaining of these two priests and the ordinances of them, those priests attached to those priesthood. Now, I want to be clear. Prophets of have clearly taught that there is an oath and a covenant that a man makes when he enters into Melchizedek Priesthood offices. I’m sorry to be to terminology centric, but when a man becomes an elder, for example, the prophets have clearly taught there is a promise of faithful service there.

But in this context, that’s not what this is discussing. We’re just looking at it in the broader context of in the context of covenant and and presence of God. Correct. And so we are faithful to the obtaining of the ordinances of these two priests. That’s why you’ll have your body sanctified and renewed. Now, that could be the promise of of certain temporal blessings on Earth for faithfulness. I personally interpret that as that’s a promise of glorious resurrection.

You’ll have your body renewed and that’s a promise to all the faithful you become in verse thirty for the Sons of Moses and Aaron. And again, I would caveat that with the cross reference of doctrine covenants, one twenty eight twenty four where Joseph says that is us as a church and a people today, people who are serving and working in these temple roles in the priesthood. Today you become the seed of Abraham and the church and kingdom in the elect of God and also all they who receive this priesthood receive me.

And this is one of the ways we know it’s talking ordinances is because the way that we receive Jesus is through ordinances. We take his name upon us through ordinances. We receive Jesus verse thirty six and either receive with my servants, receive with me and he there you see with me. Well if we receive Jesus we receive the father and he that receive my father receive with my father’s kingdom. Therefore, then the promise all that my father hath shall be given to him back to what Taylor was talking about, when we’re connected to God, we receive everything that God has to offer because we’re part of his covenant family.

And this in verse thirty nine is according to the Oath and Covenant, which belongs to the priesthood. And I think it’s convenient that in the English edition of the Scriptures, there’s a big blank right there. And I would write in the word ordinances, this belongs to priesthood ordinances. And the reason why this is important is because back to discussions of of women and men. Well, of course, both women and men will have their bodies renewed. Both women and men are part of this priestly serving in the temple.

Both women and men are the seed of Abraham. This covenant family of Abraham, both women and men are part of the collective God. They’re both receiving Jesus in the father. There’s no question. And if there is a question by anybody out there who’s listening, going, I think this is false doctrine. So recently, President Jean Bingham, the releases general releases how you present the church, sat down with President Nelson, the president of the church, and they had a discussion about these verses that you wish you knew what the general said, the president and the president, the church talked about.

Well, there’s a video. You can watch the video, but let me read a transcript of it. Gene being says this to President Nelson, they read these verses and Gene Bingham says the priesthood is just as relevant to women as it is to men. And that blessing also extends to women just as much when we’re talking about these blessings of the oath and covenant, President Nelson says. Of course it does. Jean Bingham says now, president, help me see if my understanding is correct.

And then she explains her understanding of the oath and the covenant, then President Nelson gives his summary of it. Then here’s the point, Jean Bingaman says, so that is just as relevant to women as it is to men, because all those priests blessings from the oath and covenant of the priesthood are enjoyed by both men and women. President answers and says totally. Exactly, exactly. So there’s a great prophetic and authoritative statement from President Bingham and President Nelson discussing that very concept.

I love this. Let me use a little object lesson analogy for a moment. So a wedding ring or if you think through this concept, the tailor introduced of this marriage relationship between a man and a woman being likened to the kind of relationship that the savior wants to have with us and ultimately then share with us and the father bringing us all so that we can be one at the end of this long experience of dating and courtship and engagement, I promise to give all that I have, all that I am, everything.

We are going to become one. All everything that’s yours is mine. Everything that’s mine is yours. We share our dreams. We share our frustrations. We share our struggles. We share our successes. It’s all combined. That’s what these ordinances and the order of the priesthood for men and women is doing for all of us is God is saying here, I’m promising you, I will give you everything I have in the eternities, but we need to establish this covenantal agreement between each other.

And you need to be faithful to me. I will always be faithful to you.

And sorry to interrupt you. Forgive me for that, but I love that you are faithful. And another word for faithful to be loyal, dedicated. It’s not about sometimes just speaking frankly, we can get a perfectionism that happens in our Latter day Saints culture. I know I’ve been guilty of it. Sometimes I see it in others. And what I’ve discovered is God does not want perfection because that’s an impossibility. When God in this life, God doesn’t want perfection.

He wants dedication. He wants loyal. I can’t do perfect, but I can do loyal. And that is helpful to help us continue on the covenant path. What I love about this idea of loyalty is I actually struggle a lot with perfectionism. And a few years ago I was studying the scriptures and some scholarship about scriptures, that very word about faithfulness and loyalty. I’m like, oh, it’s not about being perfect. God’s perfect. My job is to be loyal and dedicated.

And then it became clear I have that opportunity every single week. So we declare your loyalty with the sacrament. And wherever you’re at in your life, you might ask yourself. Am I seeking to be loyal to God? Am I seeking to be prayerful? Am I taking the opportunity to participate in sacrament? Now, there are other ways of showing loyalty to God, but that’s a great way of taking your temperature, of your loyalty. Are you on a regular basis declaring your loyalty to God?

If you look at the sacrament prayer, it’s we say which we promise to always remember God and what we get in return. We receive his Holy Spirit with us at all times and with that with the sacrament. I’m glad you’re saying that because in a marriage relationship again and sometimes we’re not perfect spouses and when we’re not perfect spouses, the way we continue in the marriage is we apologize. We we recommit. We we say, you know, I love you.

We reaffirm our love. We say, I understand that I’ve been in this year. We confess now in a marriage. We call that an apology in the gospel. We call that repentance, accompanied by a covenant renewal and commitment. It’s fascinating. So what we have is I’m sure my wife would like to have a perfect husband, but she needs a loyal husband and that’s what God wants from us. And it’s such a beautiful principle. All of us can be loyal even if we make mistakes at time.

In God’s like, I’ll forgive you. Just keep staying here in the relationship. Don’t walk away because you’ve made a mistake, because you do that, it’s really hard for me to help you be your better self.

Don’t you find it interesting that what Taylor and Tony just discussed right there is this ordinance that gets repeated, it’s the only ordinance that you and I participate in for ourselves that’s repeated. I only get baptized once. I only get my down once. But the sacrament is a way for men and women and children to come to an ordinance to enter into that order of receiving the blessings of the priesthood, the power of God manifest in our lives every week. One of my wife’s phrases that I have grown to love is it doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.

And that’s what that ordinance of the sacrament does for me is to say, thank heavens I get to recalibrate every week with his perfection and reconcile my imperfection.

And I think in this context, what you’re teaching Tyler and both what Taylor said also. That is the only thing that really makes verse forty one forty two understandable is to read this in this Covenant Ordinance connection, because if we break and walk away from as tight as Taylor was saying, don’t walk away from the relationship. And as you’re saying, renew this covenant. If we walk away from the Covenant, then we won’t have forgiveness in verse forty two.

Then we’re on our own. There’s a whoa. It’s this idea of if you’re in the covenant with God, you’re with God and he’s got you covered. Look, Mormon doctrine, if you’re not, you are on your own. And the atonement is not covering you because you’re not within this covenant family beautiful within the arms of his mercy and power and love.

So moving on to this next section of forty three to 60, the word there’s this really cool, marvelous thing, this progression, this progression, God unfolding. It’s like he’s pulling back the curtain and you get more and more and more of this depth of understanding.

How do we come to the Covenant? Well, look at the starting verse. Forty three and I would highlight these verse forty three says give diligent heed to the words of eternal life. So the word and then in verse forty five for the word of the Lord is truth. So word is truth and so whatsoever is truth. Is light. So word. The word is truth. The truth is light. And then the light is spirit in verse forty five.

Even the spirit of Jesus Christ isn’t that beautiful that it now leads into forty six and the spirit give us light to every man that comes into the world. What percentage is that.

Everyone. Pretty good mathematician there. And the spirit. Enlighten us every man through the world that hearken us to the voice of the spirit. God’s invitation is to all and none are denied entrance if they will hearken to the spirit.

And then he picks back up with the spirit in four seven forty seven and everyone that Hakka to the voice of the spirit cometh to God. So now you’re brought to God. And then look at tying this all back together in verse forty eight and the father teaches him of the Covenant. What a beautiful progression. I would just highlight those things in there. The words starting in verse forty three. The word, the truth, the light, the spirit brings you to God and God teaches you the covenant.

It’s a wonderful progression of how we’re brought into the Covenant and how we’re taught about the Covenant.

That’s beautiful. Now, before we jump in to the commands to the missionaries, there’s a little rebuke, which to me is one of those additional signs that God really is our our father in heaven. C.S. Lewis is the one who said on one occasion that most of us would prefer to just have a grandfather in heaven who had just make sure that everybody’s having a good time and and the children are are enjoying themselves happy and have some ice cream.

But a parent recognizes when some things need to change, when you’re when you’re not doing what you need to do. And I love the fact that you get that in here. He’s talking about the world’s lying in sin and groaning under darkness and the bondage of sin. And then verse fifty for your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief and because you have treated lightly the things you have received, which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.

That’s pretty strong language verse fifty six. This condemnation rests upon the children of Zion, even all, and they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the New Covenant, even The Book of Mormon and the form of commandments which I have given them not only to see, but to do according to that which I’ve written. It’s one thing. It’s one thing for us to preach the gospel and to teach the ideal. And unfortunately, it’s an entirely different thing for us to go home and strive to live and to become that ideal.

And that is the covenant path that we’ve been talking about all along where Jesus helps us through that process of his perfection, not working through our perfectionism over time. President Benson obviously had some things to say about those.

Yeah, he sure did.

And I think we are still benefiting from the blessings, that prophetic guidance in that day.

You see it in the in the rising generation. They know The Book of Mormon very well. Now, obviously, there’s more to learn from it. There’s a lot more to grow. But in in comparison, they have reap some fruit from President Benson’s focus using these very verses to focus on The Book of Mormon.

All right, Tony, let’s let’s cover this last the big chunk, the second half, the second half of section.

We’ve done one half, but there are so doctrinally rich. And this second half, as I like to call it, is the original missionary handbook. You know, one quick. When we’re talking missionaries here and the Lord’s is therefore going know all the world, we know that command, that’s that’s that’s the great commission. But then look at, he says, going all the world and unto us, whoever place you cannot go, ye shall send. That the testimony may go forth from you into all the world under every creature now in eighteen thirty two, there is no way that they had any concept of our ability today to send the word out.

If they were probably thinking whatever you think or send, they’re writing letters or they’re printing things and newspapers. Exactly. Today, there’s lots of places you and I cannot go. But think of all the marvelous tools that have been created and put it our hand so that places we can’t go, we can send the word out using social media and technology and everything that’s at our hands to to flood the world. As Elder Bednar said, with goodness and truth, leveraging the technology, we have to send it out.

You look at what are our first presidency called the 12 Corms of the Seventy and our General Relief Society, Young Women Primary, Sunday school, young men presidencies. You look at their ability today to do exactly what sixty two is talking about, over sixty two with with the use of these technologies that God inspired the invention of. Wow. The voices of these leaders of the church can now reach into nearly every corner of the earth as Marvel, and they don’t have to get on a plane to do its marvelous.

Beautiful, now, as you turn the page over, notice at the bottom of her sixty three, he he gives a label here, he says you are they whom my father hath given me. Ye are my friends. And sisters, this is one of those for me, one of those little tender moments in scripture, it’s just amazing to me that somebody as great as he is, would condescend, so to speak. It’s part of his his great condescension to come down and say, you’re my friends.

And that’s coming from the king of heaven, the prince of peace, that the almighty alpha and Omega. And he’s saying, you’re my friends and he’s going to repeat that in verse seventy seven. Again, I think that’s significant for any of you or us today who are on a mission, who are serving in the church in whatever capacity or serving under divine direction, in any role in your family. Even this idea that you’re my friends, I’m with you.

I’m going to I’m going to be with you because that’s what friends do. I’ve got your back. Go and do the best you can, and I’m going to make up the difference, so. For the missionaries out there, maybe feel a little inadequate who feel like they’re not very good at the language, are not very good at the people skills, are not very good with their companion or not very good at teaching, are not very good at giving talks or the bishops or the the Relief Society presidency or the ministers who feel like I’m just not good enough.

I love that that word, you’re my friends, if you think about that, that can be empowering as you then move forward in your calling.

It’s important to, as we’re talking about these verses in the context of directions for missionaries, it’s also another quick application. There’s actually a lot of things in here that aren’t applicable anymore in terms of missionary directives. Like I just charted these down like verse eighty six, go without Persse or scrip, which means go out and preach without money or food and make other people take care of you. We don’t do that anymore today. That’s outdated. Verse eighty nine.

Don’t go out depending on the kindness of strangers to house you. Could you imagine if you sent your kids out to the world that way today, how that would work first? Ninety two. We don’t dust and wash our feet off and condemn people who don’t receive the gospel verse one, two, three and one of four. We don’t send mission money back home from our missions. Verse one or seven. We don’t send priests out to set our appointments anymore.

Now verse one two seven one eleven. Maybe we should, but that’s not the the pattern that we’re following. I guess what I’m trying to say is. It’s interesting to watch the Lord, through his servants adjust different practices of missionary work and different policies, these were the practices in eighteen thirty two that worked for them today. The Lord says there’s different practices and different policies to accomplish the same objective. And and those will change. And we need to be OK that that was for them and that we have different directives today.

And Tony, when you and I served our missions, we had some very clear directions on in our missionary handbook and in our missionary guide how to teach and the lessons, what we taught compared to what our children had been. And it’s OK. This to me is a mini lesson in follow. The living prophets don’t pit the living prophets against the past prophets and say, well, I prefer the way that so-and-so fifty nine years ago ordered it. Or even in these kinds of situations, it is our current prophets, right and privilege as sinners and regulators to get the directions that we need for right here, right now.

You’ve pointed that there are directives for the time, Prospero’s for the time and commands for the time.

And I will not be judged based on how well I follow the policies and the procedures given to the church by Brigham Young or Joseph Smith or George Albert Smith.

It’s today it’s a little bit like building codes on a home. I’m not held to building code standards of nineteen twelve, nor will I be held the building codes standards of twenty one twenty one twenty one. I’m held if I’m building something to the codes of twenty twenty one.

That’s correct. I love it. Now look at verse eighty five because I don’t know that this part has been rescinded. Yeah. Neither Taiki thought therefore what you shall say but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted out to every man. When you and I served, we had memorized missionary discussions. Yeah. We just, just had to memorize them and deliver them.

Today our missionaries are given a little more freedom to apply verse eighty five under our current.

I still remember some of those phrases in Spanish.

I love that idea that in your callings, sometimes when we’re teaching or leading, we feel like we need to have everything perfectly lined out. What we’re going to say, it runs in my mind that it was Elder Bednar on one occasion who who said the teacher who worries him the most is the teacher who knows exactly what they’re going to say and how they’re going to say it. Because it’s almost as if that teacher saying to God, I got this, I don’t need your help, I’ll do the teaching here, whereas the missionary or the leader or the teacher who says I’m going to fill my mind and my heart with as much, I’m going to treasure up as much of the words of life as I can.

But at the end of the day, Lord, it’s it’s my work. I want to assist in it. Here I am. Send me what can I do to be most effective? There’s something liberating and powerful and not being the one feeling like I’ve got to own this lesson or this talk or this mission, but rather to take the hand of the almighty son of God and say, let me walk with you, guide me as I move forward in faith.

But I do think just a quick application with that in our day of Google and our day of look everything up which has its benefits, know the Lord still says fill your minds so that you can have a recall in the moment. There is something beautiful to putting things in our minds and memorizing and trying to master things so that God can draw from us as we bring things together as a whole. Google, Google cannot synthesize, but what we can, as the Lord works with us, as we treasure up in our mind to look at the beautiful promise in verse 88 for all of us and who shall receive with you know, now we get it.

This is speaking to missionaries in eighteen thirty two. And I think it’s very applicable, directly applicable to missionaries in the twenty first century as well. But I think it’s also applicable to parents. I think it’s applicable to every calling in the church to receive with you there. I will be also for I will be, I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left and my spirit shall be in your hearts and mine angels round about you to bury you up, your brothers and sisters.

All you got right there is one manifestation of what it means to be on the Lord’s end, to be his people. And he’s now treating you like only an infinite God can treat you. Nothing on this world can make you that promise that he can. And he did. And he will. And he does keep that promise.

You know, moving forward in verse ninety nine, we actually get a song written by God. Which there’s this will lift up our voice and sing this song like a version ninety nine through one, I’ll do the song of Redeeming Love. It’s beautiful.

It’s kind of fun to think that the Lord writes lyrics of a song. I’m not sure it’s ever been put to a tune. I don’t know if I should put you on the spot to sing it right now.

Yeah, we would. It would not be a celestial song at that point. So I’m not going to do that.

I do like this. And, you know, it’s this singing the song of redeeming love. I don’t know if it’s a literal tune or not, but it is this. If you come into his covenant people, you will sing this song of redemption. It’s beautiful.

Now, look at verse. Just a couple of other little points here. Look at first one of six. And if any man among you be strong in the spirit, let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be at a fight, an old weakness, that he may be become strong also. Sisters and brothers, as you look at missionaries and you say take the strong elders and sisters and pair them with the struggling and they’re going to become stronger.

That’s a beautiful application. We see it in homes. We see it in calling’s, we see it in the mission field. But to me, the most powerful manifestation of verse 106 is that it’s another it’s another sign to me that Jesus is a do as I do kind of a leader rather than a just do as I say. So you’ll notice Jesus teaches principles of the gospel. But he doesn’t just Sam. He then lives them and he shows you this is what it looks like when you put that teaching into practice.

His whole life is filled with verse one or six. He who is the strongest of all saying, I’m going to take you who are weak and I’m going to combine with you so that I can edify you so that at the end you who are weak can be made strong. So if you’re in that kind of a companionship, either in a family setting or in a mission setting or any other setting, if you want to be more like Christ, more Christlike than you look for people whose hands are hanging down, whose knees are a little bit weak and feeble, and you go, that’s what Jesus would do.

That’s how to become Christ like is go and strengthen them and lift them up and help them to move forward, to finish. Let’s jump down to verse 19 or one 119 for I, the Lord have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven. You cannot see it now yet a little while and you shall see it and know that I am and that I will come and reign with my people. That language, look for those two phrases throughout scripture.

You could even do a word, search your God and my people and just watch how much that covenantal connecting language shows up in a variety of places in the scriptures. Here it is again. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. There is nothing that this world has to offer you that can compare or even even come close to being in a conversation with what God can and does offer us, even all that he has, all that he has.

Remember the phrase that elder Maxwell used once where he said he shared the concept of if we give God all that we have, he’ll give us all that he has. And then Elder Maxwell’s conclusion. What an exchange rate. Now, that’s an investment that we pray that we can all make more fully as we enter into higher and higher orders of this covenant covenantal connection with God. No, that he lives know that he loves you and that these principles are true and he is faithful to them and perfectly loyal to us.

Now it’s our turn to plead with him to help us be more loyal to him. And that’s our prayer. And leave it with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I know that your loved.