0:00:00 - 0:00:22 You are never done with family so often. And this is, this is one reason why it's so important to think strategically, like, think explicitly about improvement, right? And if you lead joy on purpose to actually come up with a life plan, you know, to ask yourself if you know these, my son's here named 0:00:22 - 0:00:44 Thomas and Luke. And on a regular basis, I think, what more can I do for Thomas and Luke? And I think in high detail about who they are in their lives and where they are and where I am and everything else, right? But we get into trouble when we, when we act like uh for those of us who serve L DS missions 0:00:43 - 0:01:05 . Um I if you treat your family like a bus contact, you're gonna feel like you got hit by a bus. Like that's a very bad idea, right? You don't have five seconds, you have forever or at least the span of time that they're in your life. And even if they don't even wanna talk to you anymore, you're still 0:01:05 - 0:01:27 not that you're in the flesh, you have the opportunity to intercede for them in ways that you cannot do when you're not here. It comes back to this world being specifically designed as a place where you can have faith. You can do things here that you can't do there. You know, I've said this before people 0:01:26 - 0:00:00 get excited about the idea of heavenly angels coming down from heaven and I don't blame them and ministering to them. But at least in many ways, if not to a greater extent, mortal messengers can do things that heavenly beings cannot because we're operating in the flesh and through the veil of faith, 0:00:00 - 0:02:16 God does everything he does through what faith says that right in the scriptures, right? So if we're in a place where the greatest quantity of faith can be exercised, we have the potential to do things that can't be done in heaven. We're mixed up here. Do you, do you realize this? However, you want to 0:02:15 - 0:02:40 categorize people? Let's say that there are three categories of people. Do you know who's in which category do you know that those three categories of people cannot interact in heaven? Yes. Have you read The Old Testament? And, and looked at the progression of the interaction between Moses and the Children 0:02:39 - 0:03:07 of Israel through time. They're all chummy in the beginning, but there is a separation that occurred and they couldn't interact as much. And then there were elders between them in a family. I I saw on social media on Twitter the other day, there was a guy. And he said, look, I'm a newly converted Christian 0:03:07 - 0:03:22 . I'm all about it. My wife doesn't want anything to do with it. My kids don't want anything to do with it. I'm just distraught because I feel like I can't have all these wonderful things to share with them. And I'm so, you know, all about what I found, but I can't share it with these people that I love 0:03:22 - 0:03:56 . I don't remember how many characters were limited to now on Twitter. But I was like, I tried to tell him, you think that that's a bad thing, you have no idea that that blessing is actually greater than being even the York. You came here to suffer for that person in interacting with them and serving 0:03:55 - 0:04:20 them in ways that you can't do there. You can't why? Because there, it's like when this shiny angel shows up and everybody just kind of melts and can't do anything right. But like we can argue, I can argue for like weeks with somebody. If I wanted to, I can help exer them exercise faith or if their conscience 0:04:20 - 0:04:40 isn't working properly, I can spin it up and help him feel guilty about something. And not only that I can do it strategically and, you know, I'll flip it around. So I don't get in trouble if my wife knows I have some issue with something and I need to be better in this way. She can play the long game 0:04:40 - 0:05:07 she doesn't have to just explode and, and say like you gotta change this right now. I can't, her. Right. She can play the long game. What a blessing. Don't think that that divine intervention is, is like this, this sanctimonious thing all the time. It is. It can be. But how much greater is to use the 0:05:07 - 0:05:27 opportunity that we have here? Imagine if you're a soldier and you're just like if I'm not Napoleon Bonaparte himself, I'm useless. No, man, if you're a soldier and your job is to fire that rifle in that direction, operate in your lane, that's why you were placed there to be a good soldier. You do what 0:05:26 - 0:05:51 you do in your spot now, in this, ok. In this, you might say, ok, so I feel like there are like 20 different vectors here that I can work on in my situation and it's like checking fishing traps or something. You're not gonna check lobster traps all day long, the same trap and pull it in and throw it 0:05:51 - 0:00:00 out, pull it in. You go check it every once in a while and you're poking and prodding in your family. You're like, well, I gotta help him with this and help her with that. And ok, so you say, but that doesn't take up my full schedule. Great. Go see what else you can do. It's like that, that old, uh, 0:00:00 - 0:06:30 that old story where the soldiers come to the general and say, sir, we got terrible news. We're surrounded the generals like great, what are you talking about? It means anything we do, we can attack the enemy. Right? I had a conversation with the father a few days ago actually, maybe a week ago. And 0:06:30 - 0:06:48 , and he said, Rob, I, I know this guy rather well. We've talked for years from friends. He said, I feel terrible admitting this, but I feel like my role in my family is kind of at a dead end. I've got some kids coming out of the house now and I've worked really hard. We, I support them all financially 0:06:48 - 0:07:08 , everything I do, everything I can think of. But I just feel like I still don't have the meaning in life that I want. I feel like I need to do more, not for me, but like I'm not doing my job if I'm not doing more. And I said, think of think of your family as this circle. There's a tiny slice of this 0:07:08 - 0:07:30 circle that you're not seeing clearly and it's small and you're looking at all the stuff that we think of when we think about family duties in your role, that slice that seems small. It goes on for a, there's no limit to what you can plug into that. The meaning that you're looking for is in the depths 0:07:29 - 0:07:54 of that tiny slice. And I said, pour your heart and soul into that and you will find the meaning that you're looking for, we are created in the image of God and we have no idea what that means. If I gave you a rock and I said I want you to make this rock the best rock it can be, right? Most of us including 0:07:53 - 0:08:06 myself would be like, yeah, it's already there. I have no idea what to do with this, right? Some sculptor might do something amazing with it. But then even then they're gonna be like, ok, I don't know what else to do with this. A mason might say like it belongs here in this brick wall and we're good 0:08:06 - 0:08:24 or stone wall, I guess. What about a tree? Well, a fruit tree. Well, you plant it, it's in a good place. You can fertilize the ground, you can prune the tree. But you know, you, there's only so much you can do with it. It's alive, there's only so much you can do with it. It just takes a little bit of 0:08:24 - 0:08:54 resources to check in with. What's the limit of a human? When are you done with a person? You're not, you're not. What? When you start living your life with your whole soul, you're going to find that the meaning that you currently experience collapses more correctly, it's going to consolidate, it's gonna 0:08:53 - 0:09:22 consolidate into very few people and things. The reason the rest of it collapses is you're going to see that very quickly. You're gonna cross the line where it doesn't make sense to put more into it because there's no value there for the cost, humans can absorb any amount of love. We're the only things 0:09:21 - 0:09:50 in all creation that can. And this is one of the definitions of being created in the image of God because God can give forever and we can receive forever. And so coming back to the talk and, and tying into your question specifically to wrap this up, open your mind to greater scales of time and domain 0:09:50 - 0:10:32 for situations. Sometimes the ability to pick up a certain situation one more time with, with calm and love it. It seems like such a small thing might be the biggest thing in the universe. I don't know if that makes sense. You know, we wear masks as people, some of us more than others. Um And I think 0:10:32 - 0:10:55 out of all the human relationships, the hardest place to hide is in your marriage. It's, that's the one person who's who you cannot hide from. Right? And I think that that's probably more intentional and critical to the intent of marriage than we, we think about. What does it mean to forgive someone 0:10:54 - 0:11:17 who's offended you? 70 times seven sla your r too. Yeah. And like if it's a stranger, you're thinking like, oh, I'm a good person because I forget 70 times 70. It's like, wait, this person knows me, like they really, really shouldn't be like this to me this with this thing. Again, we're dealing with 0:11:16 - 0:11:42 this again. Right. Like you could go down that road and your, whatever your own personal situation is. Right. What's that worth? And, and you might think, but, but I want traction. I want to get on the road and go 50 miles of progress. But everything is successive in the gospel. If that person can't 0:11:42 - 0:12:04 get past the very thing. And you're the only one on this planet who's situated to help them get there. This is why it's so tragic when we enable each other in our marriages, you're the one person who knows the, the, you know, where the bodies are right there. You know where the receipts are. You should 0:12:04 - 0:12:26 not let them get away with anything and you should encourage them when the whole world's got them down more than anyone else. If anyone's gonna do it, it needs to be you because the rest of the world thinks that this person is the, you know, I said the bee's knees about the furniture. Be knees, right 0:12:25 - 0:12:52 ? Oh, this person's perfect or whatever. No. Right. No, no, no, no, no. Ok. So help them because you're the only one that sees it. And for the good stuff too, you might be the only one in the world that sees it. Right. And so, so what's that worth? Ok. Sure. Fine. Maybe I don't believe the same thing 0:12:52 - 0:13:16 as you religiously. Right. Thank God that you're in a situation where knowing what you know, imagine what you could do for them. Even, they don't care a lick about what you believe. That's awesome if they tolerate you being around. But even if they divorce you, you still have a connection to them. Even 0:13:16 - 0:13:48 if they never, if you have a restraining order, you can still pray for them. Right? You can, and you can fast for them. What a blessing. I always, oh, I'm gonna get in trouble. I don't want to say that. I hope that helps. Yeah. Uh So it seems like a pretty good idea that if we don't want any revolution 0:13:47 - 0:14:07 , we should just not do. The last thing God asked us to do. That's the best way to do it. Yeah. But you're, but you're opening yourself up to receiving it in rougher ways. Yeah. After the testimony of the problem comes the testimony, fires. Wonderful. Well, it just seems like, you know, when, when he 0:14:06 - 0:14:29 fight, he writes in uh I think versus by eight. So he's like, hey, at this point, my dad has done everything that God had asked me to do. And it's like the very next thing, oh, here's the Leona, here's a vision in the night where God gives him. Here's the next step. You know. So you said it's, it's the 0:14:29 - 0:14:51 gospels 10 success it. And so it's like at any point, if you could ever clear a conscience and say I have done everything else that I need to do it. It seems to be true that we can expect God will speak to us. Maybe not with the physical voice, but in some way, the next step is gonna show up, this is 0:14:51 - 0:15:12 what I want you to do next. And so it really was compelling what he said. So we're thinking about, uh we're looking for some like, big like revelation or whatever where probably the thing that's stopping each one of us is like, oh, like I need to play with video games or something, you know, like some 0:15:12 - 0:15:36 stupid mundane thing. You're like, oh, I need to like clean my room, you know, it sounds, it's like whatever, look, you're absolutely right. And the thing to remember is what we don't know is not limited to uh factual content. It's also a limitation of value. I don't know if that makes sense. Like you 0:15:36 - 0:15:57 said, some stupid thing like video games. What if that has some astronomically important impact in your life? Like one time I went to airborne school in the army and it's, it's a long story, but to make it short, I really didn't want to go and I prayed about the reasons for and against cost of benefit 0:15:57 - 0:16:14 . And I felt like I needed to go. I was, I was actually quite confident that I needed to go and I had a terrible time. I had all the trials and ro la there and some, some positive spiritual experiences too. But at the end of it, I prayed and I said, Lord, I have no idea why you wanted me to go to this 0:16:13 - 0:16:36 . I mean, some things happen. Great. We'll fast forward a year. I don't remember how long. And I found myself on a p day in Chile early in the mission and like an idiot. I thought I was gonna show off to the other elders by finding this cable bridge in hand over hand and hanging for a picture. I was 0:16:36 - 0:16:58 like 20 ft or I had to be 30 ft off the ground. And uh these were old school digital camera days. So the guy like fiddling with the camera, I was like, man, hurry up. This is tired. He takes a picture and I got to get my feet back up around the cable and I can't. And all of a sudden like, oh boy, like 0:16:58 - 0:17:13 I'm an idiot. God, save me from this. And I promise I'll never do something that stupid again. And I'm looking down and everyone's starting to freak out. So, um I held on for as long as I could, but, you know, my hands were tearing apart and get bloody and stuff. So I let go. There's all these rocks 0:17:13 - 0:17:34 below me, big boulders and I landed between two boulders and just as instinctively did a parachute landing fall where you train, you just fall again and again and again. And I bounced back up and they were like Oh, because I should have broken my legs. And I said I get, because that was the reason. You 0:17:34 - 0:17:52 don't know the reason. Yeah. The value is part of what we're missing. Very important to understand. Yeah. And if you have kids, you already know this. Like, if you looked at a picture from when your kids were young and you're looking, you're like, I remember all the money problems. I remember all the 0:17:52 - 0:18:12 stress. I remember this, that whatever. And that was, I thought the worst time in my life at the time my wife, she was trying to find a, a picture frame for one of my son's pieces of art. And she had taken one of these pictures from when they were all little that, that phase of life, you know, sitting 0:18:11 - 0:18:29 out by the frame. And I said, Vicky, what are you doing with that? She said, well, I, I just wanna see if this fit and I picked up the picture and I looked and I said this was the happiest time of my life. I had no clue. At the time I said, please be very careful with this picture. Let's put it back 0:18:29 - 0:18:55 in the frame. We get another frame. You don't know you, you only understand value in retrospect. So I have one more follow up, which is as you're talking about, oh God, how, how Jesus was act in all areas. It's not about that church. It's about our entire life. Our entire being and what, you know, interaction 0:18:54 - 0:19:15 from morning to night. Um It's interesting because you made me think of where it says that this is my work and my glory bring the pass the emotionally in the eternal life of men. So if we're trying to be like God, what would our work be? You know, and when Jesus said, you know, my need is to do the will 0:19:15 - 0:19:36 of my father um a a and at the end, in the end of John, when, when he's sitting there on the beach with the disciples after they've been out and they've done the boat thing again and, and they're eating and he's like, you love me here and it disturbs him because he pass it off three times. It's like 0:19:36 - 0:20:05 , hello? It's, it's worse than that because does he say Peter? He says sign Jesus is during his ministry. He calls him Peter. He describes him as a person. He isn't yet. And after the betrayal, the denial, let's be sacred because frankly, I think if the world were like Peter, we'd be in much better shape 0:20:05 - 0:20:40 after the denial. He doesn't just ask him a billion times. Do you love me? You feed my sheep? He calls him I saying, do you want to be Peter? Do you want to be Simon? Because you're not Peter? Ok. Yeah. Heavy. Huh? Yeah. So knowing you, you're probably gonna answer. Yes. This in a way that, that frames 0:20:39 - 0:21:04 the question I should have asked. But, um, I'm pretty sure all or most of the people in this room know that we were in what you could call the last days were the end times. And right now it's relatively calm but there will come a point where there's a drop, I guess. And based on if that is in five months 0:21:04 - 0:21:31 or five years or 10 years or 30 years, the way that I live right now would probably be different if I had an actual knowledge of when that would happen. Um Do you have any insight on that? That that's something that gives me stress and I'm sure it gives them a bit of stress. So um actually the Lord asked 0:21:31 - 0:21:57 me that question a couple of weeks ago. He said if, if I told you that. So, so I, I think about this in gradations because collapse collapses is um a ramp with spikes, right? It's like sudden drop offs, but a ramp. Um people think of collapse is all at once and that's why they don't understand it. And 0:21:57 - 0:22:15 , and actually, it's just layers and layers of trying to oversimplify things so that they're emotionally easier to contend with. Um we try to deny it. It's kind of like stages of grief, but you try to deny something and then when you can't deny it, you try to wrap it up much neater than it actually is 0:22:15 - 0:22:33 like, like, oh, I wanna get divorced from my spouse because I won't be done with it. You're never gonna be done with it. Right. So, just let go of that and maybe it's still the right thing to do. Maybe not. But, but don't think that it's gonna be, turn it off because you can't, um, especially if you 0:22:32 - 0:22:52 have kids but even if not. So, um, with, with Collapse, it's, it's like that when we try to deny it and then, OK, well, the next step is I want to pretend like it's an all at once. It's not gonna be all at once. Some things happen all at once, but there's an awful lot of things they're spread out in 0:22:52 - 0:23:19 time, right? Maybe a very long time. That's something that really bothers people to think about. So that being said, one of the things that I like to think of is um well, that, that's really not the way to phrase it. Uh One of the ways I tend to think about it is in terms of uh big ticket items, the 0:23:19 - 0:23:42 cessation of the power grid is one of these things. So some people talk about the end of the world as we know. That's not very descriptive, but let's just talk about the power grid dropping. So what if there was going to be a time when there would be no more power? Yeah. And the Lord said, how would 0:23:42 - 0:24:14 you act if you knew this was gonna be in one day? One week, one month, one year or 10 years. Do you have a list of what you could do? And I said no. And so I started thinking about that and I made some lists and then he said, if I told you this, who would listen? And I said, Lord, I don't know, I don't 0:24:14 - 0:24:43 know if anybody would, my family would, but I don't know who else would be in. No situation would be a noah situation. When's the rain coming perhaps or something? Yes. Or anyone else. It doesn't, I don't matter here. Ok, in this circumstance. So we believe what it says in Amos that before God does things 0:24:43 - 0:25:04 , he tells people, you know, I can't even get people to, to leave Amazon reviews. Ok. Serious is such a small thing if someone spent 10 years of their life crawling through hell to obtain things and to process it in a book, it seems like a small ask to spend five minutes or even an hour carefully thinking 0:25:04 - 0:25:23 about how a book changed your life and putting up a review. Remember the little things are the big things and you're not gonna do big things if you're not willing to do little things. I read the verse, right? Is it unreasonable to ask someone who says this book has changed my life? Could you write a 0:25:23 - 0:25:46 blurb about how it changed your life and put it on Amazon? No, I'm good. Right. So if I don't say this because I think that God's going to tell me this or that if he did, I would want you to listen or whatever. That's not why I'm saying this. I'm saying people who don't do reasonable things won't do 0:25:46 - 0:26:05 bigger things. And it's ridiculous to walk around thinking, well, if, if the end of the world is gonna happen, God's gonna send a prophet to warn us. Well, if he does any time soon, I'm telling you right now, people are toast because they want this because you don't listen to smaller things. I'm not 0:26:05 - 0:26:31 saying you like you, but people don't listen to smaller things. They're absolutely exceptional. Like, I hope you're one of them, right? Not you anyway. But isn't, um, learning about these things a part of learning about reality. So learn and so people who don't want to know or don't wanna find out or 0:26:31 - 0:26:52 don't do any searching at all or don't want to listen to someone who has a different opinion on what they think the reality is that causes what do you use that knowledge? So, one reaction and again, stages of grief, I don't wanna know about, that's never gonna happen. That could never happen. Ok. Well 0:26:52 - 0:27:17 , you're making a case that could. So, but I don't wanna know about it and then when you push a little further, it's like, well, then I would just rather die. Yeah. Don't you think that God put you here now for it? When we reinforce nei there are two generations at the beginning, the adults and the kids 0:27:16 - 0:27:49 and then there's several 100 years of whatever kind of paradise of those generations. Who is the happiest? First? Let's see, the LA is either the adults or kids. Maybe we can agree with that. See, the kids didn't make all the mistakes. That's what separated them. And I won't go as far as to say that 0:27:49 - 0:28:17 therefore they were happier. But if we combine the adults and the kids, they were happier than other generations, why there's no context in the, in the entire history of the world. There's one generation, I don't mean like Gen Z, Gen X, whatever one collection of people, collection of generations who 0:28:16 - 0:28:50 know the fullness of temporal things and the fullness of spiritual things. There's only one, it's this one those who walk through the fire have are the only generation who have the ingredients to the greatest happiness through all of creation. The ones they're born after don't have a comparison. Well 0:28:49 - 0:29:16 , so, so if you walk through the fire, you definitely don't wanna die before that. What about the people who don't get that far? So should do they still have an excuse to say, oh, I just rather die. Let's get back to Jeff's question and my answer. If God does all things through faith, yeah. If I didn't 0:29:16 - 0:29:37 mention this here and now, but can you measure love? I'll just briefly teach you this can you measure love? You can, what's the rule, the degree to which you're willing to suffer for another person? That's the measurement, that's how you measure that. You will have one this against such. There is no 0:29:37 - 0:30:17 wall. OK. So who as the generation has the opportunity to suffer the most we do? Mm Joy comes commensurate with suffer. It's depend on. Now. Does that mean that you're gonna swing the other way? No, but you have the ingredients too. Even if you don't play it, make it. That's your purpose in life as a 0:30:17 - 0:30:46 soldier of Christ. If my job is to jump on the razor wire and have other people use my body as a bridge, then praise Jesus upon it. You know, it's I hope not sacrilegious but in the Batman movie with Bane. Ok. But this is very pertinent. What generation has the literacy that we do? Not just in terms 0:30:46 - 0:31:06 of reading and writing all the movies. We've seen a friend of mine who's not religious but does believe that the world will, that things will collapse. We joke about how, you know, one day we'll all be sitting around campfires and our kids will think we're the greatest storytellers because we're gonna 0:31:06 - 0:31:30 be like, yeah, far away, you know, a long time ago and there were these Lightsabers and Dark Vader, you know, you can be like, wow, yeah, he's got awesome stories, right? But these are a language and we can communicate very rich ideas with this. Right. So in that Batman movie Baines on the plane, which 0:31:30 - 0:31:49 rides, that's nice. Um, and he's got this crew, they're doing this terrorist operation and I'm sorry that this is kind of, you know, crude and whatever, but it's, it's very relevant. I don't remember the details but they kidnap a guy but they wanna make it look like the plane's coming down by accident 0:31:48 - 0:32:07 . And so he needs one of his, his henchmen to take the guy's place. It's now become a suicide mission. Apparently the guy didn't get the medal, but all it takes is he touches his arm and he says they'll be expecting a body brother and the guy is about to grab the rope to get off the plane and he just 0:32:07 - 0:32:34 sits down. If we're that loyal to Jesus, what can he do with us? What can he do with one person who is unlimited in their willingness to serve? What can he do with two people? What could he do with a husband and wife who are that dedicated? I'm not saying he's gonna take down planes and stop, ok. But 0:32:34 - 0:33:01 he's gonna cut chains that enslaved people and it doesn't take many people to do that if they're that dedicated. Ok? But to be that dedicated, you can't have vast swaths of your life off limits like police tape, Jesus do not cross, right? It won't work this one because it might be, you know what if the 0:33:01 - 0:33:22 whole thing about I'm just gonna, because you mentioned video games, what if the whole thing is that one day when you would be there with the controller, you're gonna be on the street and you walk by this guy and he needs help and you're the only one or whatever. You never know where you like, you get 0:33:22 - 0:33:46 this job interview and your whole life changes because you were there. Our idea of value is just so wacky compared to God's. It's so far off and it's part of the mystery is to fix that take to for further. It's more about your comment and, and uh I wouldn't say praise just uh of acknowledgment of how 0:33:46 - 0:34:06 you allow my, my thinking, a great paradigm of ships. I don't know what the video it was but you, you mentioned something about the suffering of Christ tied into discipleship. And I didn't understand that. I didn't know if J I was 3157 and it's a strange place to be because I didn't understand that concept 0:34:05 - 0:34:23 and what you're talking about the deaths of suffering. Holy shit. It's so profound how you're speaking on different levels that speak so, so deeply to me. I just wanna thank you for that. It gives me a greater understanding that I understand what the hell it would be to be a disciple and be careful what 0:34:23 - 0:34:42 you pray for. Because when you have angels and when you hear God and God calls your name. You have to be accountable my friends and it's scary, but it's also liberating because I was not a good person and for him to flip the script, as I say or as he told me, it blows my mind. So I thank you for your 0:34:41 - 0:35:06 wisdom that you share and just God bless you my friend. I appreciate it and it's him, not me if it's, I understand that, but you're listening and I appreciate that. I'm responsible for the typos. Yeah. Um I, I think I can speak for everyone saying thank you. We thank God for all that you've done personally 0:35:05 - 0:35:34 in your life to bring you you to this point and to gathers to be all at this point. And what do you see moving forward uh as a community? Um Are you gonna be directing that through the website? And I have been very, very careful about moving forward regarding the community. So, what is, what are your 0:35:34 - 0:35:57 thoughts on? I think it's a wonderful question after a talk on not looking beyond the mark. Look, it's funny to me like I, I don't wanna be standoffish when I answer this question, not your question, but it's come up on youtube, it comes up. I say what community, what community um I'm gonna take this 0:35:56 - 0:36:17 from a couple of different angles. A lot of people get excited about the idea of again a heavenly angel coming down and ministering to you or the Lord himself. And as we've heard, you better be careful what you wish for. And I like to think of this. I call it profit goggles instead of beer goggles. Like 0:36:17 - 0:00:00 people get really excited about this idea. But it's because they're using their current value to imagine what this other thing would be like. It is not like that. And, and if it were like that you have it already, it's different and it's different in ways that you're not going to like right now. OK. 0:00:00 - 0:37:08 So part of the procession is to change what we value and by how much we value it, it's absolutely critical and that's why I have been and will write and speak a lot about that. Um The good news is you don't have to believe other people if they wanna tell you what's valuable you internally, this is D 0:37:08 - 0:37:32 and C 50 very important. You internally are equipped to assess value. What other people can give you is evidence ideas, but it's still up to you and it has to be. And if you're doing it in another way, it's not right. So there's one video I know I talked about this but it's probably a thing that's come 0:37:32 - 0:37:55 up multiple times. In fact, in this talk self is first when you can stand up and say I do everything. I sincerely believe the Lord would in my place and nothing. I don't think he would. You're ready for the second gate, which is spouse when you treat your spouse, which is, you'd say, well, how is that 0:37:55 - 0:38:16 ? Not true if it, well, I'm saying w working together under whatever constraints that, that spouse might impose. But you feel that, uh, the next step is kids and we could talk about that for a very long time. But again, like, I already know no one's interested because no one wants to hear about how this 0:38:15 - 0:38:39 affects your relationship with your kids. No one wants to hear about it. Right. Very few. And then it's not pale. Like what send me the GPS core be. I'll bring my camper full of food storage doesn't work that way. You know what happens when you do it that way? Ask Joseph Smith, it can't work that way 0:38:39 - 0:39:07 . Ask Moses, he took a whole nation. There's only one filter with the Israelites. Do you paint the door or not? Do you come or not? Against the backdrop of these miraculous, huge things. You know how it happens in the end times. It's through information first, it's through information. It's already flown 0:39:06 - 0:00:00 . If she hadn't noticed, then it's just underscored what I'm saying. Right. And to sign information of, come on, come to my party, here's the coordinates, you know, bring some hot dogs and tents. It's do this in your life. This is like here's principles have at it. Here's why you should do it at it. 0:00:00 - 0:39:57 Now, in your, in your marriage with your kids in your community. Your community is Rob Smith gonna start a church. No, but I'm gonna tell each of you to do that. But I tell you what a church is. It's a community of people aligned towards Christ. You don't have to write down in the book of Mormon. Just 0:39:57 - 0:40:29 reread those parts about, you know, an album. What? Right. It has to be that way and there's parts that have to happen before the fire burns the forest and there are parts that can only happen after you're early to the game but that it's not surplus early. It's uh in the military. We call you Adva advanced 0:40:28 - 0:40:58 party. The people who set up the place for everyone else to come but the place isn't Zion big Z GPS coordinate. It's, what's that? Oh, I, I have friends in Missouri and I said, you know, I really wouldn't live there if I were you to start here, my friend. Yes, always. This is my church. That's right 0:40:58 - 0:41:16 with them if I don't have that. That's right. Yeah. Well, there, there's so many little keys with this. Right. But it's little clusters of people. It's clusters. I don't want you to come to my house. I don't, please don't. I have stalkers. Sometimes I had to call the police on the lady once. It's a true 0:41:16 - 0:41:45 story. Ok. Um That's not the way it's gonna work. Right? Clusters of people find its, it's firefly buts people firefly buts is the key. Do you know what fireflies do? I'm sure I've ranted about this. Well, they, they seek a light brighter than their own. Make your life as bright as you can get it while 0:41:45 - 0:42:14 looking for brighter light. Is that everything else will take care of itself? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what do you think is the, the, what do you think we most misunderstand about repentance or faith that baptism require experience to hear the most of all in our day to day lives. That's a really good question 0:42:13 - 0:42:47 . OK. So when I say sin, you probably think in terms of a white list and a black list can't do this, don't do that. OK? What if I told you that it's much more powerful to think of it and in terms of a, a rank order of net benefit. So instead of saying do this, don't do that well, what's that worth compared 0:42:47 - 0:43:11 to all other possible options? This is an extraordinarily powerful tool. In other words, don't say I have to stop doing whatever or I need to start doing whatever. What do you want? Seriously? What do you want? Does that help you more than anything else or does it hurt you more than other things you 0:43:11 - 0:43:35 could do? And it's horrifying and empowering at the same time because it instantly puts you in full control. If you're honest, you know, if I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm using this example because it's not made up. Right. If I'm trying to watch my weight and I have the choice of eating a bag 0:43:35 - 0:43:53 of chips or eating a couple of chips I can think of. Well, what do I want? More than a whole bag of chips? I don't wanna have to fast for another couple days. Right. Because that's what I'm gonna have to do if I eat that whole bag of chips. If, if I don't want to go to work, because I've got this horrendous 0:43:52 - 0:44:10 problem that I am not even sure anyone on this planet can fix. And I've got this whole stack of things to worry about. Well, why am I going to work? You're free? You don't have to. But people always say, well, I have to do this and I have to do. You don't have to do the squat. Someone could chain you 0:44:10 - 0:44:30 to a mattress and electrify your toenails. They still can't force you to do anything. It's still a choice. It's a really painful choice, but it's a choice. So if there's something you want more than getting your toenails electrocuted, you can choose that pattern, right? Like if there's something worth 0:44:29 - 0:44:57 enduring that for. And so that's really what it comes down to is it's an honesty problem. What do you want and why think about that and just keep thinking about it and then it, it just changes the whole perspective and then I'm being honest, a lot of times to say, oh yeah, I want this, this and this 0:44:57 - 0:45:19 or actually show we're actually wanting something else instead. Well, we're honest about the, the cost and benefit. We're honest about the time frame of those things, you know, like I could make some really terrible decisions that make you feel great for right now and I could completely ignore. Did you 0:45:19 - 0:45:36 know? And I, I don't, I don't want to make anyone feel bad because I know that all of us know people or we might be people who struggle with substance abuse in particular. It's not the same, right? There's a billion different sins. But I just want to talk about this because that's Herald did is the thing 0:45:36 - 0:45:57 that no one can control. There's one thing you can't control. It's like, hey, you take heroin one time you're addicted. I, I wish heroin were legal. I would inject myself in front of people and then stop using it on a dime to show you it can be done. But they've done studies with heroin addicts where 0:45:57 - 0:46:15 if you remind them of the consequences constantly, someone's saying like, oh, you know what this is gonna do with your family? There's people that you love, guess what happens? They don't do it. It's an honesty problem. It's like poverty, poverty is not a problem of a lack of resources. It's a problem 0:46:14 - 0:46:38 of bad ideas or lack of honesty about. Are there places in this world where there aren't resources. Yes. And I'm not talking about that. Right. I've been to those places you may have been too. But even then there are things that can be done. You know, it broke my heart. I spent 2.5 weeks going all through 0:46:37 - 0:47:01 Zimbabwe. There's starving people everywhere. I was there for malnutrition, work with Children. And I had held thousands of kids in my hands and the way I see the world, I don't feel any different about those kids than these kids. It's the same and it broke me in 1000 pieces. And I also saw people standing 0:47:01 - 0:47:31 around doing nothing about their situation when you're in a climate where you can liter and a uh a soil where you can literally throw seeds in the ground and it will grow food. The the ideas don't connect, right? So you have to be honest about things. It's really important. What do you, what, what do 0:47:31 - 0:47:54 you want? What do I want? Do you want? I want the kingdom of God to be established in the Lord to return and have people prepared for Him. How bad do you want? How bad do you? I have given everything I can. I do, give everything I can and I will give everything that I can and I won't stop until the Lord 0:47:53 - 0:48:29 pulls the plug or he comes. It's got mo does anyone else have any questions I have over the third person, I can talk to you again. Sure. So when it comes to doing everything, you sincerely believe the rest in your place. Is this a um because, because I swear every time I teach my kids something like 0:48:28 - 0:48:51 you start coming through and I start saying, repeating things you're saying. And that one I was kind of stuck on because the only thing I can grasp was according to your current awareness, it's, and that's, and so, so it's not like Jesus Christ was something. Uh He was, he wasn't the same as a child 0:48:51 - 0:49:16 . He was doing different things as a child as he was when he was on, on his mission, he had his awareness period as well. Um So, but I, I'm assuming we are not to neglect the increase of our awareness, meaning, um It can't just always be logical. Not that logic isn't one of the, the greatest steps, but 0:49:16 - 0:49:35 I know that I, I can go to the Lord in prayer and receive more awareness about it and things will shift and change. Absolutely do nothing. Say you you've prayed in the first place, right? So it's, it's wise to always check in no matter how confident you are. Um But it's certainly a wise thing to do if 0:49:35 - 0:49:56 you don't have the answer and then to do what Jesus would do in the place and to find the answer, right? And then on top of that, going back to what you would want, I'm assuming it has to align with what Christ would do. It was. Yeah. So this is an enormous topic to pack it all into something tiny. The 0:49:56 - 0:50:20 one and to come back to your questions, one of the best ways to develop the same desire as what you think God would want in your place is to do what you want in your place. Does that make sense? Like, oh, you don't think it's a good idea to do what God would you? Ok, go with your plan, see how it goes 0:50:19 - 0:50:37 because you're gonna learn. You might say, well, yeah, but what if it's some tragic thing where it's like there was one kind of state, there's no recovery from that. Well, if it's that big of a deal, then you should probably go with his will, right? But it doesn't take getting smacked around for too 0:50:37 - 0:51:01 long if you're honest to say, yeah. You know what he knows better than I do, right? It's already a silly place to be, to, to resist that. Like, understand how, how fundamental that is. Like, do you believe in a God that knows all things and loves you more than you love yourself or don't you? If you believe 0:51:00 - 0:51:27 that it doesn't matter how much, you know, you're kicking and screaming, you gotta get to what he wants you to do. And then John 717, if you do, it will build your confidence for the next one and that the, the promoted um, how, how could I say this, the, um, the transcendental confidence of whatever 0:51:27 - 0:51:46 God wants is the right thing. Not that particular thing, whatever that doesn't matter. But the big picture what he says is really the right thing. And so if you're in a place where you're kicking and screaming, well, what do you really want and be honest about it and go for it and you'll see that. It's 0:51:46 - 0:52:10 a terrible idea and then you will value what he values more. Remember this life, Rob said we should sing. No. Is that what I'm saying? OK. But we are here to grow in our confidence that God knows what he's doing, that he loves us more than we love ourselves and to understand what he wants, right? And 0:52:10 - 0:52:37 to be that it takes playing with reality, you have to act on these things. Yeah. Experiments. OK. Yeah. So, um sort of a technical question and that doesn't require a long answer. You can just skip it if it's in a computer one. So between death and resurrection, which would be spirit prison in paradise 0:52:36 - 0:52:58 , you know, are we still growing? Are we still exposed to people being higher loss than we are? And can we still everything prior to resurrection prior to resurrection? That's a really specific question. Yeah. Um I, I have to near that stage, you know, take a step back. So, so before you go and experiment 0:52:58 - 0:53:18 , the an actual better idea is to find someone who has and see how it went. You can build up as much of that as it's free and we had this thing called Google. You can go and find people who thought it was a good idea and see how they turned out. And then if that doesn't convince you still, hey, kick 0:53:18 - 0:53:48 against that prick as hard as you can and see what happens. Ok. So maybe brother is not worth it before resurrection. No plans. As soon as I get out of here, uh before resurrection, the mortal body and the resurrected body and our situation in between, they, they each have specific qualities and uh so 0:53:47 - 0:54:17 can we progress further? Uh Yes, absolutely. Right. But uh, so, so evidence, do you know why Abel was martyred? Why was Abel sent to earth when he was, who was in, in the spirit world before April? Nobody. There's never been a time in creation when God didn't have somebody caretaking that could teach 0:54:16 - 0:54:46 more. That was Abel's mission in life was to duck and be in the spirit. But I'm not saying it's the only thing like it's. But so there you go. Sorry to the truth. Sure. My father was an alcoholic for generations on his side. I didn't get to meet this. Yes. My grandfather, my grandmother was here, they 0:54:46 - 0:55:05 passed away. My dad passed away 10 years ago. He spoke to me and what you just spoke to is true. He said Steven I, he said, he said, I'm surprised where mom and dad are at. There's agency growth and understanding on the other side. But only she said, you didn't tell me where they're at. But absolutely 0:55:04 - 0:55:35 , we're, we're fine. So, thank you. Yes. OK. Now that being said, this life has special opportunity that does not exist anywhere else. That's where we, that's why we came here. Good question. Why we're excited because it was the same opportunity. Yes. This question is sort of a mation question and you 0:55:35 - 0:55:55 can ignore it. That seems right. But that very ma really, like I my brain just really gets stuck on it because um it's, it's saying like the religious practice, the churchy things are essential. There's more to the picture, but like those little things are essential. It's kind of confusing when it's 0:55:55 - 0:56:17 like, well, what, what's the, what should be the source of those churchy things if you don't have a church? But simply was th this is uh what was the, was man created for the Sabbath or Sabbath for the man? What I mean, what is a church? It's people who follow Christ, lot of people that know something 0:56:17 - 0:56:41 about Jesus, that's what it is. And I mean, the book of Mormon says it is set of followers of Christ, right? And so we get, we get tied up with words. We have to think about what, what the meaning of the word is. And church is one that can mean 100 different things. Um, but in, in Matthew 2323 you're 0:56:41 - 0:57:07 right. Those things are essential. So to your question, where do they come from? How was it in the beginning? I mean, it all started with that, right? And so how does that work? God governs the earth by sending men and women to earth? Who know him better? Now you say, but we all come here with a blind 0:57:06 - 0:57:31 slate because you don't come up as a baby with two tablets of stone and a beard. Cool lightning, straight gray. That's not the way it works. No, but you do come here with something. But people think that Jesus came here with superpowers. He didn't, he came here. The difference was what he did not have 0:57:31 - 0:58:07 , not what he had. And that difference carries into the servants of God in Alma 13 greater faith be, excuse me before here. And you come here with a different, a difference. What is that difference? Watching? Yes. How do you know that? You said cover from album 13? Did you say a lacking lacking? Yes 0:58:07 - 0:58:32 . Yes, you're right. Well, our father in heaven to told you that that's a deep mystery. You come with what you lack. What is that? You know, in Montana there's a, there's a law that you're allowed to trespass on anybody's land as long as you're within a rivers. I don't remember 15 year high water mark 0:58:32 - 0:58:59 or something that high water mark makes the ground public. We all have a high water mark of the love of God and you came to this earth with it and it's what you experienced before, which is why you're not wasting your time with your family. They are learning the love of Christ through you. And it's one 0:58:59 - 0:59:30 of the greatest blessings. You can have to be that Conduit. I, I can't make a big enough deal out of this. I'm gonna write a whole book about it. It's suffering. Yes, I want that though. Me too. I'm the most excited about that. But there's an awful lot that has to come first. So that's what when you 0:59:30 - 0:59:57 come here with a greater lack because your spirit remembers the love of God to a greater uh intensity. Then you can find here you have two choices. You mask it through drugs, sex, alcohol, distraction. Anything else you can find, you could drink the water. OK. Fantastic. Thank you. It's a wonderful reference 0:59:57 - 1:00:22 to his point. Or you become what you cannot find or you find what you cannot find. That's of course, option number three. But could Adam find what he could not find? Well, yeah, I mean, he went through the angels and reestablished the connection with, with the lore, right? But did he find it in people 1:00:21 - 1:00:57 ? There's so much about Adam that's not talked about it, but you just go down through time. Who did Elijah find in a fellow mortal that gave him any kind of similarity to the high water mark, the love of God that he knew before he was born. No, no. Who did Elisha find Elijah? And we could keep going 1:00:56 - 1:01:34 . Who did Moses have? No? Who did Jesus have? No? He remembered the father. He did not have a father. He became f I'm blown away by the truth you speak. I was the person that you said I've died four times and 13 in the, because I was a n I didn't embrace who I need to be. For Christ. I was just so stuck 1:01:34 - 1:01:55 in the ways of the world, caramel, everything that I wanted to took and for him, I still have to go back to how he loves me the way that there's so much mercy. That's why I was weeping. We talked, it just talks to my, every I call it my spiritual DNA. When he called my name, you can't deny who he is 1:01:54 - 1:02:15 . It's a remembrance of everything I knew on that side is here. But I can't put it into, into mortal words because it's none of this world. But I long for both places to be together if that makes sense. Yes. And in the time that we're in when they're not, it's a great blessing because that's how we intermingle 1:02:14 - 1:02:49 . That's, that's the phrase in, in the book of Mormon and in Elis vision, this is how the love of God sheds forth in the heart of me. In what context do you use? The verb? Shed? It's only last month. But believe me, how does the love of God shed itself forth in the heart of the net for men and women 1:02:48 - 1:03:14 suffering for you? And what is you don't answer? Because they're aware that Jesus suffers for them in ways that they don't deserve. And it's a chain. It's a flow, it's a river of blood. We really want to get deep in the rabbit hole. We can talk about the river coming out of the N times T blood or something 1:03:14 - 1:03:35 , but it can be no other way. It's a river of blood and it's river blood that dilutes over time because there's water that comes into it, these springs and it gets deeper and deeper and the sea kills in the water and it's getting deeper and deeper. It spreads to the world dilutes an intensity because 1:03:35 - 1:04:01 we have windows of receipt and we're not willing to receive it. It's too much. So is, is the purity the same? Not for some because it, it waters down with every level anyway. Deep stuff. Another question. Let's talk about. Do you understand reality? Can you say the reality? These things that we cannot 1:04:01 - 1:04:24 see as false as that we are fighting now, go and blood sign of things we cannot see that is the reality, but the reality is not what we see doesn't make sense. Yes. So, so part of it is what we see and extends far beyond what we see. And the most important parts are the part we don't see. But so, you 1:04:24 - 1:04:47 know, Paul, he said, I have not seen the, the things that God has prepared for those who love him. You know what I said right after that, he says, he has seen it. He says, but the spirit can show you and it show me, but you're meant to see it. Is that like, oh, let's just throw our hands up in the air 1:04:46 - 1:05:10 and after we die, great things will happen. No, go find those great things because if you don't know what they are and what they're worth here, you're never gonna do here, what you have to do to have them there. Principalities and powers is a huge topic. Uh The problems that we face almost always exceed 1:05:09 - 1:05:35 our awareness. So how can you solve those and say, well, go to God. Yes, but unpack that. What does that mean? You need to have access to pay attention to help from above? Does that mean Gabriel is gonna come down here with a flaming sword and maybe, but maybe your next door neighbor is gonna come up 1:05:35 - 1:05:54 with a plate of cookies and it, it's not, it's, it's situational like maybe that's actually the better thing in this case, especially with the game of like, because if you die, that's not gonna help much with the problem because you're overwhelmed because of the glory. Maybe cookies is what you need 1:05:53 - 1:06:12 . All right. And this is the thing, like, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to take any of this serious? And seriously, until we were some spiritual giant, wouldn't that be nice if we could just endlessly walk on this treadmill and say, well, I know I want this hamster wheel, but at some point I'm 1:06:12 - 1:06:33 gonna be a spiritual giant and then all this is gonna matter or I'm gonna die and then all this is gonna matter now. It matters right here right now because where you are in your life, the people around you, you will never be this way. Again. If you think about your life, you will see AAA never ending 1:06:33 - 1:07:03 list of people where you're in a, a specific place, time under certain circumstances where you can do things for them that no one else can do and that you yourself can't do five years before five years after. It's all like a perfectly tuned pl or instrument is probably better analogy, right? OK. What 1:07:03 - 1:07:33 is the principle you were trying to teach us of the blood that we trying for you? What is the principle you're teaching as is? So if we don't understand the value correctly as God would and we don't, how would we know um a purer version of his love than, than what we can currently comprehend? We wouldn't 1:07:33 - 1:07:55 , we wouldn't even notice it. Right. So, so just getting, just to give like a nuts and bolts example. In the New Testament. Lots and lots of people reject Jesus and some people change their minds later even during his life. Right. So he went through and he preached, he zigzagged all across the holy land 1:07:54 - 1:08:19 and some people listen, some people didn't and to varying degrees and then he sends out the 70. There are tons of people who are not willing to listen to him, but they listen to the seven. What widows of truth? They weren't willing to see the, the value or, or understand the message or when it was given 1:08:18 - 1:08:46 in greater purity for some people, nothing less would have done nothing less would have been sufficient. You know, there's a really interesting passage in the New Testament, um where he's talking about being sent to the lost sheep. A better translation of that would explain that what he's saying is I 1:08:46 - 1:09:13 haven't come for normal people. I haven't come for advanced people. The advanced people are going to bring this to all of you. I've come for people for whom nothing less would be recognizable as truth and they'll sort you out. That's what he's saying there. The lost sheep aren't black sheep who do the 1:09:13 - 1:09:43 wrong thing or whatever. It's uh Alma senior who needed a Benedict before he got on the right course. That's what differentiated God makes a difference. So Paul had to be ministered to directly by the Lord to set him straight. So there's this, this impulse and then a difference, it's made. It's, it's 1:09:43 - 1:10:11 an input and then a difference. Build your billiard balls colliding. So some people need the diluted water in the, in the end times in the, in the, in the New Jerusalem. The final one, there's a city, there's only some people in the city, there's a light in the city. There is a river, there are trees 1:10:11 - 1:10:27 , it says the nations are healed by the leaves of the tree, not the fruit of the tree because that's something else. There are people who live in the city and they're sustained by that. There are people who eat the fruit and they're sustained by that. There are people who, I don't know what, maybe they 1:10:27 - 1:10:58 smoke the leaves. I don't know. But whatever they do with the leaves, they're healed by them, they're healed by them, which means they are afflicted and they have to continuously use these leaves to mitigate that continuous problem because that's the water down. So, yeah, so God says I want you to be 1:10:58 - 1:11:32 exactly like me. But if you're not willing to do that, at least do this. But if you're not willing to do that, at least do this and it just keeps cascade and you have the joy of the law, you're willing to live. All right, I'm willing to answer one more or respond to one more. 5432. Ok. So I guess the 1:11:32 - 1:11:56 question is what if, I don't know what I believe. There's just such a copy of voices and opinions and testimonies and everything else. How do you actually go about and know what is true? You learn that you can't like to know is a really, really, really dangerous word because nothing is final e everything 1:11:56 - 1:12:21 you think, you know, is incorrect or incomplete. But, but that's kind of like a, a big lesson to learn. So, so a place to start would be uh look at the, look at the evidences that you've seen in trying to build a model of what you have the greatest confidence in. And then that sounds like it's the hard 1:12:21 - 1:12:41 part, but you actually, I promise have already done it because as a sentient being, you could not move and operate without having already done that you believe that if you open that handle behind you, the door will open or else you wouldn't try and on and on and on. And so there is this core of things 1:12:40 - 1:13:01 that you, you absolutely do believe because it's what you, you think, feel and, and say and do and you start there because that's not the hard part actually, you know, the hard part is actually living there fully. That's what people don't do. And because they don't do that, they don't find the edges 1:13:01 - 1:13:20 of the beliefs they already have and because they don't find the edges, they don't know where the holes are and because they don't know where the holes are, they don't know fine. What fills up those holes. That's the problem. Like this lady at the, well, she thought she knew some things, she lived up 1:13:19 - 1:13:41 to what she thought she knew and she received more and some of the receiving more was, was the knowledge that she had less. Ok moments. All right. No, stop talking. Thank you. Thank you.