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So, um, before I begin, I wanna deeply thank you all for having me here. Uh In just a moment, I intend to say a little bit more about why I'm here. But there are a few bookkeeping things that I need to take care of because I'm almost positive that I'll forget to otherwise. So, you know, that I didn't bring any print books. And um, one of the reasons for that is that they're all available for free in PDF format at upward thought.blogspot.com. You also find at least some of them in audio book form there as well. And then if you wanted a print copy that you don't have to print on your home printer, they are on Amazon and the links are there as well and they're sold at print costs. So I don't get any money from that, but Amazon charges whatever they charge to print it and ship it. And so it doesn't make any sense to bring them because it's the same price. Um Also I wanted to um, just point to uh a new website that, that my two sons that are not here tonight are helping me build, they're doing most of the work, uh it's upward thought.org. And on that site, there are several tools that we have in the works. One of them is a search feature and um some people that will help them find specific topics that they're looking for very quickly cause it'll search all the books, all the blogs and all the videos they're all transcribed with A I. So it's not gonna be perfect. Um It'll also probably give people uh a lot more ease to cherry pick quotes and misrepresent what I say. So that's a mixed blessing , but I don't really care what those people think at this point. Um There's also a donation page if anyone feels so inclined. Um Eventually the content from the blog uh will be brought over there. It's actually there already. Um But there are still some bugs there that we're working through and it's a, it's a labor of love. Sure thing. Yeah. Now, if I put that here, it probably won't be sensitive if I hold it. Yeah. Um If at any point you can't hear me, just throw something at me. Um The last thing I wanna talk about is why here sometimes um the Lord will interrupt the limitations of our discernment , our human discernment and give us access to channels that exceed what our bodily eyes, ears, heart can register. Pinedale is a special place and it's a special place because of the people here. And uh I had to not think so much about it is one of the hard things about greater awareness is you can't turn it off and that's sometimes very good sometimes it's very challenging. So I'm gonna try not to think about it. Uh But just to say, thank you for being those kinds of people. Uh Logistically, this is a lot closer to my house than many other places I might go. Although there aren't tons of places I expect I'd be invited to go. Uh No one here knows what I'm gonna talk about. Although I think Lisa has a clue where I think she has a clue, but I'm not 100% sure uh of, of even having a clue. I myself did not know what I was going to talk about because I thought I was coming to announce a book that I'm about to, to publish. It's supposed to be published already, but I'm running late. I was just working on it some more today. It's been um it's been an overwhelmingly intense focus for quite some time. I won't get into all the details of that. Um Because as I was told to come here and speak, that was the first wave of the message. My presumption was to announce a new book and I can record a talk with a little micro summary and we could post it and be quasi normal about the way we do that. And um so the follow up prayers involved OK. So I'm going to Pinedale, what should I talk about? And immediately in my mind, I'm thinking through the structure of the book. Uh which if you're curious, I will, I will just briefly say, um it's all about connecting every aspect of your life to the overarching purpose, which is to maximize joy. It's a very practical book. It's the first book I've published, I guess it's not published yet, first book I will publish. And probably the last one, it doesn't contain a single scripture is intentionally written to be perfectly accessible to all people as long as they speak English uh and can read it like an eighth grade level. Um So, um there are reasons for that, but one of the reasons this book is needed is because so much of what lies ahead and so much of what is already here requires us to be more than we already are. That's not just an overtly spiritual thing. It's a deeply temporal thing. Now, in the Lord's view, there's no separation between those two things . But that's part of the problem is that in our view, there is and so merging these two things is really important and finding out how to bring how to bring uncommon levels of meaning and value down to every single thing that we do throughout the day in some ways, in many times today, still, it's possible to get through a whole lot of life without that those times are coming to an end and people need greater tools to handle what is to come. So in practical terms, this will take the appearance of um situations that will seem very secular, like being more productive, be more efficient, anticipating problems before they happen, which for most overtly spiritual people, that probably doesn't sound like the most exciting thing. Just like for overtly secular people, the things that excite, overtly spiritual people don't seem like the most exciting thing, but they're all part of the same exact rant up towards the Lord. And it's kind of like healing the breach between the 10 tribes and Judah where we have to integrate these things. Once again, if we want to actually obtain a fullness of what this life is all about that used to be reserved for a select few people who came to earth with a whole lot of equipment for that purpose. We live in a time when it's for everybody, but it's also a time where it's needed by everybody, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Um to close up that, that set of thoughts. I just want to quote uh a verse from John three. This is verse 12, Jesus said to Nicodemus, if I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe? If I tell you heavenly things, you'll see. If you reread the gospels, you'll see that John the Baptist, for example, he aimed his invitations toward improvement. He aimed them, um He aimed them in the full context of what the person's life was when he was making straight the paths. I don't wanna, this actually overlaps with a little bit of where we're going to get. It was a question of looking at a person's whole life and thinking about any piece of it that might more closely align with what the Lord would do in that person's place . You can absolutely rest assured that a great deal of what the Lord would do in our place would be in categories we consider to be secular. If you were here right here right now, he would not be constrained to this room or to the chapel, wherever that building is. I've been there before. I can't even point to it. I don't know where we are, but uh interesting to come here, a person speak and presumably give guidance and they literally have no idea where they are. That's a miracle for you, I guess, ok, one more thing that might seem out of place. But isn't I talked a little bit about why here? Short answer, God told me long answer. Look in the mirror. That's actually not long but same answer in a different way. But why now um most of these notes are loose notes, some of them I'm going to read and I hope that's OK. Dates are very important to God. And I don't know if you know what today is anybody know my brother's birthday, it's an important day. It's Passover. Passover. Ok. But in the Hebrew calendar and I apologize, I'm probably mispronouncing this. Um, I spend more time reading Hebrew than speaking. The speaking is zero. Today is the 15th of uh, is it Nissan? Nissan? Does anyone even know Nissan is the car? That's what I think of, but it is also a month in the Hebrew calendar. Dates in the Lord's way of doing things. They're a wonderful example of a property that you'll see all over the place. It's tension between two things that seem conflicting. Do you know what I mean by that? So two things pulling at each other and like a bridge with a rope tied at either end, tension on both ends is pretty important. If you cut the one end, it's like an Indiana Jones movie, the bridge falls down and it's big trouble, right? You need tension at both ends. In this case, the general principle is that the Lord is amazingly exact and he's also amazingly fuzzy. Now, when I say fuzzy, I don't mean like my beard. OK. I mean non-specific. Now, um if we have more time and in a white board and if this is the focal point of the talk, we could go deeply into this and it's really important. But one of the ways we can become more like him is to learn to live in both of those spaces at the same exact time. That's probably all pretty foreign set of ideas. And that's ok if it's just sort of seems extraneous. But if, if we want to understand God more than we do, we have to get better at being like he is, some people are usually better at one of those than the other. The fuzziness or the exactness. You probably can think of an example of an archetypal person that, you know, that's one or the other, a very exacting person, a very fuzzy person, fuzzy person. You go in the garage, nothing's put away, you know, they know where everything is somehow, but it just seems like craziness, right? And an exacting person is like the outline on the peg board, right? These two, it's like oil and water. You're not gonna find both of the same person, but God is both of those at the same time. OK? So, and we need to be like that . And so the application of this with dates, I'm about to tell you a lot about today, the 15th of Nissan. But I'm also gonna tell you how it's fuzzy. It's an exact day, but it's also fuzzy. Um Before we get to that, I just wanna give maybe an example from another approach here because this principle is also in play with the way that God uses language. So um English is not the Lord's native language but and that's probably not surprising right to anyone here, but neither is Hebrew. Hebrew is not the Adamic language is not the language of the spirit. That's maybe a new idea and maybe an idea that not everyone will agree with. That's OK. So what does the Lord do? Uh in second Nephi 31 3 says, Nephi says, for my soul delighted in plainness for after this manner. Doth the Lord God work among the Children of men. For the Lord giveth light unto the understanding for He speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding. Now, language, I'm gonna try not to get off the deep end in any topics that I'm not trying to get off the deep end on tonight. Language is a big idea because it's not just words, it's ideas. The words are just the containers for the ideas, right? So when you see in the scriptures, references like this about people's language like Enes is talking about the language of his father. He's not talking about Hebrew, he's talking about the set of ideas that his father has about. What about everything about reality? Everything? OK. So when the Lord wants to explain something to you, does does anyone know a second language here? A couple of people maybe have tried to learn a little? Yeah. So um when you're learning a new language, you start with a very limited vocabulary, just the specific words you've learned and you try so hard to say everything you're thinking using like 15 words that you know, it doesn't go, well, there's a lot of hand gesturing. Now, if you're learning Italian, that's ok. Right. And that's part of the language, you just roll with that. But with other languages it's not really good. Uh, a good substitute for a wider vocabulary. So, what would the Lord do if he had to teach you something? And he could only use 15 words? Well, he would break it down as much as he could to fit into those 15 words, right? So because this is God, he's not just limited to words. He can give you experiences. He can give you feelings, right? And there's a whole host of other tools he has, but he has to use, he has to work according to our limitations. I don't mean have to like he's constrained by them, but his goal is our greatest benefit and just like any one of you who are parents to your Children, you're gonna do whatever you can within the limits of their constraints to do the best you can for them, right? We're very well versed in this. But then when we start talking about God, we forget that He is our father and that a lot of the things work in the same ways, right? So what he says to you might be coming from the same, let's say, transcendent understanding of all things that He has. But he has to say in a certain way for you to get as much as you can for someone else, they might be able to get more or less, they might use different words. It's the same God, it's all operating from the same source, right? So how is this related to the fuzzy and the specific when you're trying to communicate something? Just coming back to this example? In 15 words, you have to be really fuzzy. You can't, you can't describe, uh, I've spent a lot of time in my life writing programs, programs are mathematically precise. Computers don't fill in blanks. They just do what they're told . It'd be nice. Like sometimes you take a computer, you rub it on a kid and hope some of it rubs off. They just do what they're told. They don't do anything crazy. They just follow the instructions. But what happens when you give a child fuzzy instructions? They do whatever they fill the lights because that's humans. We're good at filling in the Blakes. But are they going to fill them in, in the way you want? Probably not. So this is the tension with language is the fuzziness allows us to do more, more situations, right? Handle more situations in spite of our limits that comes at a cost which is precision . So we're not going to have the exact right idea about things. That's ok. All right. So back to dates. Um, there is a calendar that was given through Moses and here we are many years after that Oh, I'm sorry. The title of this talk is Passover, past Present and Future and it didn't hold at the top, but I just jumped right in and that is where we're going just so, you know, I should have told you that at the beginning. Um So this calendar existed since the time of Moses. Um And many people on the earth today still follow that calendar more or less. So they think because even though it's a precise calendar with specific days ordained for specific reasons and even though I didn't cite them here, but they are scriptures, they talk about how the the Lord uses um celestial objects, but the sun moon and stars to mark out times and seasons for things. It's all part of his divine clock. Clocks are very precise and some of you has anyone in here not seen an analog clock, you know, something with gears instead of digits, it's ok. Don't be ashamed. Ok. So most clocks until very recently had gears in them gears are not fuzzy, they're precise. We could take this a lot further. So don't zoom in too close to this idea, but which is an example of being exact and fuzzy at the same time, right? Um But when you're dealing with gears, they're, they are what they are and when they roll into the teeth and the gaps, that's the new state, right? And even with the planets, God has a system and the whole thing works like a, like AAA celestial clock and all that being said, the precision of the dates, the ordination to certain things, the fact that it's a big moving clock or whatever, there's still fuzziness. What's that fuzziness? I don't believe that there's a single person on earth that has uh been able to map precisely the ancient dates till today. I say that knowing of at least a few specific people who have tried and made a valiant attempt and maybe think that they have. But we know that so much has changed with how the Jews account for time and adjustments that have been made. It's really hard to believe that that's been preserved accurately. Now, it was preserved accurately, of course, during the life of Moses and in subsequent generations. But with the passing of events including going into exile and in one case, not coming back, it's pretty tricky to reconstruct all that through time. Notwithstanding that fact that fuzziness God still operates with precision according to the limits of our understanding. I hope you see how this wraps together. At least a little. Maybe here are things according to shabbat.org, which is a website that I'm probably horrifically mispronouncing of orthodox Jews. This is according to them, what has happened on this date. Now, when I see things like this, I usually I try to take the time to go back to the scriptures because certain things, it'll say what the exact date was in the 15th day of the third month, whatever you've seen that all over the place. Right. It's like , my goodness, it's like it came to pass. Let's just skip over this. It's in there for a reason. It's in there for a reason. So some of these things may well say explicitly in the scriptures that they happen on this day. I haven't gone over this list. I'm just sharing what was on the website. Some of them are the traditions of the um rabbis and they may or may not be true. But here's the list not given with any editorial organization for me about what happened on this date. OK. Ready Abraham reclaimed Sodom from the kings that had taken a captive, including his his uh nephew lot. But do you remember that went out to battle with the kings? Got the people back. Abraham redeemed sodom. I would like to say an awful lot about that event and maybe one day I will. But you read about that in Genesis 1415 and 16 according to these people. It's also the day on which God made a covenant with Abraham, he gave him the promised land and he told him all about how his descendants would be taken captive, taken into Egypt for hundreds of years and then brought back through a redeemer. So you read about that in Genesis 1513 through 18. It's also the day that Abraham received the three messengers. And what was the message. So let's go that Sarah would have a child. So these three messengers were the one were the ones who were announcing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So this is for earlier, this, this, this one is, I don't have the reference, but these are not in chronological order. Um It's, but that was in the message as well because one year later on the same day, if I'm not mistaken, uh Isaac was born on the same day. This is the birthday of Isaac. According to this source, it's also the day that Jacob wrestled with an angel and obtained a blessing from the Lord. And I'm telling that like it appears in the scriptures. Uh not according to what I've seen about that, but we'll go with that. It's also the day is this amazing. We're not even done yet, right? Wait, there's more OK. It's also the day Moses spoke with God in the burning bush. It's also the day in this one. We know that Israel. It's, it's the Passover. It's the day that, that they did the Passover for the first time, which was when they began the 50 day trip to Mount Sinai. And very important things happened there. The last one is, they also say that it's the day that Daniel was cast into the lion's den. Now, if half of these are right , let me ask you, do you think that this is an important day to God it is how many of those events had to do with what people today understand to be the Passover. Just one were the others any less important? We can get subjective there. But let's not, let's keep it fuzzy learning is what we've learned . They're obviously very important. OK. But I didn't know that all these things allegedly happened today until I looked up this list and you probably didn't know either. So eventually I'm just putting the cards on the table. What we're going to do is think about Passover and its significance and then think about what happened before, what we regard as Passover on this day and think about what happened after. And although I'm sure it seems like I'm being very long winded. I am not going to go through each of these and do that explicitly for the sake of time. But any of us could look into that further many times what we understand about something and this is true in all things, but you can apply it specifically to spiritual things. What we understand about something you can think about it is a grape on a vine cluster of grapes. Let's go with the cluster grapes on a vine and we act as if that cluster is everything that there is. But if you've looked at a grape line, there are things that come above it and things that come below it, right? So in like fashion, if you really wanna understand something often it's not enough to just think about the thing. You have to both think about the thing on a higher level or whatever it connects to and the thing on a lower level and whatever it connects to, you can also look side to side laterally. And when you get the bigger picture, you'll understand more to fill in the gaps. So I mentioned just as a very quick example that when the passover happened, it it began the 50 day trip to Mount Sinai. 50 is a very important number. There are several numbers that are very important. That's one of them. If you wanna understand one thing that involves a 50 in the scriptures, I'm not saying every single time there's a 50 in the scriptures is like 1st 50. Rob said, therefore , it's important, right? It's like in my tash, we got DD and D Don's donkey did this. OK? Maybe it's not so important in this case. But in the text, when I was talking about a 50 it happens to be important. If you want to understand more about it, go look up all the other fifties and think about what is the transcendental thing? Looking at all these specific things, what are the lateral connections, right? And it becomes like that meme of that guy smoking with the red yarn everywhere. It's a conspiracy theory guy and he's like, I got it all figured out 50. But what you're doing is you're learning a language and the language is not English. 50 is a word, an idea in God's language. So is 10. So it's seven, so is three. So it is 14 and we could go on and those are just the numbers, right? It's like divine Sesame Street. But yeah, there's old enough people in here. You get that. Ha ha ha. 10 ha ha ha. Um But there are ideas that are like the numbers. So we can think of the numbers because we all see numbers. They're simple little things. But think of a big old idea that could be condensed down into like a phrase like they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings again Zion or how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet dot dot dot You see these things all the time in the scriptures, but do you know what they mean? Because it's not the words, it's the idea that links to that matters, the words matter too. But if you want to understand what the words mean, you gotta go up down side to side . So let's think about the Passover by going up. One of the amazing thing about being ministered to by angels is that one would think that it has to consist of some amazing thing and it does, we're gonna be fuzzy and it does, but it also sometimes doesn't because very often when angels come to visit you, all they do is read scripture to you. And you say thank you very much. No one's actually gonna say this. I hope, thank you very much. I could have done that myself because I have those scriptures. I could read them. Now, we have some of these encounters in the scriptures, don't we? You can read about this. You don't take my word for it and make uh angels come or the Lord himself comes and they read scriptures and then they leave and do. They add much? Sometimes they do but sometimes they don't. What did they contribute? It's a mystery, huh? They did add something. So when someone speaks sincerely , I, I have to think about how to say this. There are certain gateways that increase the flow of the holy ghost that entail the presence of a person. Now I'm using person very loosely. I don't care if you'd like to think about a glorified angel dropping out of heaven, this resurrected being or someone who hasn't been born yet or someone who's dead, whatever, all the above or a person like us here more. It, it, it applies to all of these things. We are all as Children of God. We have the birthright, the potential to be conduits of God's light. Do you believe that? So when you say the same words that are in the scriptures, there will be an addition or subtraction to or from the words on the page because one Conduit is the written word. It's there for everyone to read the other conduit is you. So when a man speaks by the power of the holy ghost, the holy ghost carries it into the hearts of the Hearers , right? There's a lot woven into that. So if Jesus showed up like he did to the knee fights and just talked and talked, read and read and read from the scriptures, he was producing them from memory or whatever he has. That's like that he wasn't reading them, but he was repeating what the scriptures they had said. Do you think that any one of them went home? Said, man, why we even go? All he did was read the scriptures. We've got those already. Not. What? Why? Because it was different. I have experienced many times many times where the message was scripture, scripture, scripture, scripture scripture and maybe the only addition was I really meant that just like it's written, I repented of my sins for real. When a human being just like us said, literally when it says, we have to stop sinning is really what it means. You can do that. The Holy Ghost carried that into my heart and I knew it was true . I saw or felt or whatever the right word is. All the times when I had chosen to disobey God and I knew I didn't have to do that. And I saw all the times he tried to tell me this and it broke my heart. But Jesus has done this with me and Angels have too. So I'm not gonna do that to you though. I'm going to read and try to add a bit. Most of what I'm adding is just the structure of what I've already given you that you thought was just the ramblings of a very tired man and they were fuzzy, but maybe it'll connect up a little bit first. I wanna talk to you about blood. This is a very big topic and we're only going to scratch the surface of one little edge. So in the Passover, there's blood. Where does it come from? A lamb? So in the Passover under the law of Moses, you kill a sheep, you paint the door frame with the blood. Why? Because on that night, the first born was going to be killed of every house that didn't have that blood on the door frame. They believed because they were told that that blood would save them from death. The death of their first born. What is the blood? Well, one way of thinking about it, his reconciling your life to Christ as far as you understand him to be. Now before saying that, I think that I was probably the only person on this planet who would say what is the blood, this is what the blood is. It's reconciling your life to Christ as far as you understand him to be. But I hope that by the end of this talk, some people might agree with me as unrelated as that might sound , maybe it doesn't sound unrelated. Maybe we're done here and I just had to say that and we're good, but I'll keep going because I printed these papers so I may as well use them in John Six. I would like to read to you verses 53 through 60. And I'll just note here if you're going over this at some point in the future, or you really know your scriptures and you find that I've left out a verse that was intentional. I'm just trying to pare these things down. I haven't changed any words, but sometimes I'll leave out a verse just for brevity. So now that you see that I've, I've said it, we're good. Then Jesus said unto them verily verily, I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. And this is after he had miraculously fed a bunch of people and they got all excited about free food because who isn't excited about free food? And then he said no , but there's more to it than this. This is just a shit. It's a free sample. It's like the Chinese place at the mall free sample. The real thing is me and, and the game here is you actually have to learn what I'm like and live that way yourself. Now, when people read this, they think that what I'm about to read to you that the reason people were offended was because he said drink my blood and eat my flesh. These were idioms that were fully understood by the people he was speaking to. There was no mystery that that was not literally what he meant. And you can read the context for clues to that. I think it's more than clues. But whoso eateth my flesh and drink my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat. Indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and bringeth my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. That's not because you eat a magical thing and you drink a magical thing and it magically makes you one with him. It's that the figurative eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood. It means to dwell in him and him and you how by doing what he would do in your place by thinking, feeling all of it as the living father hath sent me and I live by the father. So he that eateth me even he shall live by me. He wasn't saying I literally eat the father's flesh. He's saying just like I do. And you'll find reference about uh uh references about this all over John. He says, I do, I follow the example the father has shown me and you need to do the same thing with my example, many therefore of his disciples. Here's the response when they had heard this said, this isn't hard saying who can hear it. And later we read, many of his disciples turned away from him at that point. He was becoming very popular. So the hard message was no, this isn't about free loads of fishes, folks. That's evidence that I have something greater to give you. Here we go from 35 1132. This is a chain of scriptures that we're gonna go through here. The Lord said, this is my doctrine and is the doctrine which the father hath given unto me. And I'm just gonna pause there when you start reading this language. What do you think of? Is there an ordinance that you think of? A lot of people started thinking, oh, baptism, this is my doctrine, baptism. Maybe someone in here, maybe not. Well, good for you, if not, that's great. This is my doctrine and it is the doctrine which the Father hath hath given unto me. And I bear record of the father and the father beareth record of me and the holy ghost, bear record of the father and me and I bear record that the father commande all men everywhere to repent and believe in me. Now, we can quote the scripture all day long and the scriptures like it. And when people go out and try to preach the gospel, they do so the invitation usually is come to church, do churchy things, get baptized, continue to do churchy things thereafter, right? Have you ever heard a missionary come and say Jesus is like this. We need to be like this too. And that is his doctrine. He came to demonstrate the father. And by learning what he is like, we learn what the father is like and by doing what we learn, we become like him and that is eternal life. Well, you've heard it today, but you'll also hear it if you read the scriptures because that's what they all say . Every single servant of God in the scriptures taught that message if you have enough of what they said this again. But read the book of John for instance, read the the surveys of the book of Mormon prophets, especially Elma, the younger Mormon 710. And ye will also know that you're the remnant of the seed of Jacob. Therefore, you are numbered among the people of the first covenant. And if it so be that you believe in Christ and are baptized first with water, then with fire and with the Holy ghost, which I'd love to tell you about that following the example of our savior in the military. Is there anyone here served in the military in my tenure? They really wanted you to pass the tests. Sometimes it wasn't too easy for some people to do that. So when they were teaching the classes, the teacher knew that what they were saying was gonna be on the test, they stomped their feet. We were usually in some kind of trailer. It was very audible. So I'm reading that I should have done this before and I'm not trying to make light of something that's obviously very serious. Ok. But you get to the baptized water fire. Holy Ghost. This is on the greatest hits. We know the song right following the example of our savior in what and being baptized? Yes. Was that the first day of jesus' life? You know the paintings or he's this cute little Cherubic baby with the hand gestures and he just shows up at John's baptism. No, he followed the commandments from the day he was born. Which commandments. Good question . But let's not go there following the example of our savior according to that which he commanded us, right? The message when people come and read scriptures to you who are on a mission from God to do. So is usually that means exactly what it says, right? Following the example of our savior, according to that, which he hath commanded us means do what you believe that Jesus would do in your place, the commandments. He has commanded you. It literally says that right there, right? And in our minds, we go oh well, that just means get baptized. No, that's a cherry on top of the sundae. Oh Those are good to eat without a sundae. But this, you need the sun. OK. Baptism is important, exact, this is you'll find other scriptures to talk about the exactness of obedience to God. And baptism is an example of this. And also it is yet another commandment from God. Do you see? It's a crowning thing on, on one hand and it's also exactly like all the other things on the other. And if you don't do all the other things, that one doesn't mean anything, Joseph Smith said that uh you baptize you may as well baptize a bag of sand rather than just if all you're gonna do is baptize someone with water and not give the gift of the Holy ghost. Remember that one? Well, I'll give you one that's just as important. You may as well baptize a bag of sand. If all you're doing is baptizing people that don't keep God's commandments. The ordinance means nothing until they do literally worse than nothing because you're certifying your obedience while being disobedient. 35 27 21. This is the Lord speaking verily verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel and ye know the things that you must do in my church for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do for that, which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do? If you gave me a Denny's place mat and a box of crayons, I couldn't write it out any clearer, right? But we just wipe right through that one and think of it. It's about what the church is called when we ask God dumb questions, which we do all the time. We can't help it. Right. He's so graceful that he hears our dumb questions. He's like, OK, but this is what you would have asked me if you weren't a doofus. So what I'm gonna do is this judo trick where I answer the question you asked me and you'll feel like I'm answering the question, you asked me because I, I will, I'll answer it, but I'm gonna do it in a way where I also give you the answer of what you should have asked about. Instead. Go and read what the book of Mormon missionaries did when their folks, the kings and such that they were teaching among the Lamanites asked them stupid questions. They just judo maneuvered it into what they should have been asking. They answered the question, but they also told them what they should have been asking about because the gateway is our desire. That's the window we have, we have to work in that, right? You all came here for something. I hope God gives you that something, whatever it is, I sincerely pray that and I hope it gives you what you should have asked for instead. And maybe those are the same thing which would be great. They could be. I'm not saying that they're not, but we read what father is there. Who when asked for bread, gives them a stone? Father in heaven does that, that's what Father does. That this is flipping this on its head, isn't it? It's a different, different um twist on this scripture. He's gonna give you the stone first because the stone is better. Jesus gave loaves and fishes. He's the bread of life. He's also the rock. If I gave you the choice, it's like give a man fish or teach him to fish, right? If I gave you the choice of standing on the rock or giving you bread, which would you pick? If you're smart, you'd stand on the rock. Why do we read in Matthew? Seek ye first? The Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Not what you want, not your righteousness, his righteousness , what he wants and then what all things will be added unto you? What happens if you invert that and you first seek the thing you really want right now. Uh The rock. Yeah. Give me the breath Esau, I'm hungry right now. So it all ties together. You're on your batteries. Went down on you. You're loud. Oh, thanks. And here I thought I was magnifying my color. Thank you. Um I was getting comfortable like that. I feel, I feel naked now. If you'd like to, we can do that. I'll get, I'll get a drink in the meantime. Ok. So we read 35 27 21. 35 1824. Also the Lord speaking, he says, therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold, I am the light which he shall hold up, that which ye have seen me do pretty clear right now. This is not a new pattern. It's as I said before, it's a pattern. Jesus himself followed. He showed us the way he did the same thing. He learned what the father was like and he lived that way. That's so he's not just telling us to do something. He did it first and now he's saying you do this too. Uh This is from John 826 through 29. I have many things to say and to judge of you. But he that sent me is true and I speak to the world, those things which I have heard of him. I do nothing of myself. But as my father hath taught me, I speak those things, these things and he that sent me is with me. The father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please him. Now, I wish we had time to read many other examples of the same idea or even to dive deeper into that particular verse. Maybe I'll just highlight a little tiny piece of this when he says he that sent me is with me. The father hath not left me alone for. I do always those things that please him. Do you understand what he's saying? Why is he not alone because the father is with him? But how, how is the father with him? Four? Because I do always those things that please him in John 15, this is in all my notes intercessory prayer. He he speaks about being one with the father, the father and him and we can be one with them both. How was Jesus one with the father? How was the father with him? Because he did everything the father would do in his place. If I said the Lord be with you, you might think, oh, he's gonna pop out of heaven and literally stand by your side. He could, he does that sort of thing. But it is also just as true if you know what he would do in your place and you do it, whether he is literally there or not by my voice or the voice of my servants. It is the same, you know that one that's blood. Now let's talk about the door. They painted the door sweet. Thank you. Perfect times. Test siblings. OK? The door here are three verses from John 10. I'm gonna read verse seven, verse two and then verse nine and in case it's been a while since you've been in a math class, those are not in order, but that's OK. Um verse seven then said Jesus unto them again, verily verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. We got a lamb that pass over in a door frame. This is like, you know, the puzzles where you put the square peg in the square, the circle in the circle, there's two holes. We got the pegs puzzle solved, right? John 10 2. But he that entered in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. That one we're going to come back to verse nine. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture again. I'd love to just spend a whole ton of time on John chapter 10. We're not gonna do that. He truly is the way of life. If the door's been painted with the blood, it means something more than a door that's not painted with the blood right now. We can get into some fancy words and ideas from other faith groups. Talk about transubstantiation, stuff like that is the door frame gonna literally turn into Jesus when you paint it with the blood. What do we just talk about? How was Jesus? Not alone was the father invisible to everyone else just walking by Jesus side the whole time maybe. But whatever the mechanism was, Jesus somehow knew what the father would do in his place and he did it because of that. The door was painted with the blood. It became a different door. He became the door to what, what is the door that he, the shepherd of the sheep entered into this is father's door. He followed the example of his father and he turned into the door. There's this idea of shepherds and sheep and it's a little weird. We got to get a little fuzzy, but then it makes sense. What makes, I mean, get ahead of myself a little bit. What makes you a lamb of Jesus? Is that you hear, recognize and follow his voice, right? Hopefully that's not too earth shatteringly new an idea, right? His voice is a father's voice because he says everything the father would in his place. When he followed the father's voice, he became a good shepherd . What happens when we follow his voice? Do you remember what he said to Peter said three times said feed my sheep. If you love me, feed my sheep, do sheep feed other sheep? That'd be a little weird. That sounds like some weird cartoon sheep. Don't feed other sheep shepherds, feed sheep. What was Peter's final act in life? Gave his life to feed the sheep. What does John say about the good she or or what does Jesus say about the good shepherd? He gives his life for the sheep. You can give your life through dying for cause you can give your life through living for a cost. In revelation 13 8, it says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. So speaking of a future date whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world specifically is talking, it's distinguishing between people that will receive the mark of the beast and the people that won't says the people that won't are those whose names are not written in the book of the li of Life of the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the world. What is the Book of Life of the Land Slain? From the foundation of the world? Just hold on to that question. Remember we're on the door. That's you're here . How many names are written in that book? So in typical thinking, there's some giant book somewhere. It's like Santa Claus's list of good people, right? And everybody who has their name written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be saved or whatever word you want to use or just keeping it fuzzy. How many names are actually written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Don't, don't guess just hold the question because we don't have to guess. I'll tell you the answer and then we'll go to the scriptures. There's one name and what name is it? It's Jesus Christ. I hope that little electrical jolts are going into your understanding of all these verses that you've read a million times. We're gonna hit some of them here. Revelation 2127 speaks of God's Kingdom and it says, and there shall in no wise enter into it. Anything that defile, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie. But they, which are written in the Lamb's book of Life. What does it take to walk through the door? The blood of the lamb? Yes. Where on you? Yeah. Yes. That's step one to wash away your sins. But where else eat my flesh and drink my blood. If you drink his blood, you're not wiping it on you. Where is it going? We've got some medical professionals in the house. I think we need some help. If you drink something, where does it go inside? Inside? Ok. There are Sentinels that stand at gates in heaven and heaven. There are gates. Do you know how you get past those gates? It's not knowing secret handshakes or memorized words. It turns out it's by being like Christ. Um There's an award in in the US military called the Purple Heart. You get it today for being wounded in combat. So the the source of this award, it started actually during um the tenure of General George Washington, he's the one that created this award back then. It worked a little differently. You would get it for outstanding bravery. It wasn't for getting wounded. It was for being exceptionally courageous in battle. One of the privileges of this award and it was actually the principal privilege was you could walk by Sentinels without being challenged. There's passwords and things in the military, there's a passphrase that will come out regularly. So that enemies don't enter into the camp. And so a sentry will be posted and you come up and they'll challenge you. They'll say some weird thing like that. The owl flies at night and you have to say in the bat's crazy or whatever it is. If you had the purple heart, you walked right through the gate. God has a funny way of echoing his truth through his creation. I mean, it's pretty intentionally designed that way because he works according to our understanding, he'll explain it to us however we can receive it. Ok, John , back to John 10, we're gonna read 23 and four. But he that entered in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So now we're gonna read about how Jesus became the shepherd. He that enter in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep whose door, the father's door to him, the porter oth who's the porter , the father? He opened the gate, Jesus came in and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name. So the shepherd comes through the door, he calls them by his own name. What a weird thing. If I were a shepherd and I had a bunch of sheep and I went in my field and said, Rob, come here, Rob and all my sheep come over. That's pretty weird, isn't it? You call the, the sheep by their name because sheep will know their, they can learn their name and they'll come when you call their name, if they're trained that way, what a weird thing to call them in your own name. But his sheep hear his voice. So I'll leave it to you to think about what it means. Uh, what the, the deeper meanings of this, taking it further. He call his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. Where, where does he lead them out to? And when he put forth his own sheep, read Jacob Five. That's where this is talked about . He calls his sheep in his own name and he leads them out to hear. He said, let us go down and they come down to nourish the vineyard for one last time. And when he put forth his own sheep by being born here he goes before them. Has he gone before them already? Yes, he has. He lived and died. What did he do? Demonstrated what the father was like in ways that no one else could have learned. He goes before them and the sheep follow him. I have no idea where we are. You know how I got to this building. I followed Lisa when she turned right. I don't even know what turns we made. I was just not taking it when she turned right. I turned right. When she turned left, I turned left. When she drove straight, I drove straight to the point she pulled out front and I didn't even know where to park. I pulled up beside, I said, where do I park if I turn? Right? When the person I'm following turns left, am I following them? No, all of us are bright enough to figure this out because otherwise we would never get to any place yet. When we start talking about the Lord, we come up with these funky definitions of words, right? DNC 1821 through 25 take upon you the name of Christ and speak the truth in soberness . And as many as repentant are baptized in my name, which is Jesus Christ and endure to the end, the same shall be saved. Pause. You probably can imagine what it's like to get baptized in water probably happened before. How do you get baptized in a name? How do you get immersed in a name? What is the name? What is the name of Christ in our scriptures in English? It's the words Jesus and Christ. But Jesus was a common name in his day. That'd be like calling somebody, Rob. Tons of people have the name Rob. It's not a unique identifier. In fact, they had uh far fewer names back then. And so it would be even less unique. What does Christ mean? It's just, and I'm doing air quotes for the benefit of the recording just means anointed, anointed of the Lord. Do you know how many people were anointed of the Lord in the scriptures? Every single king in Israel was anointed of the Lord. Every single one of them could have been called Messiah. Would have been completely correct. Now, obviously, that's not what we mean when we say the word. But I point this out because we think that Jesus Christ is a unique identifier. It's not, it's a placeholder for a character. I don't mean like a cartoon character, I mean, um, a person, a set of an individual with a specific set of traits, of knowledge of qualities, right? And we use this tag Jesus Christ. We know who we're talking about. What does it mean to take upon you? His name? It's not like you can get a sharpie out and write Jesus Christ on you. That's not what that means. What does it mean to be baptized in someone's name? Think of an apprentice. That's a good thing to think about. When you apprentice someone, you immerse yourself. When you learn a foreign language, you can go to the country and it's all that's spoken. You will begin to think and dream in the foreign language. It replaces your former way of being. So continuing here. As many as repent, I'll reread, I'll just reread from the beginning verse 21. Take upon you the name of Christ and speak the truth in soberness in as many as repent and are baptized in my name, which is Jesus Christ and endure to the end, the same shall be saved to be saved is to learn more about what Jesus is like to live up to what you know, to endure to the end is to keep doing that as you learn more because he will teach you more. The second you live up to what you know, he will send you more. Behold, Jesus Christ is the name which is given of the father and there is none other name given whereby man can be saved. How many names are there in the book of Life? There's one now legal footnote on that comment for the sake of comple competition here. If each of us wrote a book, fully containing everything we understand Jesus to be like right now, would it be the same book? We wrote a biography on Jesus? It would not be the same book and it would differ in more than just the words we use. Like maybe you don't use the word appellate, just random word popped into my head. I don't know that I've ever used that word before today. Appellate. It's a real word, but maybe you choose to use that in your book and I don't choose it. That's not the limit of the difference. You might think Jesus was a fisherman. He was, here's a stonemason, but that might be accurate for your current understanding. You might have reasons to believe that that are sufficient, given what you've seen and I have my reasons so we could hash those out. There'd be differences. Well, that's just factual. It really isn't, but I assure you that there are differences that we could talk about that we would agree are material. So how many names are there in the Lamb's Book of Life? Well, this is where according to your sincere understanding comes in, we could get much deeper into this. Ok. We really don't have to right now. Just in this room, we have a perfect example of this with and it's an analogy with your knowledge of me. Some of, you know, me, just from the last however many minutes we've been here, some of you, I've been in your house several times. Ok. Some of you have been in your house one time, right? Do you see how different people are gonna have different ideas about my character, my nature, my story, whatever my mode of dress, this is not how I dress normally. Ok. So that's how it's one name, the different levels of understanding, but the key is to be reconciled to what you sincerely believe. That's the key. Do you think that any of us is ever going to know Jesus the same way the father does in this life. We're not going to have the experiences that you need to have to be able to do that sidestepping. So like enormous things. Um, ok, for in that name, they shall be called it the last day. We just read this about the sheep and it was so weird. Right? But when you read it here, you probably never raised any alarms if you imagine a sheep, a sh a shepherd calling his sheep by his own name. It's the weirdest thing to think about. But yet this scripture says all men must take upon them the name which is given of the father for in that name, they shall be called it the last day. The the porter is literally gonna call the name Jesus Christ, whatever that means to call that name and those that recognize and respond to it are the ones who will have eternal life wherefore if they know not the name by which they are called, they cannot have place in the kingdom of my father. And knowing that name is not being able to spell Jesus Christ 35 27 5. We're almost through this section. Have they not read the scriptures which say you must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name by this name. Shall you be called it the last day, Mosiah 58 through 10. And under this head, you are made free and there is no other head whereby you can be made free . There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh. Therefore, I would that ye should take upon you, the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God, that you should be obedient until the end of your lives and it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God for He shall know the name by which He is called for. He shall be called by the name of Christ. And now it came to pass that whosoever shall not take upon him, the name of Christ must be called by some other name. Therefore, he find himself on the left hand of God. Next component is the messenger to, to get into this. Oh boy, I'm gonna have to shorten this section. It's OK. Take all the time. That's dangerous. If anyone needs to go, I will not be offended. Um I need to take a little side job and I'll bring it back into the idea of seeking and receiving. When you ask God for something , you probably think you're asking God for something, right? Is a is a good sign. No one knows whether when to laugh or not to laugh. That's a good thing I think. Um and you are, there's nothing incorrect about that idea, but let me read to you a funny scripture. John, the Baptist said in John 327 a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. Now, does that mean? Well, let's think about John, how did he, what, what were the, the chain of events that led to him? Recognizing the savior? This is his mission was to identify the Lord. That could be a long answer, but we'll keep it short . He was to go and do something which is preach repentance and baptize people. And God told him through an angel that the sign of the dove would come and land on the person who was the same, that was the sign given. So when it happened, he said this is the guy, right? Did John go looking for Jesus? No , he responded to Jesus. Did, did John go and find Jesus and say, hey, you're the messiah God told me you're the messiah. That's not the way it happened. This was the most important thing that any person. Well, I don't want to take that too far. Let's keep it fuzzy. This was a very important task, right ? Why leave it to a response because it matters, it matters. We think of asking and receiving from God as seeking things and then literally, you know, they come and we respond to that. I'm sorry, I'm mixing my own paradigm here that we ask and then we will receive but seeking and finding very often is a question of responding to what God does. And a lot of the seeking is really just about our our opening our own eyes to it. Jesus was going to come whether John was there or not. OK. But God arranged for John to be there and to respond to this and basically pass it on, pass that information on to other people who are not equipped to do the same thing when you ask for things from God, I'm trying to sidestep some pretty big philosophical issues here. Try to think about it in terms of what you're going to do differently because you're asking the principal part of which might be opening your eyes to something you wouldn't have looked at or received or considered before. I have a friend right now who's struggling to find a job in his field and since it's been a few weeks since he thought he was gonna get a job, guess what he's starting to do, look at jobs he would not have looked at before. Wider net, maybe different pay scales, whatever different locations. This is how it works more often than not, not always, but typically why does this matter for many reasons? But specifically in Jacob 410, we read wherefore brethren seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand for behold ye yourselves know that he cole in wisdom and injustice and in great mercy over all his works. You know what the best thing to ask from God is? That's, that's a big, that's a big statement. Ask him to send what he would ask for. Now, you can learn an awful lot about what he would ask for and that's the demonstration of faith if you read the scriptures, but that's the safest thing to ask for, you know what he says. And John, I don't have the reference in front of me. He says, Hitherto, you have asked nothing in my name. He's talking to the apostles. It's a funny thing to say at the end of a three year ministry where they have factually asked him many things hitherto. You have asked nothing in my name. But then he says, there will come a day where what you ask is so similar to what I ask that the father will give it to you for the same reasons. He would give it to me and I'm paraphrasing obviously here. But what immense promise do you want to remove every barrier between you and God's power in your life? You learn what He's like and you desire the same things he desires. You say the same things he would say. You do the same things he would do for all the same reasons. There will, there will be zero barrier between you and Him if you manage to do that. All right. Um I'm gonna skip over a little bit here. Uh Despise not the revelations of God, Jacob 48. Why? Because no man knoweth of his ways. Save it. Be revealed to Him. You catch that. You're not gonna figure it out yourself. He's gonna give it to you, but he's merciful enough to let you believe that you have an awful lot to do with it when really like the principal way you have something to do with it is getting out of his way, right? So what does any of this have to do with the messenger? Well, hopefully it's not too far. Uh too hard to understand. Where did the idea of the Passover come from? Well, it's kind of hard to have a pass over without having a Moses, right? You remember when it happened in, in terms of the story is during the Exodus, when all these uh some people would say signs were happening, other people would say catastrophes are happening . How did God affect those things? What were the tools he used? They sent Moses and Moses did the things he told him to do. God uses his servants to help us understand what we should do, why we should do it and what is going to happen. There are other ways of saying this with more overtly scriptural language using scriptural um paradigms like grafting into the tree of life or maybe a phrase I would use is orienting ourselves to the greatest joy given God's plan and the choices of others. So I kind of spoiled my own punch line here a little bit. But to come back to some of these ideas, we read about the sheep uh in John 10. What about the sheep and the Passover? Who was that man? Jesus? OK. Yeah. So you're all, you've learned to be careful and not blurt out Jesus because that's what you would have said. If that was my first question, maybe some of you many people would if I came in. And that was my first thing. I said, who's the sheep in the past? I said, Jesus. Now someone said Moses, why should we not balk at that idea? You know, it's my intentional fuzziness. There are many sac animal sacrifices in the law of Moses. Do all of them represent the Lord? Sure is the Lord the only one they represent absolutely not. And this is a grand key that prevents the world from understanding much of the intended meaning of those sacrifices. Is there any evidence that the Lord calls his servants sheep? Well, I already shared a bunch of it with you but here's some more. Luke 10 3. He says, go your ways. Behold , I send you forth as lambs among wolves. In revelation 14 4, we read about the 144,000. It says these are they which were not defiled with women for their virgin and I don't have time to get into it, but don't take that part. So literally these are they which follow the lamb whithersoever. He goeth that lamb is Jesus. What do you call? Well, I wanna say people I've mangled that quite, quite a lot. So these are lambs that follow the lamb, little lambs are followed the big lamb. These were redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the lamb tree of life. What's the fruit of the tree of life? You gonna say the love of God. That's a safe answer. It's always safe to quote scripture. Right. But what, what is that? Any gardeners in here? I think gardener gardening is a pretty big deal here. Yeah, I know Jim's a gardener. I love gardening. Ok. Many plants when you plant the seed , what do you get, you get a clone or close enough of the tree it came off of, or the plant it came off of. Right. There's hybrids, let's not get too overcomplicated, right? What's the fruit of the tree of life? It's someone who has the same kind of love for other people that Jesus does. That's the fruit of the tree of life. If you plant the seed, you get the tree, we read about natural fruits and all those sort of grafting trees and whatever. What's the intended fruit? If you plant a plant from a seed, you are hoping to get, in most cases, we don't want to overcomplicate it. You go out and buy concord grapes and you plant it and you get carrots, you're not gonna be really happy because you have a secret passion for carrots and someone put you up to buying the Concord grape or some complicated thing. Right? Second me, 531 says a lot more than most people read it to say. But if you reread 16 to 21 thinking about the ideas we've talked about today, what you're going to find is it says something very similar to what we've said today and I'll, I'll have to leave it at that similarly, John 15 3 through 14, and I'll read that one just because I just made the impromptu comment about the tree of life. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. The word was not this words. He was literally speaking, it was everything he was showing them, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more. Can ye except ye abide in me. This is um not to take it too far. But if you want to produce uh if you want to reproduce specific apple breeds, you have to do it through cutting off a branch. And it's literally genetically the same tree. Every granny Smith came off the same tree for example. So you have to graft into this vine. I am the vine year of the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me, you can do nothing. We talked about the fruit. What does it mean to abide? It means to remain aligned completely with your understanding of Jesus, what he would do in your place. That's what it means to abide in his bin. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they're burned. I alluded to this and because of the topic, I'll refer to it again. What would have happened if they hadn't painted their doors with the blood ? If they had disobeyed that commandment, the first born would have died. There are consequences. Do you know what the rest of the Lord is? It's a big idea is to be in such a state abiding in him that you're protected from the consequences that would otherwise overwhelm. You, you were placed inside of a bubble with a guarantee that every single thing in that bubble is within your ability to cope with as the rest of the Lord. How do you enter into the rest of the Lord? You fully reconciled everything you understand about him right now. Is that a final thing? No, because you'll learn more, you know , enter into a different breast. You read about the bosom of Abraham. Now we're just going off the deep end. OK? Read about the bosom of Abraham. Is that the only bosom? What's a bosom? It's a kingdom. It's a place, a domain of rest. Don't worry if any of this just is too much, I will absolutely come back to all of it over the coming years and it will take that long. Here's another reference to scripture that I alluded to, but it's not that scripture. If you abide in me, I'm still reading for John 15. If you abide in me and my works abide in you. Ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein. Is my father. Why? Because you're asking in the name of Christ here is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples as the father hath loved me? So have I loved you continue ye my love. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. So what does this have to do with a messenger? Well, it's about having examples of what Jesus is like. The purpose. One of the purposes of Jesus was to demonstrate to us what the father is like. The purpose of his servants is to demonstrate what Jesus is like. That is the holy order after the Son of God. They are the same. That is what it means to be an apostle of Jesus Christ or a disciple of Jesus Christ is one who doesn't just talk about him but does what he would do in their place. And this takes you back to the conversation about one name or many names, different levels of understanding and it matters, moving on the consequence. Now, I've referred to this a little bit already. So I'm scanning my notes to see what we didn't touch on. Should we fear the outpouring of greater consequences from God? Phrase another way when you hear about the judgment of God does judgment always mean punishment if uh you work a whole week under pres specified terms and you show up to the, the boss's office at the end of the week. Are you expecting something good to happen or something bad to happen? Something good to happen? The judgment of God is neither good nor bad. We make it. So in our choices through our choices, should we fear the outpouring of more consequences from God? Only if you're wicked because they have to come in order for the blessings to come. They cour they're coupled, they can't be separated, there's opposition in all things. So when we say His kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we know what we're asking for? Is it a situation like when two of his apostles said boldly, Lord, we're gonna ask you for something and you want, we want you to agree ahead of time to give us whatever we ask for this literally happened. And shockingly knowing these two people, Jesus said, ok, what do you want? And it said that one of us be on your left hand and one of us be on your right hand when you come in glory. And he said, it's not money to give, but it will be given to the ones for whom it's appointed. But on another occasion, he said, you know, you don't know what you're asking for. Are you ready to be baptized with my baptism? Think about what that means. You know what it, a lot more about what it means now than you did however many eons ago we started this because to have what he has, you have to go through what he goes through because you have to be like he is. Now, the thing is those consequences are gonna come whether you like it or not, the plagues were coming to Egypt, whether you painted your door or not, you get to respond to that, but you can't stop it what the Lord is doing now, the time has ended where it can be stopped. I I say this with full gravity, it, it will not be stopped. The time has begun where we get to decide how to respond to it and it will roll forward and you'll see more of it as time goes by. But it is a lot like the passport. If you react early, always, according to the evidence that you're given, no one's saying you should do things that don't have sufficient reason for being done. But the earlier, you respond to these things appropriately, the greater the blessing will be and the longer people wait, the more that blessing will turn into a negative consequence. There was a time limit for painting your door. We don't even know, we don't even have anything in the story about the Israelites who didn't paint their door. I would be shocked if every single one of them did it, I would be shocked. But if they didn't even bother mentioning those folks, maybe there were families, maybe who did lose their first born and only then decided to listen a little more. We know that this kind of hesitant, reluctant obedience occurred with this group of people because the rest of the stories, it just happens again and again and again, we say, OK, we'll do this, but we're not gonna do the next thing. OK, we're kind of do this, but we're gonna hold back. All right, the Passover today. There are people, there are many people, well, meaning people who do some subset of killing a lamb, painting blood on doors, whatever dinner you might be those people, you might know those people they exist who has a right to practice this ordinance today. The answer is those under the law of Moses, those under the law of Moses. If you read in the Old Testament, you'll see example, after example, after example, of stiff penalties under the law of Moses for people doing things that they were not appointed to do under the law of Moses, you touch the ark. You're not one of the specific kinds of levites. We're supposed to touch the ark. You die, you burn strange incense, you die. Maybe you're catching a theme here, right? Bad things happen. But should you want to do you need Moses or his covenant to practice the principle? Paul talked a bit about how some things existed before the law of Moses. He tried to disentangle these things. Speaking of Abraham, in the priesthood, for example, the principles we've talked about came before Moses and they're bigger than Him. And I don't mean that in any kind of negative way, you don't need Moses here and now today, although you absolutely know the things that are written about Him in the scriptures to align yourself to Jesus today. You can do that right here and right now and you don't need a prophet to come and tell you that whether that's Moses or anybody else, all of us in this room, we have a conscience and it's God's voice to us individually. It's, it's the, it's the aggregate of our understanding of what God is like. It's so powerful that even people that don't explicitly believe in God have it, they wouldn't define it that way. But that's what it is. What it tells each of us will be perfectly individual. And it delineates the very next step toward God from where you stand as you live up to that God will teach you more. And as I said before, he'll use every tool at his disposal. Um And you may find that the most useful tool in his arsenal is other people . I think that most of us would feel like, have you seen that meme where it's like, uh mom, can we have mcdonald's? We have mcdonald's at home. Have you seen that one? Like if we talked about seeing angels, you know, I could say, well, you have angels at home, I mean, roll your eyes and it's like, you know mcdonald's at home is this deformed burger, whatever we think we're getting ripped off when people tell us. Well, angels can be mortals too. It's like roll your eyes. It's like, oh yeah, here we go. Angels can be mortals too. I can't get into it now. But you can make a very good case that mortal beings can do more for each other than angels from heaven can do shocking, right? It's reversed. Uh Boy, I don't want you to take this too far, but the ones that drop down from heaven are more like the one you have at home than the other way around because that's so far fetched and I'm detecting that , that it's hard to believe. I would just give you one piece of evidence for this. If an angel came from heaven, you're gonna assume that that the whatever light glory, whatever fancy clothes. Oh, this is so amazing. I just have this, this Conduit now that whatever this angel says is obviously true. That's the supposition. Is that true belief? It's not one because we know that there are angels from the devil. So you could dive into that. How do you discern between them? But we have plenty of examples in the scriptures of people who had some serious faith problems even though angels said things to them. Don't we? We have examples of people doubting God when God himself spoke to them. So don't be so sure that your faith would be complete just because an angel from heaven came to you. Now, what would happen if it wasn't? Now, this becomes pretty fun angels from heaven. Uh So when an angel visited Manoah Samson's father to tell him about this child that was gonna come to them. Manoah asked the angel what his name was and there's a reason for that and it's not super important to get into right now. You'll find a response written in the King James. Here's a more accurate one, the angels in, in modern English, the closest, the closest equivalent to what that angel said was. Why should I bother telling you? You wouldn't understand. Now, that sounds very flippant and disrespectful, doesn't it? On earth? We are granted the ability to maintain certain illusions far beyond truth in heaven. One of the things that changes when you are resurrected when we are resurrected is that you do not have the ability to lie. Well, when I talk about lies, I always have to remember that I'm using a much broader definition than most people do. You can't deny things that are obvious there. You can't pretend like you don't see what you see. You can't pretend like things are different than how you wish they were. And you also can't say something that, you know, is not true. It's evident. everything is, is obvious. Don't take that too far, but you can't be dishonest there. When an angel comes from heaven, they have to keep acting the way they do there. If Gabriel were to appear to you in glory and I'm just using him as an example of a named being and I'm, I'm just throwing all these disclaimers in here. Don't take this too far either, but angels don't mess around. They're not patient. They can't be the mercy aspect of their nature is far reduced from what humans are capable of. The justice aspect of their nature is cranked up to the max. It's not to say they can't exert mercy, but our bodies give us the ability to suffer much, much, much greater things than can be suffered outside of this world, much greater things . That's why Jesus had to come here as a mortal, right? It's why he couldn't do what he did in a resurrected body. It had to be a mortal body. So if I try to tell you something or you try to tell me something and I have every reason to believe what you say. I just cut you off. Let's just talk about this in the most secular way. OK? Just to make it really play. Let's say that you've spent the last 40 years of your life mastering the art of carpentry. I've never picked up a hammer in my life. I have, but just for the sake of argument and I have to do some framing, whatever. And I say, hey, is there Ted in here? Good. We'll use that. Hey, Ted, you spent 40 years of your life framing. How do I work up this frame? And you start to say, well, here's what you do. You get this kind and I'm like, oh, never mind, I'll figure it out now, you know that I'm a doofus in this respect and I'm gonna jack it all up , you know, this, like it's not an easy thing to just figure out right as a human. You can say, hey, man, I know this looks easy. But let me just help you out a little bit. In fact, let me come over, I'll help what you're doing on Saturday. I'll be there or you're in way over your head, buddy. Like you want to figure out how to hook up a whole house generator and you've never done any electric before in your life and you're just gonna wing it that you're probably gonna die. Like please let me help you do this correctly and not die. Ok. Angels will not do that. They cannot do that. They do not have the mechanism to continue to strive with people who are doing less than they know to do. You know the scripture, the Holy Ghost will not continue to strive against man. Angels speak by the power of the holy Ghost. I'm just tossing a rock, skipping across the water on this topic. Ok? I just wanna give you a little piece to, to, I don't want you to believe what I'm saying here, but I want you to believe that maybe there's more to it. Hopefully we can get, we got that far with that little chunk. OK? So the rest of what I have to say is about the Passover after Christ. And I, unfortunately, I don't think that we have time for this. So animal sacrifice in general prior to Jesus was to point to Jesus. We read, oh boy, that's dangerous. Yeah, I don't want to try to do that in abbreviated way because it's a, it's an idea that's gonna jolt against what you believe. And I wanna make a full case if I'm gonna say it. So, uh what I'll limit this to is that Passover like things will continue to happen. So the Passover Moses wasn't the first thing we started this talk with a list of events that happened on this day. If you go back over that list. You will find the principles we've discussed here echo through those events and I told you at the beginning, I had no intent of going through them and pointing that out. But you can, if you would like to, you can go through those and see that, but they're not done. They will continue to happen. I quoted the scripture about the 144,000. The fruits, first fruits, first fruits of the land who follow him everywhere he goes, there will be many. I'm not saying 100 and 44,000. There will be many people who literally give their lives in the end times as a testimony of Christ, they will be killed because they do what Jesus would do in their place. All of those people , our Passover sacrifices in a way their way. Who's blood, it's the Lord's blood because they're not killed for being them. They're killed for being like him. Whose blood is it? It's his blood. Does it come from them? No, it's the blood they drank comes from him. Whose door will it be spread on whoever sees their example. The phrase that Alma uses describing Christ is he says in Alma 34 it's expedient. There should be a great and last sacrifice. Yeah. Not a sacrifice of man, neither beast, neither of any man or foul for shall not be a human sacrifice for might must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice . But do you see how the sacrifice of Christ doesn't end with his death. We read in a very oft quoted scripture, John 316 that God so loved the world. That what he said? His son. Do you think it is a sacrifice for the father to send his son knowing what he would go through as a sacrifice for the father ? And some, some um some people have contested, you know, they've said things like how can the father be loving and send someone as pure as Jesus knowing what he would face? What's, what's the greatest sacrifice? Someone willing to suffer all things can give? It's not their own pain. They've already sacrificed that. Do you see, it's sending your only begotten son, her beloved son who's innocent, who's the only, the only innocent one? No, that matters a lot. Here's something that matters a little less, but it's still exceedingly important. Once those lambs have washed themselves in the blood of Christ from their own sins, the blood and sins of this generation is a phrase that is very important. They've immersed themselves in the blood of Christ and been clean from their own sins. Then they take within them the blood of Christ by learning more about him and living like him. It's Christ's blood that is spilled when they are killed for being like him. What is the greatest sacrifice the son can make after he's already suffered all the pains and the sickness is possible. All the affliction possible for a mortal to bear in this world. What's the only thing left is to watch those that his blood, his clothes be shipped who are innocent through him, not without sin from birth like he was but made clean in his own blood. And we read when the angels showing Nephi the tree of life, he said, this is how the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of men. How in a network? Because the son shows you the love of the father and then he says, go and do likewise love others as I have loved you. How by showing them what I would do in your place, even if it cost you your life and every time you do that, it's an echo that ripples through the world and through time and people get a greater witness of the love of God than they could have had. Otherwise, I'll finish up with this. There is a divide that's spoken of in the scriptures often uh concerning the end times, one way to characterize this divide is by interpreting it or I guess describing it using the paradigm of of the Passover. What was the separation with the Passover? We've talked about it a lot. There were those who painted their door and those who did not clean, clean separation, right? What the separation in the end times is a series of these custom fitted to every single individual situation. It's a, it's a cascading series custom fitted to you where the Lord sends. Remember it's about receiving is about responding to the Lord sends invitations. It could be subtle but still very important. And every one of them is like a gate. Then you choose whether to paint it with his blood or not. Does this make sense? Again, you can read about this separation. We don't have time to go into it very much, But I just want to give you this facet this, this angle to analyze it with I those who paint their doors with the blood of the lamb by reconciling their lives to Jesus as far as they presently understand him to be, will be the ones who recognize when he reveals more of himself to the world as he has promised to do in alma 1324. It says for behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land. And this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the Children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory. Now that was before he came. The same thing is happening. Now, the same thing has always been happening. Someone sent me an email recently and they said something about what's the difference between when God has an active covenant on earth and when he does not and asked a question about a mediator of, of such a covenant. And I said, there's never a time where he's not governing the earth through a chain of servants. The question is, where are these servants stand? The level of understanding they have God uses, he used Cyrus, right? And Cyrus was told a little bit about God and what God knew about Him and his role, God uses people to accomplish his will, even people that don't believe in Him and in their understanding, they still might serve as angels of God. How much more those who do understand more about Him in the end times, he will manifest more of himself through sending to earth. Those who are more like Him. Paul describes these people as the Sons of God, although that's obviously a phrase that refers to more than just a certain set of people sent to the earth during the end times. But it was this set that he was speaking of when he said in Romans eight, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us. So he counted himself among that group, which is very interesting. Did you know? Sorry, I don't want to interrupt myself for, for the earnest expectation of the creature, waite for the manifestation of the Sons of God. What do you think would have happened if God sent those people, the 144,000 to earth? At an earlier time, the world would have ended that's what would happen. Why? So you read about a count of martyrs that are required. So the Book of Revelation says there's a number that are required to basically seal the testimony of God. I'm trying really hard not to deep dive here. Um When you have 100 and 44,000 people who do everything God would do in their place, it's really hard to make excuses for everyone else. Do you get that? Do you know what brought the flood of Noah? Any guesses? Just just guess I won't, I won't uh criticize anything you say? Who said that? Good answer? No, it did. It says that Noah's righteousness condemned the people. Why? Because He was the only righteous person. He lived up to all of God's commandments and everyone else could have done the same thing and he was evidence that it could be done in his time. He had no human example to follow. He had no advantage over the others. Justice required the earth to be destroyed at his time. What happens when there's 100 and 44,000, Noah? It won't be a flood of water. It will be a flood of fire. Those who follow his sons as they manifest more of Christ will be divided from those who do not. Those who follow Jesus, wherever he goes, his faithful lambs will be sufficiently prepared. Such that the events of the end times would be rendered a blessing to them those who do not will be cursed to suffer situations that are far beyond their ability to cope. So paint your doors with the blood of the lamb.