Video Transcript

0:00:00 - 0:00:30 Yesterday, I made a video dispelling some confusion up front, I guess before it happens, hopefully uh about some of the things that will be discussing and teaching about uh revealing in the future because there are so many poor examples of prior traditions or attempts or whatever. And this morning in

0:00:30 - 0:00:55 reflecting on that, uh there is a question raised on, on something else that tied into uh resurrection. And so questions about resurrection and that caused me to realize that there are several topics that I should have included in this video and I didn't. And so this is an addendum to that and I'm just

0:00:55 - 0:01:18 going to pick right up if you haven't watched that you should first, I think that I will try to put a link in the description. Let's, there are three topics here. The first is gathering like so many other topics in this collection of, of topics that we've addressed. People are about as disoriented from

0:01:18 - 0:01:43 the truth on this as, as they could be. You'd, you'd struggle to do better if you tried to do worse. If you tried, I guess would be more accurate. There are many who either giddily uh, look forward to or fearfully dread. The idea of a physical gathering, those who, who fear this, they have a, a mixture

0:01:43 - 0:02:11 of motives. And I'd like to address some of those for some, the dominant theme is the desire to cling to the security they feel in their material wealth and the presumed independence it seems to provide. But I'm telling you, as I have said before, anyone who loves their wealth more than the opportunity

0:02:10 - 0:02:36 to know God will find themselves with neither the day is approaching where everything not appointed in and through Him, according to his law will be crushed, burned or otherwise rendered without value for others. The dominant theme is an unwillingness to submit to what is better than them. And that includes

0:02:36 - 0:03:02 ideas and yes, people that are closer to God than what we presently have. God is gracious and He will provide every opportunity to dre to demonstrate the necessity of what is better. He's gonna do that through showing the insufficiency of what is erroneously preferred to it as He does this, you might

0:03:02 - 0:03:31 not consider it a blessing as you experience it. It might be far from what you would desire, but it is an abundant evidence of His mercy that He will lead you through a process that will adjust your uh valuation of things. Those who excitedly anticipate gathering, they typically do so for the wrong reasons

0:03:30 - 0:03:51 . Maybe they think that gathering is a way of gaining greater blessings. Now, that one probably doesn't seem to be a bad thing and in some ways it is correct. But as with so many other things, uh the same words can mean very different things to different people and not all of them are equally good. I

0:03:50 - 0:04:16 tell you that God blesses us through cycles of greater affliction. It's no mystery. It's very plain in the scriptures. It's very plain in your life. If you live your life uh directed towards him, Jesus said, it's better to give than to receive. And that is the theme of gathering, no matter how excited

0:04:15 - 0:04:39 you are about what you will get through gathering and no matter what you might actually get through gathering, I promise you that as you experience it, the giving part will dominate your perception. If that's something you aren't excited about, then you should not be excited about gathering as you interact

0:04:39 - 0:05:04 with others. It will reveal greater darkness in you in the, in the form of weaknesses that were hidden from you before or maybe you were able to be sort of swept under a rug, but now that are exposed through the circumstances and it will also reveal greater darkness in other people through the same circumstances

0:05:03 - 0:05:28 . And a lot of this is going to hurt the good news is that the pain is, is an intentional part of the process. It is very central to the process. It, it has a purpose. What is that purpose, the purpose of gathering and the Lord's purpose in general. It's, it's not about minimizing suffering, it's about

0:05:28 - 0:05:51 maximizing, meaning the purpose of gathering is to learn more about Jesus and to share more of what you know about him. You do that through giving what he has given you. Now, that's already before you, you already have many opportunities to learn more about Jesus and share more of what you know about

0:05:50 - 0:06:12 him. And this is a theme of this topic and others where people look afar off to something they don't think is before them right now. And they have this romantic idea about it that it's going to be this glorious thing. The truth is that these things are like ramps and you're on the ramp, it's already

0:06:12 - 0:06:32 right in front of you, but you're ignoring all the things that are presently in your life, all the opportunities that are presently in your life, looking afar off at this thing that you think is gonna be glorious where you hate the, the parts of it that are before you right now, you hate them, you ignore

0:06:32 - 0:06:50 them at best, you hate them at worst. And so you'd begrudgingly face these things and try to get around them. Now thinking that somehow you're on the path to the greater form of that later or thinking that the greater form of that later is gonna be any better than what you're throwing away right now

0:06:49 - 0:07:13 . And it's not going to be. That's another form of this is, is how you perceive a potential meeting with the Lord. You say like, wow, it would be so glorious. It would be so glorious. Well, there are things that testify of him, things that are like him and people who testify of him and people that are

0:07:12 - 0:07:38 more like him that are already in your life and your reaction to them, which at best is ignoring and at worst is hating, accurately predicts how you would react to him. In fact, it will be worse than those things before, you know, because everything later is more like him and gathering is just like that

0:07:38 - 0:08:00 . So you already have the opportunity to learn more about Jesus. What are you doing with it? And if you're not using that, now, how do you think you're gonna do better with more later? You already have the opportunity to share more of what you know about him. What are you doing about that? And if, if

0:07:59 - 0:08:19 uh you know, as I say that, I know that a lot of the limitations have to do with you not being able to see how to apply what you uh no live and do to the daily, to your daily, more normal interactions with people. You think the best you can do is share the scriptures with them or something, which for

0:08:18 - 0:08:36 most of you would be an improvement, but that's still just barely getting down the road, even though you've been told that the voice of the Lord is the, is the voice of improvement. And if you want to, to share the gospel, really, all you have to do is think about everything you know about the world

0:08:36 - 0:08:57 about God, about what's valuable, apply it to this person's life and yield the next increment of improvement. I've made videos about this. It's a very simple idea. But do you do it? Do you even do it in your own home or do you let all these opportunities to slightly improve things go right by and they

0:08:56 - 0:09:16 , they become a mountain of, of um potential, unfulfilled potential. And do you do it in your own life? Because that's where you start, that's where you start, look at your own life and say what could be better? What could I tweak here to make it better? And if you're not willing to do that because you

0:09:16 - 0:09:34 don't like the idea and it's not something that excites you, it's not something you want to do. I promise you you're not gonna want the real this when it comes, it's a fuller version of what you're already turning away from. And your imaginations about what it is are irrelevant. If, if anything, they're

0:09:34 - 0:09:53 just gonna get you into trouble. So, so you can filet this into two chunks. And one of them is the people who are excited about it because they don't understand it. And the people who fear it because they don't understand it. Now, if you understood what it really was, there are plenty of reasons that

0:09:53 - 0:10:15 are valid to fear it. And if you understand what it really is, there are many reasons to be excited about it and look forward to it. But when your imagination about this is, is just totally incorrect, then whatever that reaction is, is also going to be much less than, than optimal. Anyway, it's through

0:10:15 - 0:10:46 taking advantage of the things that are right before you that you can develop the preparation for that, you can develop a state where the intensity of the fuller thing actually helps you and is actually needed. So anyway, in both cases, learning about him and sharing, you can come up to the point, it's

0:10:46 - 0:11:10 a ramp where you require greater intensity, you require intensity that cannot be achieved at a distance. And how do you do that? Well, you pursue it with all your heart might mind and strength now with what's already before you. And if you're satisfied on a little, you don't have any need for a lot and

0:11:09 - 0:11:30 it's just gonna go to waste. It reminds me of, well, I don't know if I want to get into this. Well, why not, why not at risk of diverting from extremely important and clearly important things to also extremely important but not so clearly important things. Um But also at the benefit of demonstrating

0:11:29 - 0:11:52 that I am, in fact, human like you. Um, I, I, uh, years ago, uh, we had my mom move in with us for, I think, four years, five years. And so I had to go get her and get all of her stuff and it was quite an ordeal. Uh, and I just didn't have a lot of time. I had to take vacation time from work and I didn't

0:11:52 - 0:12:11 have much of it. So we packed everything up and drove her out and I was hauling her car behind this enormous truck and we were flying and, uh, because we had just stopped, uh, for the briefest possible moments we could to keep rolling so I could get back for work. Um, we didn't really have a chance to

0:12:11 - 0:12:33 eat anything, uh, substantial on the trip. And so I psyched myself up by saying, well, we'll go to a buffet, which I, I really never do, um, in, in some western state on our way back from the east coast to Montana. And, um, we got there and my mom had just been talking nonstop about how excited she was

0:12:32 - 0:12:54 to get a full meal and how hungry she was and whatever. And, um, and we finally get to the restaurant and I get back to the table with just a mountain of meat to get my money's worth and sit down to eat. And I look, and she's got this tiny little plate with this tiny, little, like four leaf salad. And

0:12:54 - 0:13:09 I said, mom, what are you doing? And she's like, oh, this is just what I want. I was like, well, whatever, maybe she'll get to the good stuff after that. She took like, three bites and she's like, oh, I'm so full. And I said, you've gotta be kidding me. And I said, do you, do you know how much it costs

0:13:09 - 0:13:27 to get into this place? Like, what are you doing? We could, I could have just, I mean, we could have pulled some grass out of the side of the road and that's basically what you ate. Uh Anyway, don't be like that. There is a buffet, the Lord has a buffet and a lot of you are just going on and on about

0:13:26 - 0:13:49 how excited you are to get there and you're not even eating what he's giving you. Now, it, it, this is all a, a ramp of intensity. OK. Moving on most of you believe that gathering is about a location. Uh There are locations involved, but that's only part of it and it's, it might be the part that's least

0:13:48 - 0:14:15 relevant to right now. I tell you that gathering is primarily about obtaining living and sharing ideas. If you think gathering is for example, about obtaining a better material situation, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Most of you believe that gathering happens through someone calling you to

0:14:15 - 0:14:42 a specific place even when it does, this is only one particular instance of the general principle. And that principle is that we are to seek out and go toward the greatest benefit in all things. That's it. That's not something you need to wait for anyone to call you to. The Lord himself is already calling

0:14:41 - 0:15:09 you. And he has been since you were born and he will continue to do so your whole life. He gave you a brain and a heart and ears to perceive discern process and respond to the signals which he is with which he has filled creation. So use them, gave you eyes too. Most who are expecting a call, a call

0:15:08 - 0:15:30 out. That's what they call, this would never respond to one. It's like the Jews who thought they were awaiting the Messiah and then they rejected him when he came. So these kinds of people, they have pre preconceived notions that provide that, that, that uh constrain the window so thoroughly that they

0:15:30 - 0:15:58 would guaranteed, exclude the real thing. And this isn't theoretical in applying this to gathering. It's a process that mostly happens like a s like a smooth ramp and that ramp is already before you. Its gathering has already begun and you probably haven't even noticed. And so what happens is um I'll

0:15:58 - 0:16:18 do this with a hand picture, just imagine that my fingers extend. And so this becomes a, a triangle, right? A ramp. And what happens is you're sitting there in life and this thing comes cruising by and you're supposed to get on it and, and then you're supposed to walk up it right as it goes by. But instead

0:16:18 - 0:16:37 of doing that, you're just watching it go by and all of a sudden you're gonna wake up one day and this ramp is gonna be quite high and the cost to get on it is going to be extreme. And I could give you examples of this, but maybe you can connect the dots. It's already happening and, and you probably

0:16:37 - 0:17:00 haven't even noticed and the longer you take to get on it, the harder it's going to be. And if you weren't willing to do what was much easier before it's very unlikely you'll do what's much harder. Now, God's way is, is full of protections. And you know, if, if you're waiting for some presumed prophet

0:16:59 - 0:17:21 to tell you, hey, get in your stocked up RV and drive to a certain place and everything will be great. Then you've already missed so much of what this is about. Even if you get that, even if someone does come and give you exactly what you're expecting, I promise you it's not gonna lead to what you expect

0:17:21 - 0:17:48 it. Can't you see, God has a law and that law must be followed. Don't, don't get snookered. Remember that, that the Lord's way. It's, it's the way of life. It's very obvious, it has qualities that are very obvious. One of the ways to avoid anything else is to avoid getting enticed by promises of something

0:17:47 - 0:18:18 for nothing of avoidance of suffering or someone doing the heavy lifting for you. So you should get excited about opportunities that are already all around you to improve. That's the way these certainly include um opportunities to improve your own godliness. Your, your, your similarity to the Lord, for

0:18:18 - 0:18:45 example, by repenting of all of your sins. If you haven't done that yet, I don't know why you would look forward to any of these things because even if they were to happen, um you wouldn't be qualified to go. I'd say you, you wouldn't even notice it because your perception is very much tied to your alignment

0:18:44 - 0:19:09 with God. As far as you presently understand Him. When you willingly turn away from that, your understanding is darkened. But even if it, if, if, if what you were expecting were real, how could it be what you expect if they let people like you come? Do you see that? That's a problem all through history

0:19:08 - 0:19:43 . Every time uh gathering was attempted with a group of people that was just sort of whoever wants to come can come. It failed every single time. And so that ramp is quite important. It's quite important in order to succeed. There needs to be a structure that um a structure that effectively describes

0:19:42 - 0:20:08 the law that needs to be lived. You can't bring blessings down from the mountain without really bad things happening. It turns out the objective is to entice people to walk up the mountain and any goodies you bring out are just to that end. You can't take the higher experience lower. You can only bring

0:20:07 - 0:20:33 out sufficient to entice people to come up higher. There's a reason we need to come up higher. So you have repentance before you already. Are you making use of it? Have you done that? Uh What about opportunities with your family to bring them into greater alignment with the Lord? What about opportunities

0:20:32 - 0:20:57 to befriend and spend time with people who love the Lord as much as you do? Of course, these include your neighbors, but because of technology, there's no geographical limit on this. So how do you go and find these kinds of people? How do you interact with them? Um As you make use of all of these things

0:20:57 - 0:21:19 , the need for something greater emerges. But until you make use of all these things, not only do you not have the need, which is a problem because these the real thing has a cost and I promise you that that as you get to know that cost, it will not seem worth it unless you have the need. This is it's

0:21:19 - 0:21:44 like this with everything from the Lord, but as you make use of what's already before you, you will, you will have the need and you will also be prepared. You see God's way, one of the protections is it it um all of the growth that each step provides is precisely what's needed to prepare you for the

0:21:44 - 0:22:08 next step. And, and that's why it can't be avoided. It's all one thing you can't just pick and choose along the way because that path is the very path you need. Where, where the, the next step depends on everything that came before it. You can't skip steps. Ok? So as you make use of all these opportunities

0:22:07 - 0:22:30 before you, one thing you're going to notice is that you don't have enough to keep going as you do everything you can as an individual to align with the Lord. And you finally get to the point of conversion. Uh as the Lord said to Peter, when you're converted, feed my sheep. So when you repent of all

0:22:30 - 0:22:54 your sins and you no longer sin, you'll have to turn to your family because that's the next place where you can grow closer to the Lord or the next, the next situation through which you can make things on earth more like they are in heaven and you, but you start from within and then you go out and then

0:22:54 - 0:23:11 the next step after that is with your friends and then the current friends, current neighbors. And then the next step after that is to get new friends and new neighbors. But these are all sequential. It doesn't mean that they're not that they're non overlapping, but there is a priority here. And if you

0:23:10 - 0:23:35 , if you rearrange it, it's going to get jacked up. It just won't flow the fullness that it could. With each of these steps, you're going to end up in a place where you have a longing for more, but you can't do more. And that's when that's the surplus desire that leads you to the next thing. So what

0:23:35 - 0:23:58 you'll find in the specific case of friends at a distance and this, this might be, you know, someone right down the street, it doesn't have to be someone on another continent. What you'll find is that there's only so much that can be done at a distance. So um the same limits apply to a place if you're

0:23:57 - 0:24:16 not making the greatest use of the place in which you live. What difference would it make if you had a place with greater potential? Do you understand that point? It's very important if you're not making greatest use of whatever it is that the Lord has given you, why should he give you more? You just

0:24:16 - 0:24:40 waste the extra potential and then you'd, you'd be responsible for that. So, um you know, in Japan, Japan is a funny place in Japan. They have, they like doing strange things and one of the strange things they like doing is growing watermelons in square buckets, which sounds totally random, but bear

0:24:39 - 0:25:02 with me. So the thing about watermelons is they get big, they get pretty big most varieties. And so the reason this was a fad, at least for a while. Is that, um, it's weird to see a rectangular watermelon. They're usually oblong. The thing is though that the watermelon is gonna fill the bucket and you

0:25:02 - 0:25:20 kind of have to match the, the growth potential of the watermelon to the bucket or else you're gonna stunt it. So it's kind of a, a balancing act to match the watermelon to the size of the bucket, the growth potential of the watermelon to the size of the bucket. We're the same way. You could also use

0:25:19 - 0:25:38 this analogy with, with certain creatures that have shells. So when they outgrow their shell, they need a bigger shell. Well, if you don't outgrow your shell, you don't need a bigger shell. In fact, a bigger shell is just gonna cause you problems. Just think if you have a house that's too big and you

0:25:38 - 0:26:01 have to heat it through a cold winter, it's just gonna cause you problems, right? So to get more, you have to use what you have or else it doesn't make sense and it will be an albatross around your neck instead of wings to fly higher. Ok. So, so once you, once you make use of all that, uh, you might

0:26:01 - 0:26:22 find that on your list is to make a reasonable move to a place that's better suited to your present understanding of what the future might hold. You don't need a profit to tell you that that is already in the domain of what you can already do. OK. So make use of what you can already do before you expect

0:26:22 - 0:26:46 something greater. I'm telling you right now. This is an echo of what I've already said, but I'm just gonna make it super plain if you're not exercising the initiative and, and reason like wisdom, the ability to reason to make use of moving to a better place when it's super obvious that you should for

0:26:45 - 0:27:04 abundant reasons. Not like, hey, I think in 15 years, two months and one day where I live is gonna get nuked. And I can tell you how many megatons the payload is. I'm just saying like, hey, the writing's on the wall, maybe I should get a better job. Hey, the writing's on the wall. Maybe, you know, we

0:27:03 - 0:27:21 should downsize our house because we don't need all this space anymore. Hey, the writing's on the wall. Maybe we should move to a place that's not in the middle of the city because BLM burned this place out three years ago or whatever. You, you don't need to be a prophet to just use your brain, right

0:27:21 - 0:27:47 ? Common sense. So, um there's a lot more I could say about that the, the connection between common sense and being a prophet. But if you're in a position where those clear signals are going unheeded and you refuse to do anything about it, why do you think that if some dude showed up or dot And said

0:27:47 - 0:28:09 , hey, call out, everybody's got to meet here with your RV, with the food. WW. What makes you think you're gonna go? And even if you do go, what makes you think wherever you're going is a place you wanna be because you're gonna be surrounded by knuckleheads like yourself. So step one is to cease being

0:28:09 - 0:28:40 a knucklehead. Step one is become the best person you already know how to be because you know, it's funny in a not funny kind of way, this whole false tradition of gathering. It's, it's not unlike the idea of uh rapture. It's like the Mormon rapture and it's also not unlike the idea of, hey, um there

0:28:40 - 0:29:03 are zero fruits whatsoever of belief in God in my life. But the second I die, I'm just gonna be right there in the presence of God, shoulder to shoulder with the Cherubs and we're just, we're just gonna hold hands around the ark of the covenant. No. Right. That's not gonna happen. So hopefully those

0:29:02 - 0:29:29 connections are clear because I think I've spent too much time on this getting fired up. The final point I'm going to make about this is I've never heard anyone besides myself talk about a step wise now. They may have, I just might not be remembering it or I might not have heard of it. A stepwise progression

0:29:28 - 0:29:59 . I've mentioned this for, for many years now. Um I'm not sure anyone has noticed but I've talked about it. Um, wherever you do end up moving to, if you get that far, it's not going to be the last place. It's only gonna be the last place. If you fall off the path, that might be the hardest pill to swallow

0:29:58 - 0:30:27 from all of this. Because I know from my own life, uh, at least how sometimes the, the, the only way we can convince ourselves to take the next step is to convince ourselves that it's the last step. But truthfully, when has it ever been? So now I could go into a lot of details about this stepwise nature

0:30:26 - 0:30:56 of the real gathering. But um I guess here's how I'll wrap it up as briefly as I can right now. You will go from idea to idea and place to place until you've received all the light that God has sent in order to withstand all the wrath that God pours out. That's as succinctly as I can presently put it

0:30:56 - 0:31:28 most presently alive will not even enter into this path, this process, if you will and most who do will fall away before they complete it. Now, that might seem super depressing. Um Sometimes it helps to obscure the details of the difficulty of future things and sometimes it's exactly what would help

0:31:28 - 0:32:04 the most is to shed a little bit more light on it. Um I, I try very hard not to hide the fact that I've been. Uh let's say, tutored in the difficulty of these things that are coming. Uh, I've been tutored by the Lord in them and, um, a lot of the motivation that I have for the things that I do and say

0:32:03 - 0:32:31 is that, that I know how difficult these things are going to be. And I know how unprepared people are moving on. The next of the three topics I'd like to discuss is something that I've heard people label multiple mortal probations. I don't like this phrase. I don't like phrases that are ambiguous, including

0:32:31 - 0:33:04 phrases that are used to refer to ideas that I don't subscribe to as well as ideas to which I do. And so mortal multiple mortal probations or M MP as it's called by the cool kids is one of those topics. Now there was a time in history where the Lords strategy was to withhold understanding of quote unquote

0:33:03 - 0:33:43 greater things. Um while people struggled on lesser things, and there are really good reasons for that. But in the end times that motivation goes away because um how to put this concisely, well, we are saved by knowledge and exposure to exposure, exposure to challenges beyond which we can overcome in

0:33:43 - 0:34:08 our present level of knowledge would harm you. However, all of us would harm all of us. However, in the, in the end times, those things can no longer be withheld, you might not know this. But the Greek word, Alethea is the word that's translated as truth in the New Testament. So anytime you see the word

0:34:08 - 0:34:34 truth, it's Alethea. Uh As far as I'm aware, I, I can't say I've looked at every single English translation and every single use of the word truth, but the many that I've looked at that's the case. Um What does Alethia mean? It means that which cannot be um hidden, that which cannot remain hidden. That's

0:34:33 - 0:35:01 the definition that which cannot remain hidden. And we read that in the end times, all things will be revealed. Um That includes the full measure of all challenges pertaining to mortality. And that should sound a bit scary. The good news is that while Jesus acknowledged that he is the only way we can

0:35:01 - 0:35:25 overcome, he is the way we can overcome. He has overcome all things. And in that we're meant to rejoice, he tells us and uh rejoicing is not a neutral reaction. It's just, oh, it's not. Oh, I'm glad he takes care of this. You know, we rejoice because the situation is better than it would, it's better

0:35:24 - 0:35:56 than neutral, it's much better than neutral. So, um anyway, there are things like M MP that would not make sense to talk about 101,000, 2000, 3000 years ago, not in some kind of general presentation. Of course, there was no internet back then, which is more related than it seems anyway. Um But today

0:35:55 - 0:36:20 , what we'll find is that there are situations before us where that knowledge is required to overcome. So I cannot get into a full treatise of why that is right now. But this is one of the topics I'm going to be laying out, which is why I mentioned it here. Uh As a reminder, the whole point of this presentation

0:36:19 - 0:36:43 is so that you're prepared. Well, so that you avoid incorrectly assuming that I'm going to do this or that and to very clearly and up front, tell you exactly what I'm going to talk about it. At least this isn't the full set of things, but this is the set of things that I think are most likely to cause

0:36:43 - 0:37:12 people to balk. So, um, if you find offense with the things I say about these things, that's one thing. But um I'm hoping that by doing this, I minimize you being offended for things I'm not saying or I don't believe or I'm not doing so without further ado, there are those around the world who believe

0:37:12 - 0:37:36 in reincarnation, reincarnation. I don't know why I pluralized that. I guess I was thinking about flowers for a second. Most Christians, um Most Christians disbelieve this idea so strongly that they will instantly dismiss anyone who mentions it or says something that they think mentions it uh is not

0:37:36 - 0:38:04 possibly having anything to teach that's worth listening to. But there's a limit of how much of God's love and glory you can appreciate without understanding that there are elements of this idea that are in fact true. Before I go on with this, I want to stipulate that there's a whole basket of ideas

0:38:03 - 0:38:26 where if, what you're hearing about them is just some other person's opinion. You have to stop and ask yourself who cares. In other words, there's a set of topics where you should be asking yourself, what would it take to talk about these things sincerely having learned something about them? What would

0:38:26 - 0:38:57 that take? So when Jesus says, I have overcome the world, what did it take to say that? And how does that serve as a barometer of whether he is worth listening to or not? Certain things you can say. And it's just sort of an opinion like, oh, I think it might rain today, maybe bring a raincoat just in

0:38:57 - 0:39:20 case and maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, not really gonna matter all, too much. The consequences are pretty limited and the basis upon which someone could say that is roughly equivalent, no matter who they are. Now, if you're some rock star meteorologist, maybe your opinion matters a lot more and you

0:39:20 - 0:39:43 have a track record to suggest that, but for most people, it's just not gonna make much difference, right? But if someone comes along and says I have overcome the world, um that's not a minor claim to make. And so if they have absolutely no evidence to support that claim, then it's probably pretty safe

0:39:42 - 0:40:07 to disregard them when Jesus came and um, didn't dispute that he was the son of God. He had a catalog of things that no one else had ever done power beyond what anyone else had shown and wisdom beyond what anyone else had shown. Did this conclusively conclude that he was, in fact, the Son of God. No

0:40:07 - 0:40:35 , no, but it did show that he had a better argument than anyone else could make, right? And this is very important. There's a limit to how much of God's love and glory you can appreciate without understanding that there are elements of this that are in fact true. That being said as with so many other

0:40:34 - 0:41:06 hot button issues, the vast majority of what is believed and said about this is dead wrong for and against, but mostly for and it can be sufficiently argued to that end. And it is on my list of things to do God's way is full of protections. Um And that includes misunderstandings of content and miss attributions

0:41:05 - 0:41:29 of cost and benefit. I have to apologize. I don't know if you can hear it, but my dogs are howling. Um God's way is full of protections and um those protections include protection from misunderstanding of content and mis attribution of cost and benefit. It doesn't mean it's not going to happen. It means

0:41:29 - 0:41:58 that there are countermeasures in place and when adequately used, it will mitigate these things when you come to understand the price necessarily paid by God to initiate and fulfill this creation. You will understand that it is not possible for a person to be born into this mortality twice. And so when

0:41:58 - 0:42:21 you understand that it cuts the legs off of most of what most people believe about this, who think it's a thing? Furthermore, when you come to understand the cost of resurrection, uh why there is more than one resurrection in this during this creation, which hopefully is not contentious, right? So when

0:42:21 - 0:42:44 Jesus was resurrected, after he, he came back, he brought back all the faithful who had lived before him, there will be at least one more. There's actually more than one more. Um And all of that is easily demonstrable through appeal to the scriptures. So hopefully, that's not contentious to say. But

0:42:44 - 0:43:11 when you come to understand the cost of it and why there is more than one and what sacrifices are required for each and when you come to understand more of what hell is, why it is and what it is like. And when you come to understand more of the eternal joy available for those who pay the price to learn

0:43:11 - 0:43:38 more about and live more like God, you won't fall prey to the conclusion erroneously drawn by those who learn of this doctrine. Almost all of those who learn of this doctrine. Uh For instance, one of these ideas is, well, one of these conclusions is if we can live again in a future creation. Why bother

0:43:38 - 0:44:09 making the sacrifices necessary to learn more about God and live more like Him? Now, truly, this life is the time we are given to prepare to meet God. This life is the unique place where everything about what comes after is determined. Another errant conclusion is to say, well, if there is this set of

0:44:09 - 0:44:40 multiple creations that in some way diminishes the glory of God, you know, this is an argument whose general form comes up more frequently than people realize it is the same argument that caused the Jews to murder Christ, not all of the Jews, the the Pharisees and their supporters to murder Christ. And

0:44:40 - 0:45:10 what is that? That somehow it diminishes God for Him to pay the price, to provide a path for us to be more like Him. That is in fact his glory. It's the opposite of blasphemy. It is how he is glorified. When Jesus completed his demonstration of what the Father would do in his place by taking upon himself

0:45:10 - 0:45:50 the sins of the world and allowing himself to be crucified by those who came to save. He prayed, Father glorify me now with the glory I had with you before this world was if in Christ's estimation, demonstrating what the Father was like here by being lifted up on the cross. If that was glorifying him

0:45:49 - 0:46:32 , the epitome of fulfillment of glorifying him, we should not argue that following that example or uh embracing that possibility is anything less because the value of it was attested to through the pouring out of the most valuable, the blood of the most and life of the most valuable person ever born

0:46:32 - 0:47:07 here. There could be no greater evidence. Eternity does indeed have a duration. But and that's going to ruffle feathers. It's just the way it is. But when that is properly understood, this increases rather than decreases the value of our present mortal opportunity and the need to repent here. And now

0:47:07 - 0:47:43 it's also a powerful tool to unlock many mysteries that are not presently understood and to perceive and value tremendous blessings that would otherwise not be recognized or received. Finally, the last topic that I want to address is this idea of an end times servant you've heard. Let's start with this

0:47:42 - 0:48:13 by addressing those who disparage the idea many of them don't think that this kind of person is necessary. I tell you that this person is spoken of more often than anyone else in the scriptures. There's a greater volume of text dedicated to this person than anyone including Jesus. And that is for a reason

0:48:12 - 0:48:43 , that reason is that He is the most important person second to Jesus only to be born into mortality. And there are other things that could explain the volume dedicated to Him versus Jesus. But we don't need to get into that for now. The point is if God thought it was that important to speak about this

0:48:42 - 0:49:10 person. Maybe we should think it's that important to know about this person. Some few people believe. So, you've got, you know, Venn diagrams of reducing commonality or you've got people who think maybe this is a thing and then a subset of them, think this a subset of that, think that some tiny fraction

0:49:09 - 0:49:32 of these people believe that Joseph Smith was this person. And you see there are arguments about how he's going to come back and maybe he'll come back as a resurrected being to fulfill this role because you can show through an appeal to just a fraction of these scriptures about this individual that Joseph

0:49:32 - 0:50:03 Smith did not do what he is. This person uh is appointed to do. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the promises given to Joseph Smith by God about when and how resurrections occur about what a resurrected being or even a disembodied spirit for that matter can and cannot do. And all of this is mixed

0:50:02 - 0:50:29 together with uh a misunderstanding about the unique value of mortal ministry and a misunderstanding as if that wasn't enough about what the end time servant must do. Suffice it to say that there's an incredibly strong argument to be made that Joseph Smith is or was not this person that, that he wasn't

0:50:29 - 0:50:55 this person. He's not going to be this person, but you have to address all those things I just mentioned. And so it takes a bit and uh it's very hard to justify the time required to do all of that by someone who might know enough to say when so many much more important things need to be discussed when

0:50:55 - 0:51:24 it comes to this person. Uh This is another example of what I spoke about briefly before, of, of uh how the Jews of old who said they believed in a messiah and waited for him to come, also refused to acknowledge him when he came. Um When pressed, it'd be evident that the web of constraints that they

0:51:23 - 0:52:03 had imposed upon their expectation of the Messiah would be impossible for anyone to fulfill. Ample prophetic descriptions had been given of Jesus before he came, come on. Um they misunderstood some, they were ignorant of others and they um had created imagine one in the place of those of which they were

0:52:03 - 0:52:37 ignorant. And so it is with this person, ample prophetic descriptions have been given. Most of them have not been recognized and many of those that have are misunderstood. I will give you just one example of this which I find particularly ironic and maybe you will too, those who are awaiting this person

0:52:36 - 0:53:12 are looking for someone who's been physically wounded or disfigured beyond what any man could be. And this is from an interpretation of something written in Isaiah. Um If they better understood the scriptures, they would not have this interpretation, but even outside of uh lack of familiarity with the

0:53:12 - 0:53:43 network of things that have been written about this person. All you have to do is look up the Hebrew. What you see is this word Mar. It doesn't just mean that uh someone is disfigured that is one use of 11 correct use of the word. Um But it also means or could mean that this person is going to be considered

0:53:43 - 0:54:14 the least worthy person to fulfill this role. And so if you describe a priest as marred, it would mean that they are not ceremonially worthy to officiate in their office. So if you look at the law of Moses, there were many external qualifications for a priest because as a symbol of um the ideal to which

0:54:14 - 0:54:44 we all ascribe, they were not allowed to have obvious physical limitations. There were also spiritual uh rules by which they had to abide to be qualified for that office. So in the eyes of the people, this person would be considered the last one that God would choose to do this thing. And um this idea

0:54:44 - 0:55:15 of God healing him is very lengthily addressed throughout scripture as his ascent in the eyes of the people through learning and believing the value of what he demonstrates, which I will address further in a moment. But even if you're not some kind of Hebrew scholar, which I certainly am not whatever

0:55:14 - 0:55:45 I know about it, that isn't wrong or grossly limited, was taught to me by God. But even if you don't have that and even if you don't have the entire Bible memorized or whatever else has been written about this person, an appeal to common sense, she quickly um disqualify this false idea that he's going

0:55:45 - 0:56:20 to be physically wounded beyond what any man could be. Uh what any other man is, I should say. Um Jesus suffered more than any man can suffer and that was uniquely his because one who is not sinless does not have power over their life. Jesus did being sinless and so he could suffer beyond the limits

0:56:19 - 0:56:49 of death for anyone else. The limits of the greatest of what can be suffered in life will be dominated not by the physical, although it will include a great deal of that. But by the spiritual channel, because we can endure greater spiritual pain up to the point of death, then we can physical pain. So

0:56:49 - 0:57:14 if you were to map out those limits on some kind of a chart, the max spiritual pain that you can experience would far exceed without dying would far exceed the max physical pain that you could experience. It's harrowing enough to think about an amount of pain, physical pain that would cause you to die

0:57:14 - 0:57:43 . So, moving into the spiritual limits and trying to understand that is really something to contemplate anyway. Uh an appeal to common sense would, would quickly yield the conclusion that there have been many people who have suffered so much that they did die. So, if uh physically, so if you lob a hand

0:57:43 - 0:58:07 grenade into a foxhole, the people in that foxhole are going to be blown to bits. How could you be marred more than someone whose body has been disassembled, causing death and yet not die. It's much easier to believe. And it's not just a question of ease of belief that, that, that challenge is something

0:58:07 - 0:58:36 that no good answer exists for that logical challenge. So we see this traditional idea of Marring cannot be correct. And likewise, there's an awful lot that's believed about this person that is not correct and a lot that is not known. But I guess to try to sum up this little bit. I'll say that when this

0:58:36 - 0:59:03 person comes, you are not going to recognize him. Part of his mission is to lay out the voluminous scriptures that describe who he is and what he does. It's interesting to contemplate and I guess this is the answer of why so much is dedicated to him in the scriptures. It's interesting to contemplate

0:59:02 - 0:59:27 how little Jesus taught about his own mission during his mortal ministry. He said things like I am come to be a light of the world. I'm come to testify of the truth. He clearly described that what he was doing was demonstrating the father um beyond other things that he said as well. But the vast majority

0:59:26 - 0:59:58 of what he had to say was directed towards changing the behaviors of those he talked to. And the most important piece of his mission was not that it was what he did in taking upon himself the sins of the world. Now, all of that being said for us to look, if you, if you take Christians in the world and

0:59:58 - 1:00:20 you put them into a blender and you take an aliquot, you know, this is the little pipette motion an aliquot of or little piece, a little, a little sample of what you'd get out of the average of all Christians. And you, you'd ask that average, hey, what was the point of the Lord's mission? They might

1:00:20 - 1:00:50 point to, to some of his teachings which they don't live or they might point to um his sacrifice, the price he paid to yield a forgiveness of our sins which they don't qualify for. There were other purposes to his mission. And I mentioned, and I frequently mission mentioned that um one of those was to

1:00:50 - 1:01:17 demonstrate what the father would do in mortality. And this helps us train our model beyond helps. It's essential necessary for us to train our model. His, his example was necessary without it, we couldn't do it. But there were, there was another facet of his ministry that was um less obvious, although

1:01:16 - 1:01:47 it should be completely obvious. And um more will be said about that anyway, when it comes to the end time servant or one mighty and strong or whatever you wanna call this individual. He's like a, a self deploying tank mounted combat bridge that's airdropped behind enemy lines. And he, he's a, he's a

1:01:47 - 1:02:12 self contained mission, meaning that part of his mission is to explain the scriptures that describe him who he is and what he does and that there is a need for that. Whereas, and I'm, I am sure that I have not said this very clearly and I apologize for that. Um There wasn't as much of a need for that

1:02:12 - 1:02:36 for Jesus. And the reason wasn't that it would have been so valuable. It, it, that it wouldn't, wouldn't have been so valuable. It would have been immensely valuable, but it was beyond the needs of the people and, and more of this can be um laid out, but maybe it's sufficient that I've used this analogy

1:02:35 - 1:02:57 of a bridge of a, of a bridge, deploying tank behind enemy lines. And what's the purpose you set up the bridge so that the rest of the troops can cross the river or ravine or whatever it is, that else it is. And that's the purpose in the ravine is what separates us from God from Christ, from the example

1:02:57 - 1:03:20 he gave. So maybe that lines things up enough. So I know that having said all of this, uh some of you are nice and scared of what I might say next. You shouldn't be because of what all of what everything I've said already. But let's, that's the purpose of this presentation, right? To, to, to pop all

1:03:20 - 0:00:00 the pimples. You've heard many people claim to be this end time servant. Every time someone comes along in, in Mormon circles or formerly L DSS circles or whatever, every time someone comes forward claiming to have a mandate to preach the gospel. Anyone from a Mormon background starts the countdown.

0:00:00 - 1:04:06 They flip the hourglass and say, how long is it gonna take before this guy claims to be the one mighty and strong. I have a list of three things that I'd like to tell you about this. I might get into more, but I think there will be three first. Look at what Jesus said about himself. Go reread the four

1:04:06 - 1:04:26 gospels in the New Testament. Surprisingly, what you're going to find. Everyone thinks that every page is gonna contain something where he says I am the Messiah. I am the son of God. I am the one that's been promised. Here's all the evidence of who I am. Let's do this. You're not gonna find that you're

1:04:25 - 1:04:48 gonna find a reference or two where he acknowledges to be the Son of God, but he doesn't stand up and shout this in front of the people. Uh for example, he says, I am he to the woman at the Well, when she says that they're waiting for the Messiah and he says something interesting to pilot during the

1:04:48 - 1:05:16 interrogation um but this is not in front of the world. It's not the focus of what he came to say and do. If you did a word cloud of the things that he he did and said as recorded in the gospels, this is not going to be the emergent topic. Why? Well, perhaps one reason is that anyone could claim to be

1:05:16 - 1:05:45 anyone that's, that's not a very useful thing to do. Instead, what did Jesus do? Well, he focused on proving he was the Son of God by doing what the Son of God would do. Now again, we get into a Venn diagram because there's the set of things that people expected the messiah to do. And these are not synonymous

1:05:44 - 1:06:07 by the way, the, the, the Jews did not understand the messiah to be the Son of God. That was part of the problem. Um There's a set of things that people expected of Jesus. And then there was the set of things that Jesus knew were expected of Jesus and there was an overlap, but these were not the same

1:06:07 - 1:06:26 set of things. And so people would ignore the overlap even though no one had ever done those things before. Nor could they, because they didn't like the part of the Venn diagram that didn't overlap with their preconceived notions. And they just kept pointing to the unfulfilled part to say, well, when

1:06:26 - 1:06:54 are you going to be our temporal king? When are you gonna free us from the Romans. Why don't you align with everything that the church leaders say and so on what you heal people on the Sabbath clutch pearls, right? So he focused on doing what the s the things he knew the Son of God would do. And there

1:06:54 - 1:07:15 was some overlap with what people expected, but some of those things were very different. He didn't make his business just claiming to be this or that. That wasn't the value of what he brought. The value was the things that that person would do and what did he do? He did what the father would do at all

1:07:15 - 1:07:44 times. And in all places, his mortal mission was to reveal the father. Everything else he did including paying the price for our sins was part of that. It was subordinate to it. The reason he did that was because that's exactly what the father would do in his place. The mortal mission of the end time

1:07:43 - 1:08:20 servant is to reveal the sun. There are scriptures that would knock your socks off. They are so clear about that at all times, this person is going to do what the son would do in his place just as the son did all things that the father would do in his. And that will be the evidence of who he is. Second

1:08:19 - 1:08:56 consider that while everyone thinks of this as some special calling, it's only in the extent to which he fulfills it that this servant is any different from what we are all meant to be. We are all called to stand as witnesses to Christ at all times in all things and in all places, no matter the cost

1:08:56 - 1:09:28 , we are all called to learn and do what he would in every situation, we find ourselves in this man merely exercises greater heed and diligence in the task. And here I want to share with you something that you might not know. It is very important to understanding Jesus in our time. There's a, there's

1:09:27 - 1:10:01 a cultural hesitation to reach out for any ideal and not least, not the least of which is the example of Jesus. Who do you know who has named, who is named one of their Children, Jesus? Now, I know that there are Latinos out there who do this. But even even when they speak English, primarily, they will

1:10:01 - 1:10:28 still pronounce the boy's name, Jesus. I don't know anybody that goes by the name, the name of Jesus. And yet we're all called to take upon ourselves. His name. Now, his name means much more than the word and you could separate. I don't wanna be a reverent here. I know that a lot of people put a lot

1:10:27 - 1:10:58 of emphasis on that word and they'll argue about his uh uh Jesus or uh Jehovah or whatever they wanna say, the relative importance of what is behind that aim versus whatever word we put as a placeholder for it. You could call him pepperoni pizza and it would not make a difference to everything he is

1:10:58 - 1:11:32 and everything we need to be it. It is a placeholder. There's no magic. I know it, it means save us. But there's no magic in the word. The meaning is in the being his character, his nature, what he does and why. But this, this hesitation and, and even still people will not name their kid Jesus, right

1:11:32 - 1:11:58 ? They don't dare do that. But it was not. So in the time of the Lord in his mortal life, this is something you might not know in that time, every good little Jewish boy, whatever their name was, they were raised to be valiant and obedient enough. This was the ideal that nothing in their lives would

1:11:58 - 1:12:25 prevent them from being the messiah. This truth is echoed. It's it survives in some cultures today. So for example, the Navajo in their myths, they have a figure that is very similar to Christ in, in many ways. And uh part of their, their historic culture is that all young boys are challenged to grow

1:12:25 - 1:13:21 up to be like this, this guy and all mothers, their duty is to raise their boys to be that man. And it's beautiful. Jesus was the most and you can subdivide that into very many categories. But one of the things that his life was, he was the most lonely man who ever lived and people don't get that. One

1:13:21 - 1:13:54 of many reasons for his loneliness was that while all good Jewish boys were raised to be so that uh nothing would prevent them from being the Messiah. He was the only one that rose to the invitation. And those words are not sufficient to convey what needs to be conveyed every moment of our lives is a

1:13:54 - 1:14:26 choice. You might not think that because you probably still believe in this idea of emptiness that there's such a thing as waiting or that there's a, there's such a thing as a second that doesn't have something in it in your life. The truth is every moment in your life as a choice where you're choosing

1:14:25 - 1:15:03 between alternatives. It's like every single moment is a fork in the road and every moment you're choosing one thing or the other. One thing among a set of things in every moment of his life. Jesus chose what was better, what was best as far as he understood it at whatever age or maturity he had at the

1:15:03 - 1:15:49 time. And with every choice he made, he became different and better than everyone else around him. Every step he took every second that passed in his life, drew him closer to the father and drew him further away from everyone in his life. God shapes us in his image through how we respond to every moment

1:15:48 - 0:00:00 of mortality. And just as good little boys in jesus' Day were taught to live up to the ideal of God. We are as well. Unlike Jesus, we have an example in a man who lived on this earth, which is Jesus. We have this immense advantage as we formulate and improve a model of what he would do in our place.

0:00:00 - 1:17:13 We can use that model to decide in every moment what is best to help us grow in this path. God subject us, subjects us um to ever increasing new challenges. And through these were invited to develop a greater trust in God. All of us need to grow as a child, submissive meek, humble patient, full of love

1:17:12 - 1:17:50 , willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us. Even as a child doth submit to his father, we all need to not just receive these afflictions or inflictions, but praise God for his love in giving them knowing it hurts Him more than whatever we suffer in the process. And

1:17:50 - 1:18:28 knowing that the reason He is doing it is that we can only truly know Jesus through what we suffer in the process of following his example. At a future date, there will be a single lamb standing on Mount Zion and this lamb is described in revelation 14, but along with him will be 144,000, all of whom

1:18:27 - 1:19:09 will have their father's name written on their forehead to get there. These sheep had to seek and yield to the true shepherd. The good shepherd who led them through a process that subjected them to every challenge available in mortality and blow by blow. The Lord carved his heart and mind into theirs

1:19:09 - 1:19:51 or theirs into his. These are they who follow the example of Jesus through all possible opposition. Immortality. They have overcome all things through following the example of him who overcame all things they've taken upon themselves. The name of Christ and through Christ, the name of the father, all

1:19:50 - 1:20:29 people have this privilege, disability and this duty. Third, no one should claim to be this person until they do what this person is called to do. If they do, it really doesn't matter until they do what this person is called to do. Claiming to be this person without a full awareness of and completion

1:20:28 - 1:20:58 of the things that this person is meant to do can only mean something much less than that. As I said before, the principal mission of this man is to demonstrate to others what Jesus is like and to persuade them to live as Jesus would in their place since all people ought to do this. And since there is

1:20:58 - 1:21:31 a specific set, a separate set of tools to perceive, evaluate accept value and live putative truth, greater light and truth, there's no need to know who this man is per se. What matters is not who he is, but what he knows and shows about Jesus and the process for evaluating that does not include finding

1:21:30 - 1:21:46 out who the one mighty and strong is. When the time comes that it matters, it will be so glaringly obvious that no one who survives to that point, we wonder.