Transcript 0:00 Welcome to Scripture Insights. I'm Taylor Halverson. And I'm Mike Harris. Today we're gonna study first Nephi chapter six through 10. So we find ourselves in the wilderness with Nephi and his family. 0:14 They've gotten the brass plates, they've seen the genealogy, and we open up to chapter six, one of the shorter chapters in the Book of Mormon, and we kind of might wonder, what's going on here? 0:28 Let's focus on one specific verse. Verse four. Now, Nephi is giving an update or an additional thesis statement for why he is writing. 0:43 We already looked at one thesis statement in first Nephi chapter one, verse 20, where he says, "I will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith to make them mighty, even under the power of deliverance." 1:00 Mike, what do we see here in verse four? It says here, "For the fullness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of I- Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." 1:14 That's a pretty clear thesis statement. Why am I spending all this time writing? Now, ask any one of us, do, do any of o- one of us just every morning aspire to sit down and do a lot of writing? Writing's a lot of work. 1:27 Now imagine if you didn't have a computer or even pen and paper, but you were stuck engraving on plates. That's a lot of work. 1:35 So the fact that he has a very clear purpose in what is actually a labor of love, it's a lot of work to write, but it's absolutely clear it's all about helping people to experience salvation. 1:48 So we talked about this phrase here, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." 1:54 It's not a phrase that's often repeated, although it does show up throughout the scriptures, and it turns out it's a very significant covenantal phrase. And 2:05 there are two major covenants that animate and provide structure and theme to the scriptures, particularly the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. 2:14 The first covenant is God's covenant that he makes this everlasting, enduring relationship to Abraham and all of Abraham's posterity. We get that in the Abraham story in Genesis. 2:27 And God, in that story, shows that he is the trustworthy God who will always fulfill his covenantal obligations. He will always offer salvation. 2:40 The other covenant is the Law of Moses, where God delivers to people a series of commandments or expectations for how they can receive salvation that's freely offered. 2:52 And the phrase for that covenant is, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land." 2:58 So any time you hear that phrase, "If you keep my commandments, you shall prosper in the land," it is a reference to that conditional covenantal contract God offered the people at Mount Sinai through Moses in the Law of Moses. 3:11 And the other phrase for the covenant that God made, an unconditional covenant to Abraham and all his posterity, which now includes all of us, 3:21 whenever you see the phrase, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," that references the original Abrahamic covenant, which probably should be termed God's everlasting, unbreakable, enduring covenant to Abraham and all of his posterity to offer salvation. 3:40 And this is what Nephi wants us to see, that God is there. He has not moved. He is absolutely there. It's the same God yesterday, today, and forever, the God that Abraham knew, Isaac knew, Jacob knew. 3:53 And if we choose to receive salvation, if we come unto him and we see him as the trustworthy God, we can be saved. And you'd mentioned earlier that this actually is mediated, of course, through Jesus Christ. I love how 4:09 the Book of Mormon repeatedly is emphasizing covenants. That's what we're hearing from our, our prophet, President Nelson. The Lord wants to bind himself to us in a personal, intimate way through covenants. 4:23 That's always been his pattern. That's beautiful. And we'll just go back to the title page of the Book of Mormon. 4:29 One of the purposes is to teach people of Jesus Christ, and another purpose is to teach them of the covenants of the Father, that they are not cast off forever. 4:38 And this phrase, whenever you hear it, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, God of Jacob," should remind any one of us that God has already made an eternal, binding covenant that you do not need to be cast off forever. 4:52 He is always gonna offer you salvation if you're willing to receive it. I find that absolutely powerful, and Jesus, of course, is the surety that that will happen. 5:04 So as you look at chapter six, you see this great thesis statement, and as you read the Book of Mormon, you can continually test Nephi's writing and other prophetic writers in the Book of Mormon. 5:14 Is this thesis statement being met by the words in the Book of Mormon? Love it. Here in chapter seven, we, 5:26 we, we see that having children as you travel through the wilderness, the desert, is gonna take a little bit of faith. Uh, let's start here in verse, yeah, verse one. 5:37 Uh, Lehi has a vision, and he knows that the, his children need to go back to get the daughters of Ishmael, and it says here 5:46 that his sons should take daughters to wife, that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise. You see this pattern all throughout scriptures. 5:57 Adam and Eve didn't have children while they were in the comforts of the Garden of Eden. But in, rather in the fallen world. 6:04 Moses' parents had to have, had to act in faith because Pharaoh had commanded that every newborn male should be cast in the river. 6:13 The Lord inspired Isaiah to warn the, the Jews that destruction was coming, yet shortly after, Mrs. Isaiah conceived, right? Mahashalahashbaz. Which means destruction is imminent. Destruction's coming. Yes. 6:29 [laughs] Uh, what other examples do we have? Uh, even Lehi and Sariah, they have Jacob and Joseph while they're traveling through the desert. And Laman, Lemuel, Nephi, and Sam and their wives, they also... 6:44 They, they don't wait for the Promised Land to have children. They have, have children while they're traveling through the wilderness also. Even Jesus was born in a manger during Roman oppression. 6:55 So I'm not sure there's ever a perfectly convenient time to have children, but, uh, I love what Elder Anderson said in general conference. 7:04 He says, "Our Heavenly Father knows that before he can bless his children with immortality, there first needs to be mortality." And that's gonna require that we act in faith. 7:18 So this concept, this theme of seeds, plays out in these chapters, chapter seven and eight, because it says actually in chapter eight, 7:29 verse one, "And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind and also of the seeds of fruit of every kind." 7:40 And this idea I learned from my friend Jack Welch from Scripture Central. He wrote this beautiful commentary and provided this insight that it seems that Lehi's family and Nephi are thinking a lot about seeds, 7:54 and that's connected not just to the plants that they need to grow to survive, but also their own seed that as a people of the Lord, they need to create a population that grows into these trees of righteousness that also help God's people to survive. 8:11 So you get this theme of seeds going on, and of course, it culminates with these incredible visions of a tree of life. So let's just set a little context. You're out in the Arabian Peninsula. 8:24 This is not a high productivity farming zone. And so imagine they're holding onto these seeds that they have brought with them from Jerusalem, and almost just the power that's in their hands. 8:36 Now, we are so familiar with so many technologies today that sometimes we don't even take the time to conceptualize of just the enormous, seemingly miraculous power of a seed in your hand. 8:50 You know, imagine having 20 different plant seeds in your hand, and you look at those, and as an ancient farmer or somebody from the ancient world, you'd understand what would happen if you planted, cultivated, and nurtured any one of those seeds, that they would turn into something that would be sustaining. 9:06 But it's almost like this powerful transformation that some little tiny seed could become a plant, a bush, a tree. 9:14 But it's also the same thing with our lives that, that when you get into family relationships, you can't initially foresee how much growth can happen in a family as the family expands. 9:27 But as you create a family, it's like creating a tree of life that provides shade, nourishment, sustenance, and a, and really like a source of righteous refreshment. 9:41 And that is, uh, what I see with families that, that this concept here of seeds is thematically linked to their need for survival and the need for family, and it connects to the tree of life, and Jesus saves us through all of that. 9:57 And while they're heading to the tent of their father with the daughters, they start to have second thoughts. 10:06 They're like, "Wait a minute, this is maybe not the ideal place or time to raise a f- let's go back to our gold and silver and precious possessions, our comforts in Jerusalem." 10:16 And Nephi says, "If you go back, you're gonna be destroyed." Anyhow, big argument. They, they tie... They want to kill Nephi, and they tie him up. 10:25 And here it says in verse 17 that Nephi prayed, "O Lord, give me strength that I may burst these bands." Now, we know that Nephi escaped, but carefully notice how. 10:40 Nephi writes, "Behold, the bands were loosed." Nephi doesn't clarify who loosed the bands. Did God, an angel, one of the daughters of Ishmael loose him? Or maybe Nephi was given an energy burst? 10:59 The text here doesn't clarify. I think the point is dramatic miracles happen. However, most occur in a non-flashy, quiet, behind the scenes way. God isn't in the Hollywood business. He doesn't give miracles to entertain. 11:17 Instead, he normally works through the still small voice of the Spirit. I, I think... I love President Eyring's counsel. 11:28 He, he gave a talk years ago about how at the end of the day, he would stop and reflect, "How have I seen the hand of the Lord?" 11:37 We just have to slow down, and he says, "I-- doing that, I was able to see what I hadn't seen during the day, where the Lord actually was blessing me with miracles." 11:47 And I know for my wife and I, when we're, after a long day and we try to reconnect, we'll sometimes ask ourselves th- that question, "How have you seen the hand of the Lord today?" And 11:57 what was previously invisible- Mm-hmm... becomes, "Oh, wait, wow, that wasn't coincidence." 12:04 And how many of us feel bound down by circumstances that we're in that we feel like are unbreakable, and we pray to God to loose the bonds that we are in, in, in our lives? 12:16 And sometimes it happens in really unexpected ways. 12:20 God may not come down and literally show up with scissors and chop those bonds off, but you might find that there's somebody who enters your life with a kind word or a new opportunity, or you feel a sense of forgiveness, or whatever it might be, that God has a way of 12:36 loosening those bonds. In fact, it connects to Luke chapter four when Jesus is in Nazareth, his hometown, and he stands in the synagogue and reads 12:48 from Isaiah, and Jesus essentially announces himself that, "I am the fulfillment of these prophecies from Isaiah." It's about, one of the things in there is that God will loose the bands of the captives, 13:01 and Nephi is an example of what God will do. Now, it is interesting. 13:05 We're not exactly sure how it happened, but it was miraculous, and the invitation, as Mike has said, for all of us, is to look every day for those small and quiet miracles where we have been loosed from something that formerly hel- made us feel bound down. 13:23 I also love how Nephi, given this circumstance that he could've been killed, verse 21, it says, "After his brothers recognized their error, they plead for forgiveness." 13:36 Chapter seven verse 21, Nephi says, "It came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done." Wow. 13:45 Now, I've had moments where I've needed to forgive people, and I don't think I'm, have always been at the level of Nephi being as frank in offering forgiveness to people. And this word frank is kind of interesting. 13:57 Uh, it, in the English, the word frank means the French people, and the French people are generally known for speaking their mind. There's no question about what they really think and feel. 14:09 You're not wondering, like, "Are, are you serious about that?" You know exactly what they think. And so it enters into the English language. 14:15 If you want to send a message that something is absolutely and unmistakably clear, you would say, "That was very frank." And it shows up here in the translation of frankly. 14:26 I'm not exactly sure what the underlying Hebrew or Egyptian would be, but it conveys a sense that Nephi was absolutely, fully, authentically sincere that he offered them full forgiveness. It wasn't like, "Oh, yeah. 14:40 Uh, fine. We'll get over it," but he still harbors anger about it. For some people, I wonder when they read that, I mean, sure, we're inspired on how Nephi was able to forgive, 14:55 but, like, I still remember I was given a lesson on forgiveness, and I remember the pain in one of my student's eyes. 'Cause we kept on, "Oh, we have to forgive, and you'll, you'll feel so much better." 15:07 And I sensed that she had been through some abuse. Mm-hmm. Nephi knows something about abuse here, and I remember what Elder Richard G. Scott said. He was talking to those that have experienced abuse, and he said, 15:24 uh, let me get this quote, "If the thought of forgiveness causes you yet more pain, set that step aside until you have more experience with the Savior's healing power in your own life." 15:37 And so, yes, we're inspired by our Savior on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 15:44 Yes, we love how Nephi is able to frankly forgive, but I think the Lord's pleased with this if we want to frankly forgive, but maybe we're not there yet, but we're trying. 15:55 We hear in the New Testament, "Lord, help thou my unbelief." Like, Lord, help, help thou me when I'm struggling with learning to love people. 16:06 When they need forgiveness, I need to offer it, but I am still not great at offering it to them. And it's like anything. 16:14 With practice, with patience with yourself, with the Lord's help, you can get better at forgiveness. So let's jump right into Lehi's narrating of the dream. 16:26 He says in verse four, "I thought I saw myself in a dark and dreary wilderness. It came to pass I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe, and he came and stood before me." 16:34 Being dressed in a white robe sounds like that s- could be symbolic of purity. He's a good guy. Yeah. 16:39 I, immediately we're thinking, "This has got to be some kind of divine character or divine messenger, so let's follow this person." Verse six, "It came to pass he spake unto me and bade me follow him." 16:49 Well, that makes sense. Verse seven, "As I followed him, I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste." That's weird. Yeah. Why do you say that? Well, typically when we have faith to follow 17:04 Jesus Christ and his messengers, you don't find yourself in a dark and dreary waste, would you? Or you wouldn't at least expect that. Right. 17:10 So the question for all of us is, have you ever pursued living according to God's invitation and found yourself in a dark and dreary waste? I think of Joseph Smith. He's seeking God, and the darkness comes. Yeah. So 17:29 what happens in life is it is not just, in our lives, keeping the commandments is not always an automatic you win and nothing bad ever happens. Sometime God allows us to suffer or struggle and to wander 17:48 in part so we can more fully appreciate the love of his salvation. 17:54 And this dream would've been amazing without that intro of just hearing about the rod of iron and going to the tree of life, but the beginning is so distressing that Lehi is absolutely lar- lost in a dark and dreary waste. 18:08 Have you ever felt discouraged in your life? 18:10 It just creates this- Powerful contrast between the joy, the beauty and the joy of partaking of the fruit of the tree of life, compared to where he had been with no family, on his own, in the dark and dreary waste. 18:25 And I love his persistence and faith. Here was what he says in verse eight, "I prayed unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me according to the multitude of his tender mercies," his hesed, this Hebrew word. 18:38 Remember the Book of Mormon, the Egyptian word Mormon means love endures forever. The Hebrew would be hesed. The book of hesed. 18:46 And so this dream is more evidence of God's hesed, which culminates as you hold onto the rod of iron at the tree of life, where you will find full joy. Next, uh, in verse nine 19:00 says, "And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord, I beheld a large and spacious field." 19:04 And what I love to do here, when you encounter all these symbols, is to take out the symbols and replace it with the meanings, and then you can see the message start to unfold. For so, and what is he really seeing? 19:19 The field represents the world. 19:21 So in verse 10, "And it came to pass I beheld a tree," which is symbolic of God's love, so it came to pass I beheld God's love, "whose fruit," and fruit is a symbol of eternal life, um, celestial glory. 19:38 Now, sometimes we think of, uh, eternal life or celestial glory as something we get after we've, we've died, and that's certainly true, but our, our prophet's emphasizing that we need to think celestially right now. 19:52 W- in, in a way, we can start enjoying eternal life by living the way that God would live or does live right now, by keeping our covenants, by living the gospel. 20:03 It's, it's a lifestyle to a degree that we can enjoy right now. So let's keep going. So in verse 11, let's continue to take the symbols and replace it with the interpretation. 20:13 "And it came to pass I did go forth and partake of the fruit," in other words, this celestial lifestyle, "and I beheld that it," the celestial lifestyle, "was most sweet, 20:29 above all that I had ever before tasted." I've tried to live other ways, but living the celestial lifestyle, thinking celestial, that is the sweetest, the most joyous. 20:40 He goes on to say, "Above all that I b- ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit," or this lifestyle, "thereof was white," meaning free from sin, "to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen. 20:55 And as I partook of the fruit," or the celestial lifestyle, "it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy, wherefore I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also." 21:06 I want my family to live this lifestyle. "For I knew that this lifestyle was desirable above all other fruit," or any other way of living your life. And then I love what he does next in verse 13. 21:19 He cast his eyes round about. That's an idiom. Uh, he doesn't just look for his family. This is a- He doesn't glance He doesn't glance. This isn't a casual effort. 21:31 It's an intentional, cav- careful effort to find his family, which is a great pattern for all of us. 21:40 We, when it comes to gathering Israel and trying to share the gospel, yes, we want to do it in natural, normal ways, but we don't want to be casual. 21:48 We want to be intentional in our efforts, um, as we try to reach out to those and help them to also live the gospel and enjoy the fruit. Yeah. He says in verse 15, he calls out with a loud voice. 22:01 So he's making an effort to share this good news, the gospel, with his family. But note that he's not all alone. He is not the only means by which people will unders- that his family will be saved. 22:15 He notices in verse 19, "I beheld a rod of iron and, and it extended along the bank of the river and led to the tree by which I stood." So there's guidance, there's help, 22:30 and this rod of iron, there's some really cool things about this. First, in ancient Egyptian, the word for rod and the word for word are actually sound exactly the same. 22:43 So there's a wordplay going on in the Egyptian that if you say word of God and the rod of God, you would use the same word to say word or rod. 22:53 And so there's just a, a clear connection here that the rod of iron is the word of God, which we find out later is the interpretation. And what's also interesting is in an ancient translation of the Bible, Psalm 23:10 2:9, it reads, "God will lead his people with a rod of iron." So notice how the King James translation translates that same verse. 23:23 Psalm 2:9, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron." But a different translation from ancient times says, "He will lead his people with a rod of iron." It's very different. 23:40 You can break things with a rod of iron, but God is using the i- the rod of iron to lead people, his word of God to lead them to his presence. That is the tree, and the fruit is the atonement. 23:54 It's living a life where you are fully partaking of the atonement. That is a celestial lifestyle. Now, to make this really clear, every week when you go to the sacrament table, what is offered? The fruit, 24:11 God's atonement. It is offered to you 24:14 And God offers you that you will always have his Spirit to be with you, which means the atonement will be there purging you, cleansing you, and bringing you joy and happiness if you always remember Jesus Christ. 24:28 So if you're always holding onto the rod or if you're always at the tree, you will always have the atonement to be with you. So thinking celestial, you could do this every week. 24:36 Every week, set yourself on a good path for the week by saying, "I declare my loyalty and my love to God at the sacred table of sacrament." 24:47 I love that idea because this idea of continually, weekly is also seen here in verse 30. 24:54 "But to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron, and they did press their way forward continually holding 25:08 fast to the rod of iron." In contrast, the people that didn't make it and didn't stay faithful in, back in verse 24, they were clinging to the rod of iron. 25:19 They weren't continually holding, they were clinging to the rod of iron. Elder Bednar makes... He thinks that's significant. He views clinging as sporadic scripture study, 25:31 as opposed to a consistent, continual habit and pattern of having the Lord in our lives, reading our scriptures. That's a... 25:41 I remember hearing Elder Bednar, he came and gave a devotional at, uh, Utah Valley Institute, and he says he, he often sees people when they've strayed that then they feel bad and they want to repent, that they want to 25:56 do some great thing to get their life back in order. And he says, "Don't do that. You're gonna get burned out. Just do, get a consistent pattern back in your life. 26:05 You don't need to start paying 20% tithing, just do what the pro- Have a nice consistent pattern, and you'll get all the blessings and miracles that the Lord wants to give." Just the continual steadiness. 26:18 You don't need to save yourself, and you don't need to be saved all at once. Now, technically, God will do that. It's his work to save you. Right. And it's our invitation to endure to the end. 26:30 Like you grab that rod like, "Okay, good job. You are on the path." But the idea is every day, step by step, be on the covenant path, endure to the end. 26:41 And I think most of us get the first four principles of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost. 26:46 I think the enduring to the end is the one that might cause many of us some challenges because it is a constant, consistent effort. 26:55 But again, that's where I find the power of weekly sacrament, of a renewal, like, "God's got me, and I got this." So chapter nine, Nephi spent some time explaining what he's doing in his record-keeping. 27:10 Now, I keep a journal, but I don't usually spend a lot of time explaining my editorial and writing style in my journal. But Nephi takes the time to say, "I'm feeling impressed to make another set of records. 27:23 I've already been explaining my story, but I've been impressed to do it again in another format," making two copies essentially. And again, he uses this phrase, "a wise purpose." 27:35 Later, Mormon also feels the same sense of a wise purpose. Mormon has had access to the Nephite records. 27:42 He's abridged and edited everything, and he's searching among the records, and he finds the small plates of Nephi, which include first Nephi through, um... It's Jacob, Enos, Jarom, and Omni. 27:54 And he finds them, and he doesn't make any editorial changes. He just, after h- completing his record, he inserts it at the end of the Book of Mormon. So let's talk about how this might be significant for Joseph Smith. 28:06 As you know, 1828, Joseph Smith is beginning the translation of the Book of Mormon. He translates 116 pages. He doesn't pay attention to God's, uh, encouragement to not give the record over to Martin Harris. 28:20 The record gets lost. Neph- uh, and Joseph Smith loses the translation power for some time. Eventually, he gets the power back. He gets God's, uh... 28:29 God offers him the opportunity to translate again, and he begins a translation right around early April 1829 and completes the Book of Mormon translation in about 60 to 70 working days. 28:42 Somewhere around mid to late June, they have finished, of 1829. But what's interesting is where Nev- where, where Joseph Smith begins his translation is Mosiah. Starts with Mosiah. 28:55 He translates all of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, Ether, Mormon, and Moroni. He's translated all of that, and then as he's continuing to go through the translation, 1 Nephi shows up. 29:13 Well, that's odd. If you're writing a book, you don't start right in the middle and write all the way to the conclusion and then go back and write the first one-third of the book. 29:23 I mean, that's just a very hard way of doing things. But this is how the translation comes out. And Nev- Joseph Smith, I keep calling him Joseph Smith, Nephi. And Joseph Smith s- then translates the small plates, 29:39 and can you imagine how Joseph Smith feels when he reads this? And he's realizing, "Oh, I understand the wise purpose." Nephi didn't know the wise purpose. Mormon didn't know the wise purpose. 29:50 They trusted God, but the wise purpose was that God knew that I was gonna be a bit of a foolish young kid. How old was Joseph Smith in 1828? 23 years old, and he made a mistake. 30:02 And God had already pre-planned how to fix the mistake by asking Nephi to make a second record that could then be placed and used as part of the translation, and we have that here. 30:15 Y- the mistake you're referring to is when he trusted- Martin Harris... Martin Harris with the- Yeah... 116- Yeah... pages. Yeah. That's exactly right. 30:25 So today we'll conclude on chapter 10, and this is a beautiful chapter where Lehi spends time teaching his children about the future Messiah. 30:37 Now, we'll point out that in the Book of Mormon, early on, Lehi and Nephi, when they're preaching, when they talk about Jesus, they rarely use the word Jesus Christ. 30:50 They often will use phrases like Messiah, a great Hebrew word that means the anointed one. So you have anointed kings, anointed prophets, anointed priests, and Jesus was all of those things. 31:01 And they often refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God. So you just notice that they will speak of Jesus, but using terminology that is more familiar to them, much more Old Testament language. 31:17 We also get here references to John the Baptist and baptism, and it really is this incredible vision to understand 31:26 for Lehi's people who are now leaving the old world, the covenantal promised land, for a new promised land. And we actually probably should have mentioned this earlier. 31:36 If you're an Israelite, you know the promised land is where God's going to do his work. It's going to be a little odd for you to think that God's going to do all of his work in a different promised land. 31:45 So it would take some faith for you to say, "I'm going to leave the promised land because God told me there's a different promised land that's going to work out." 31:52 But they get this comfort as they see the Redeemer coming, who himself is baptized and marks the covenant path that people can follow to be back into Go- back into God's presence. 32:05 Why would that be so meaningful for Lehi's party? Here they are out in the wilderness, not sure what's going to happen. We trust that God's going to bring us to the promised land. Oh, and now we see 32:17 we have, I've, I, Lehi, have had a vision of how Jesus marked the way and prepared the path that even while we are in our wandering wilderness, we will get to the promised land, both physically and spiritually. 32:31 I think that might be one of the ways we can, uh, find beauty and joy in this particular chapter. At the conclusion of the chapter, in verse 18, 32:43 Nephi writes, "God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world. If it so be that," and notice this, "they repent and come unto him." 32:59 I find that fascinating, that it's not just enough to repent, but we also need to come unto Jesus Christ. 33:07 If we, when we repent, if we completely forsake the sin and where you feel sorrow, we, we, we confess, we make restitution, and we never do the sin again. 33:22 But if that's all we do, Elder Anderson explains, that is just simple, miserable behavior modification. He says, "Repentance is never complete unless we develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. 33:37 We need to come unto him." I remember when I was a bishop, uh, somebody asked President Ballard, "How do I know as a bishop if somebody has truly repented?" 33:47 And President Ballard says, "That is a great question, and it's something we all wrestle with." And he says, "The best way I know to, to know if somebody's really repented is you ask the question, 33:59 'How do you feel about Jesus Christ?'" And then, bishops, you got to shut up, and while they're sharing how they feel about Jesus Christ, you're praying for the gift of discernment to try to 34:12 ascertain whether or not the person has a superficial relationship with him, or are you sensing some depth there. 34:19 So yes, of course, it's important when we repent, we need to lay aside any bad habits we might have, but that's not repentance in itself. We also need to, to come unto him, and that's beautifully emphasized here. 34:34 We thank you for spending time with us today, and we hope that you feel uplifted as you engage in the Word of God and feel his enduring love as we read the stories of these past faithful people who found and encountered God's love. 34:47 [gentle music]
