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I want to share some thoughts about teaching light and truth and receiving light and truth. Um I don't want what I'm about to share to be used as a license to justify those who do too little. Um But what I'm going to teach hopefully will help those who are inclined to do too much. Um In second Nephi 2624 we read he doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world, for he loveth the world even that he lay down his own life that he may draw amen unto him wherefore he commande none that they shall not partake of his salvation. This is a really interesting verse. It describes God's motivation and what he does. Um It also provides us a key to avoiding doing too little and also to avoid doing too much. Those who do too little, usually excuse themselves by saying the price is too high. And the Lord showed us that there is no limit to what we should be willing to do to benefit others because he laid down his life and to those who are inclined to do too much, he also imposes a limit. And that is um in how we do what we do, it has to be for the benefit of the world. Um What it means to benefit is dependent on the level of awareness we possess. For example, when you say something like God's love, you will evoke all sorts of ideas in the minds of people and incorrect understandings or incorrect or incomplete understandings of the meaning of love can be used to justify all sorts of nonsense things that are not beneficial. God's love doesn't mean giving people what they say they want. And that's for many reasons that aren't the point of this presentation. So I won't go into it. But uh what it means is to do what improves. Um And that's independent of what they say they want. Now, it might be the same as what they are asking for or what they say they want. But um that's not what, what defines it. If you give people what they say they want without respect to what improves them. You're not doing what God would do in your place and that applies to your service and your teaching uh as well as other things. But that's what we're talking about in this is service and teaching. So here are two tactics that differ significantly. Uh These are tactics for how you can serve and teach others. We'll start with the Lord's attitude in revelation 320. He said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and we will sup with him. He with me, this is figurative, but there's a lot of symbolism here that's meaningful. He stands at the door. So and he knocks, those are two actions. So he has obtained the light and the truth and he comes close to us within our reach. And he also signals us that he has something to offer these signals come in in many ways. And I described this actually in a video that I just recorded before this, but I won't go into that here. I want to keep this short, but these signals can come in many ways. Um And then he lets us act, he does not open the door, he does not walk through the wall, he does not shove these things down our throat. He stands at the door and he knocks, he's very, very patient and he will stand there and knock for a very long time. He's, he's not just gonna knock two times and then walk away. So here are uh graphical representations of these two approaches. The one I just described is on the right. You've probably seen that picture before. And the one I'm about to describe is on the left and that is the Kool Aid man. And if you were around in the eighties, you can remember these commercials that played all the time with these kids in the kitchen or living room or wherever. And then the kool aid man busts through the wall and gives them all kool aid. And uh this has kind of become a meme a pop culture icon. But the idea here is very significant, this kool aid man, he's got all this kool aid to share and he doesn't stand at the door and knock, he busts through the wall and you're gonna get some Kool aid whether you like it or not. And this is one way to try to live the gospel and it's not the Lord's way. If you do it, you'll end up hurting people. So I'm, I'm calling this pushing the truth and I'll talk about what that means in a minute. But for now, just think about that Kool Aid man . And I wanna tell you a story about a little boy who was born uh handicapped and he had some developmental disabilities and his parents knew he was gonna struggle more than normal kids to learn to walk. So they carried him around all the time. And when he was about three, um they realized that his muscles and tendons and whatnot had grown in such a way as to, to kind of freeze his ankles in a, in a fully extended position. And so at this point, it was almost impossible for the kid to learn how to walk because physically his muscles could not orient his bones in the right um in the right directions for him to do this. And so they had to undertake an extensive process of physical therapy to stretch out those muscles on top of the more difficult than usual process of helping this kid learn to walk on top of him, having to learn it later in life, which is harder. Um So in trying to help him, they actually really hurt this kid and his life was a lot worse than it would have been. Had they just exposed him to his limitations early on and tried to support him in overcoming the situation at hand rather than trying to save him from reality. All right, I got some ideas to go through. So buckle in, Jesus stands at the door and knocks. If you don't open the door, then he can't come in and he won't come in. There's a reason for this, uh, if a person doesn't open their door, so to speak, then they'll never come to the point where they can benefit from what you have to offer them or what you can do for them. Think of that child right now, the child didn't decline his parents service in teaching him how to walk. They chose to do that without his having any say in the matter. But with, uh, the adults that we interact with, uh, if they don't open themselves to the truth that you have to offer, there's very little that you can do for them. And if you try to save them from the consequences of their actions in a way that doesn't improve them, then you'll actually end up hurting them. So you have to take great care when you're trying to help other people, you should always ask what improves and you should make this a matter of prayer because God's awareness extends much further than yours. But uh he'll use this to teach you things about reality. So, uh how can we, how can we do the wrong thing? Well, one example is when you try to push truth to people against their will. Um, what does that look like? Well, one litmus test to see how receptive someone is to truth is to measure what they do with what you've given them already. So this obviously doesn't apply if it's your first contact with someone. But you could certainly see what they've done with other sources of truth in their life. So, what do I mean as an example of this? Let's talk about the Samaritan lady at the, well, so Jesus is conducting his ministry in the New Testament and he stops by this. Well, and there's a Samaritan lady there, he starts talking with her and he ends up saying some things to her. It's a, it's a brief exchange, but he, he identifies to her that he is the Messiah and he tells her a little about her past, including the fact that she had had uh, many, uh, husbands. And just from that brief exchange, she runs off, she tells all these people that she has found the Messiah and she connects them to Jesus and she has this huge impact. So there was a very small investment of light and truth and the lady builds on this, uh, in a, in a major way. So that is a case where the door is open. What does it look like? Uh when the door is closed? Well, you'll talk about a situation that's clearly an improvement over the person's present situation and nothing happens. They don't ask questions, they don't ask for more. They don't show that they have any interest in anything you have to say. So, um in Philammon, uh there's, there's a verse in this letter where Paul says, uh having confidence in thy obedience, I write, I wrote unto thee knowing that thou will also do more than I say. And this is that, that principle that, that um Jesus all fulfilled with what he taught this lady at the Well, um you want to see growth and the reason is that the, when the spirit teaches, which it will, if the door is open, the spirit will teach there's mutual growth and in you, that means you're gonna learn something you didn't know before and in them, you'll see light cleave to light and you'll see that it won't just be your input into the situation that they will do something to um add to that and to, to get um greater light and truth than what you had provided to them. So I'll just give you a silly example of this. If you're talking to a friend and you say, hey, I read this book and I really liked it and it was awesome for all these reasons. If they just kind of stare at you blankly and then say, oh, so tomorrow I'm going to the grocery store and blah, blah, blah and just jump into this completely different, uh, topic, then they have just rejected your invitation, right? Um You don't have to get to the point where you're like, and you should go get a copy of this book too, right? If you just kind of throw out the bait there and they don't go for it, then it's a sign of something and the more extreme the situation, the, the greater the significance of the response, right? So if you say, hey, uh, well, I don't want to get into specifics, but you can imagine, you can imagine iii I don't want to get into specifics because this is a general principle. And if I bust out some specific examples, you might be tempted to limit it to those things. This is how it works in all cases, doesn't matter what the topic is, what the invitation is, who the people are. It doesn't matter. Ok, so what's another way that you can, uh, a approaches like the kool aid man instead of Jesus. Well, you can pay the consequences of their poor choices. Now. It probably just triggered something you say. Oh, but Jesus the atonement, he paid the consequences of our poor choices. Yes. But who does jesus' atonement apply to? Does it apply to all of mankind sort of because everyone will be resurrected? But who will be saved? Only those who obey him? Right? It doesn't apply to anyone else. So um the question here is what improves and it doesn't always improve to pay the consequences of someone. In fact, in most cases, it will hurt them. Those consequences are exposed to the, to their awareness so that they can learn from them. Now, there are situations where it improves to be the consequences of their poor choices. If you have a child who's too young to understand things who's reaching for the hot stove, you need to step in as a parent or an adult and help them avoid that even though they won't understand cause and effect yet. But um much more numerous are the situations where it's unwise to pay the consequences of the poor choices of others. So there's this verse that we should read uh in Mosiah four. Well, a few verses of passage it says, and also ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor, ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need and you will not suffer that the beggar Putte up his petition to you in vain and turn him out to perish. And maybe you're saying now, wait a second, isn't this different than what you're saying? Let's continue reading it says, perhaps thou shalt say the man has brought upon himself his misery. Therefore, I will stay my hand and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer for his punishments are just uh but I said to you, oh man , what, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent and except he repenteth of that which he hath done, he perishes forever. OK. So this is something we want to avoid. But what's actually going on here? It says that the person actually has need. Key number one, a lot of times people will ask for help when they don't actually need help. Um Key number two. Oh and certainly this is not talking about the case where um do you want to help them when they don't, they haven't asked you for help, right? So the beggar put up his petition to you. That's key number 12, he actually has need and three . What's the excuse for not helping him here that we're warned about not using? It's that uh he deserves this, this punishment, right? This doesn't address the the question of improvement. So um a lot of times these situations are necessary for the person to get to the point where they ask for and appreciate help. So, um this does not apply to someone who knows full well what's going to happen when they do something they do it and then they don't bother to ask for help. They just want you to pay the consequences of their actions. Not sure if I'm explaining this as clearly as I should, but it's probably the best I can do right now. So another kool aid man thing to do is to try to give people a life that they have not qualified for in D and C 88 we read they who remain shall also be quickened. Nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place to enjoy what that which they are willing to receive because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received for what doth it profit a man. If a gift is bestowed upon him and he received not the gift behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. And again, verily, I say unto you that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same. This principle is related to the previous one. The purpose of the gospel is not to relieve suffering. Jesus doesn't do what he does to relieve suffering. He does what he does to improve, to benefit there is a massive amount of suffering that is required and that is helpful. And um when we step in to try to give people a shortcut to gospel outcomes, it almost always ends up in anything but improvement. One reason for that is that they won't appreciate what they have. And this isn't just about gratitude uh in some arbitrary way. If you don't comprehend a situation, you can't appreciate it. And if you don't appreciate it, you don't comprehend it. And the gospel is about acquiring knowledge. And if you are just ignorantly spared from consequences, that lie outside of your awareness, you're not actually growing, your suffering can be minimized, but you're not being improved. So I hope I've made a case that it's not good to be the kool aid man in the, in your attempts to help other people. It's much better to follow the savior's attitude. But this has implications on our relationship with God as well . So if you understand that he stands at the door and knocks and he doesn't bust through the wall like the kool aid man and save you in spite of everything you do. Um Then that should inform how you seek him out because maybe you're just sitting around waiting for him to bust through the door and that's not gonna happen. You have to go to him. The best example of this that, that I can think of is in Mark chapter two and Jesus is in this house and people find out where he is and they throng him. Uh so they fill up this house and there's no room to come in. It's standing room only. And a group of people came to him and says, uh they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy which was born of four. So four people were carrying this guy on a bed and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed where in the sick of the palsy lay. So imagine the situation. These, these four guys carrying their friend, they can't get into the house where they know Jesus is. So they climb up on the roof and they bust through the roof. So the point here is that we shouldn't be the kool aid man in sharing the gospel, but we should be the kool aid man in acquiring the gospel. So um whether it's busting through a roof or busting through a wall. If we are aware of sources of greater light and truth, we should stop at nothing until we've acquired what is available to us. We should shake the gates of heaven until they open up to let us in and we shouldn't relent and we should go through any means necessary to acquire great greater light and truth. If um if Jesus ministry was taking place on the earth today as it was in New Testament times. What lengths would you go to, to interact with him? So, would you drive 20 minutes from your house to the next town or city? Would you, uh, well, let's start closer than that. What if we came to your door and knocked? Would you open it and next, would you drive 20 minutes to go see him? Would you hop on a flight and travel cross country? Would you go around the world to get to him? What if you didn't have the convenience of modern transportation? How far would you walk? What if the weather was bad? I don't know if you've ever tried to walk through 2 ft of snow or 3 ft of snow without snowshoes. It's absolutely exhausting and it's cold. Um How far far would you walk in 3 ft of snow without food or water to see Jesus? And if you would do all these things, what about uh people who have light and truth from Jesus? How far would you go to get it? And I'm not uh at all suggesting any kind of idolatry, but these resources exist. And for the most part, we uh are just sitting on our couch waiting for the kool aid man to bust through our wall and it's not going to happen. There are two things that dictate how much like truth you obtain and they are both 100% within your hands. The first is your degree of obedience to what you've been taught. And the second is your degree of effort in obtaining more. And that's the one I'm talking about here. Unless you're like the kool aid man, the amount of light and truth that you obtain in this life will be far less than you could have. And there will be a day when you realize all the and comprehend all the missed opportunities and what you will miss out on because of your laziness. And that for those who fulfill that condition, that will be part of the hell that you have to go through after this life. But there's no reason for that. You can act now and uh obtain a much different life.