0:00:00 - 0:00:24 Something I'm very passionate about is helping the people I care about to overcome situations that currently overcome them. And recently, I've had some conversations with some close friends and my heart goes out for them to them for the challenges that they're currently facing. And so as I was studying 0:00:23 - 0:00:50 this morning and, and working on some things, I, I thought I'd take a break and share with you some ideas that I hope you find powerful in your journey to not just draw nearer to God but feel more of his strength in your life. So, the title of today's presentation is Breaking the chains of incorrect 0:00:49 - 0:01:12 and incomplete ideas. The subtitle is the mighty change of heart comes by hearing, believing and obeying God's word. Now, I've tried to condense quite a bit of information in this presentation. So I thought I'd give you an overview before we start so that you have a map of where we're going and you don't 0:01:12 - 0:01:30 get sidetracked by where we might start or a point to making along the way. I think this converges quite well onto the points I'm trying to make here. So please just bear with me So the outline is we'll start. I I'm sorry, this isn't in any particular order but the over the overview of the ideas will 0:01:30 - 0:01:50 cover uh I, I've structured this into some questions. So at the end of this, you should have very solid answers for the following questions. What is the mighty change of heart? And where does it come from? Why is sin so appealing? Why is it particularly difficult to repent in the modern world? And why 0:01:50 - 0:02:17 will blessings diminish the longer you wait to repent? So with that, let's get started. I want to start with some assertions. God wants you to have greater and more enduring joy. Joy comes from value and greater value comes through exchanging lesser value. Now, I'm just presenting these as assertions 0:02:16 - 0:02:44 . I make longer cases for these assertions in books and other presentations. So going through these, maybe you think of this guy who got famous on youtube for videos like this where this one is titled Trading One Cent into a House in one week. It got 17 million views, the thumbnail here it says I got 0:02:43 - 0:03:06 a tiny home and it's a guy's face with uh the house behind him as crazy as it sounds. This is one way of putting the purpose of life into very brief terms of of providing a wonderful analogy for this, that you're given something in this case a penny and you're able to trade it up successively over greater 0:03:06 - 0:03:28 and greater items of greater and greater value. And that's what this guy's video is about. And it's obviously very interesting to a lot of people. But the question is, what do we do with the same opportunity in life and not necessarily trading a penny for a house, but with all of the gifts that God gives 0:03:28 - 0:03:51 us, all of the resources we have here, the opportunities in life, what do we do with them? So it turns out that, that by nature, humans are really terrible at assessing value and using what we have to obtain better things. A great example of this also from youtube is that you'll find many versions of 0:03:51 - 0:04:10 this experiment where someone will go out to the streets and they'll have $200 worth of silver in a bar and then they have a bar of chocolate and they'll just walk up to random people and say, which of these would you like? Take one? And everyone takes the chocolate, right? So the chocolate bar, even 0:04:10 - 0:04:29 with the inflation, you're looking at maybe a dollar for that, but the bar of silver is worth $200. And why is it that people prefer the chocolate? Well, they have no idea what the silver is worth and why don't they? I mean, don't we have the internet, don't we have all these things that, I mean, people 0:04:29 - 0:04:49 don't even put their phone down ever. They're just walking around with it. Why wouldn't they just Google it because not only do they have no clue what it's worth, they assume they know what it's worth and these are joint problems and each of them makes the other worse. So we're drowning in information 0:04:48 - 0:05:16 , but we're starving in knowledge. And this is an enormous problem to discern means to distinguish it's to perceive and measure a difference between things. Discernment is incredibly important. It's important in every temporal aspect of life and it's absolutely vital to the purpose of life, which is 0:05:15 - 0:05:38 to gain more enduring joy. So if the game is to trade things of lesser value for things of greater value, how are you going to learn what has greater value? Because by default, you don't know the natural man does not know the value of things. There are many scriptures about this. Well, one way you'll 0:05:38 - 0:06:04 learn is through those who already know, maybe it's better to put it in the following terms, you'll learn more accurate appraisal of value through those who have a more accurate appraisal of value. This is not a new idea. So in Ezekiel 4423 we read and they shall teach my people the difference between 0:06:03 - 0:06:25 the holy and profane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. Now, this is in Old Testament language. But uh specifically here, what is being described as the role of a priest. Now whoever calls themselves a priest in the modern world or whatever variant they might use a pastor or 0:06:25 - 0:06:46 whatever. Ask yourself if they actually do this right now, let's decode the words for just a minute. Remember to discern us, to distinguish, to perceive and measure a difference between things. Ok. So priests shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane. Do you know what those 0:06:46 - 0:07:11 words mean? Holy means something that is different and better and profane when you think of profane, maybe you think of bad words or something. Right? Well, it, it doesn't mean something bad, it means something common. That's very interesting, right? Something common. So something that's not special 0:07:10 - 0:07:35 , something that's not valuable, continuing the verse and cause them to discern, remember to distinguish, to perceive a measure difference between things between the unclean and the clean. Now, when we hear these words holy and profane, unclean and clean, what we think about is a binary classification 0:07:34 - 0:08:01 . In other words, we've got two buckets and then we got a, a pile of stuff and each thing we have to put into bucket a or bucket b in this kind of discernment is actually the least valuable kind. So there was this old Saturday Night Live sketch with uh Phil Hartman where he was Frankenstein and he was 0:08:01 - 0:08:21 Frankenstein reading the news and you can imagine how that would go. You could look it up, you may or may not find it funny, but basically all he could say was was uh a string of simple words and then good or bad. And so one famous tagline from this was, he said fire bad, right? Because Frankenstein 0:08:20 - 0:08:40 doesn't like fire. OK. So Frankenstein's not the sharpest tool in the shed. And that's, that was sort of the crux of the, the sketch. And yet, and, and everyone could recognize that and laugh because why would you have a newscaster who was a, a very simple individual? It's, it's, uh, it's funny because 0:08:40 - 0:09:05 it strips out the value. It's ironic. But regardless as to how many people can recognize that those same people think that a simplistic view of value is good enough for the most important things in life. And they think in terms of good and evil, what's much better and that's what they learn at church 0:09:04 - 0:09:30 where these priests are supposed to be teaching them the difference between the holy and the profane and the clean and the unclean. And it's not meant to be a two bucket problem. A better way of approaching this is in, in terms of what's better and what's worse. That's a ranking, right? So one simple 0:09:29 - 0:09:56 way to vastly improve our approach to sin is to stop thinking in terms of fire, bad and start thinking in terms of this is better or worse than something else. If you've ever been faced with temptation and you're just sitting there ruminating on the thing that you want to do or not do and you have an 0:09:56 - 0:10:21 idea that it's wrong. You will have very little power compared to if you find something better. If you want to lose weight, find something better than being fat. If you wanna quit smoking, find something better than smoking. And these are two sort of wrote examples, but you can do this with anything 0:10:20 - 0:10:43 if you want to stop shouting at your kids too much. Find what is better than shouting at your kids too much and do that instead because our power to set down something that's bad, quote unquote is much less than our power to take hold of what is good. And that's why we're admonished to search in the 0:10:43 - 0:11:07 light of Christ for every good thing. It's an invitation to trade up to use what we have to find what is better. So that's the second level, which is better and worse. But then there's an even higher level of this and even better method of appraisal, which is to think about what's better and worse by 0:11:07 - 0:11:30 how much. And now you get into precision because it's probably easy to tell that, uh, not getting burned alive is better than getting burned alive. Right. These are pretty extreme things. But what about when life gets into the, the gray areas, the subtleties? It's, it's good to have greater precision 0:11:29 - 0:11:59 and you can only do that with more information to know what is better and worse by how much it requires an awareness of what options are available. And an accurate estimate of the cost and benefit of each option. Now, you will not hear this at any church. And that's because the people who are there don't 0:11:59 - 0:12:26 know this. And so in this sense, specifically, it is literally the blind leading the blind because you have a set of people who knowingly do what they consider to be evil. And yet it's their job to teach the difference between good and evil And they can't even do that. Let alone give you the tools you 0:12:26 - 0:12:58 need to progress through to a ranking of things which will give you great power to overcome sin and sufficient power to overcome all sin. And then the precision to specifically judge between things that might be close, which will unlock a um an unfathomable amount of joy in your life. Now, discernment 0:12:57 - 0:13:18 has always been a problem since the dawn of time. It's the reason why we're here to learn the difference between good and evil. However, it's harder today than it's ever been. Now, you might interject well, but we have more information than we ever have. That is true. But remember, so do the people that 0:13:18 - 0:13:39 choose the chocolate bars instead of the silver bars? And like I said, they even have a cell phone in their hand where they could look it up if they're not sure. But the problem is we think we know everything. Why is that? Well, here's why now, have you ever been driving on a road and your tires start 0:13:38 - 0:13:56 to slip a little bit. Maybe it's because of water, uh, liquid water or frozen water, right? Ice or snow or maybe just rain. And you say, well, I'm slipping a little bit but it's ok. I still have control of the car and you correct, you slow down, you do whatever and you're fine, but it happens all the 0:13:56 - 0:14:17 time that cars go off the road. This is a little close to home for me because this actually happened to me in April. Um and it was, it was a nice sunny, warm day and all of a sudden there was a blizzard, literally a blizzard. And uh the car that I was driving, we went off the road and it was just like 0:14:17 - 0:14:39 this, I thought I had total control until I totally didn't have control. Right? And it just changed in a split second. Now, um this is a, a graphical representation of what's going on. So as the situation gets more difficult, we tend to think and maybe I should add a line here. We tend to think of these 0:14:39 - 0:15:01 things linearly, meaning that we tend to think that as things get a little harder, we'll need a little more help. But that's not at all the way it works in reality. In reality, it's, it's this, it's a much steeper curve, things will get a little harder and we need a little more help until all of a sudden 0:15:00 - 0:15:21 we need tons more help, even though it's the, it's the very next situation. Right. You're driving along the next rotation of the tires, seems just like the previous one, it's only a difference of a foot or two. But all of a sudden you have zero control of your car and you're going off the road and now 0:15:21 - 0:15:45 where you could just correct your steering before, when you lost traction a little bit, Now you need a heavy duty tow truck to, to win you off the, the, the ditch out of the ditch and back onto the road. That's a massive increase in the help that you need. And so in life, in, in the modern world, we 0:15:45 - 0:16:14 are so blinded by unmerited prosperity, meaning good things that we have that we don't actually deserve. We are surrounded by unmerited prosperity and it blinds us to the difficulty of life until we hit something that is dramatically beyond our ability to overcome. And then we're in big trouble. Now 0:16:14 - 0:16:36 , on my road trip, the trouble didn't start. The second I went off the road. I was actually heading directly into that. I just didn't know and I was already in trouble when the snow started falling. I just didn't know I didn't notice a problem until I was going off the road and you will see this, this 0:16:35 - 0:16:58 pattern again and again in the life of other people and in your own life, if you open your eyes to it. It's all over the scriptures, but it's also all over your own life, I promise. So this is what happens. This is the effect of modern unmerited prosperity on your ability to see value this section of 0:16:58 - 0:17:20 the, the line where it seems like you've got everything under control, it gets bigger, it gets longer, more and more of your life. As a pie chart goes into the category of I've got this, you know, maybe you're in a situation where you can adequately cover the expenses of living your living expenses for 0:17:20 - 0:17:38 you and maybe your spouse and your kids too, if you're that far along or maybe you have that all sorted out. You're an older person and your whole life has been super comfortable as far as things go and you really believe that this means that you've got it all figured out. But then you get bone cancer 0:17:37 - 0:17:55 or then you lose a child or you lose your spouse or in the, in the prior situation, you think you've got it all figured out because you're meeting the demands, the financial demands of your life and then you lose your job and then you say no worries, I'll just go on unemployment and then that runs out 0:17:55 - 0:18:21 and you really thought you could get a job right away and it just keeps going and going and going or whatever the case may be. All of a sudden, you get smacked in the face with a, a uh I'm trying to think of how to frame this. You get smacked in the face with a dose of reality. That, that lies far beyond 0:18:21 - 0:18:42 how bad you thought it could be. And you find yourself completely overwhelmed and I don't mean overwhelmed just in an emotional while I'm having a tough time. I mean, it destroys you, it completely overcomes you and you feel powerless to do what you need to do. So modern life makes the, the part where 0:18:42 - 0:19:09 we feel like we're in control a lot longer. But it also makes the, the, the the part where we lose control, it makes it much worse, much faster. It's, it makes this part of the graph steeper, which means we need way more help way sooner than we otherwise would. So in modern times, we think we have much 0:19:09 - 0:19:34 more control than prior people did and that blinds us to the clear signs, life gives that we need to be better than we are and we need more than we have. And in modern times when the stuff hits the fan, there's a whole lot more of it and we need a lot more help than prior people would, it was a much 0:19:34 - 0:20:05 more gradual slope in prior times. And so people would grow because they had the incentive to grow and they knew they needed to. The fact is that you will notice what is better, much more clearly when you can see the difference more clearly. Right. That's, that's tautologically true. But if you think 0:20:05 - 0:20:26 you already know everything, you will not notice greater knowledge when you think you're already as good as you need to be, you won't notice opportunities or, or value opportunities to be better than you are. You won't change what you're doing to improve because you'll say, well, this is good enough 0:20:26 - 0:20:48 . You won't notice when you, when you need more than you have, you won't notice when there are opportunities to have greater joy because you'll think you've got it all already. I mean, jeez, we got a house in a cul de sac and our kids are in little league. What else do we need? Right. That is not the 0:20:48 - 0:21:14 joy that we're meant to find in life. That's not even close to it. You also will have no idea how much worse it can get. And the amount of suffering that you've endured so far is nothing compared to what could come. So these are things that end up causing enormous problems in, in, in, in obstacles in 0:21:14 - 0:21:35 people's journey to greater joy. And I'll explain much more of why that is the case in just a moment. But here's another perspective of the same idea that we've been talking about. We talk about being off the mark, right? There is a way of life. And if you imagine this is a road. The question is if you 0:21:35 - 0:22:02 take, if you veer off of it, how far down the exit do you need to go before you notice that you're off the highway? And what, what modern unmerited prosperity does is it creates this mist of darkness on the way and it looks the same to you. You can't discern the difference until you're way down the road 0:22:01 - 0:22:25 on the exit. And you're so far off that getting back on becomes this enormous obstacle. Now, with greater discernment, it would be obvious that you're veering off the road the second you start. But the modern world makes that very difficult to see. You know, here's a practical example of this. Let's 0:22:24 - 0:22:47 say you, you, you make a terrible career choice. But in the beginning, the starting salary is not too different than the alternative. Well, you're not gonna notice a difference until when, until you're further down the road and the differences begin to drift apart, right? Or let's say that you take your 0:22:47 - 0:23:07 career path and for right now, um, it looks like there's a lot of uh stability in that career and then all of a sudden the industry changes and you're out of the job and the, the alternative that looks comparable or maybe even a little worse. All of a sudden looks a lot better because you can't see the 0:23:07 - 0:23:36 future as clearly as someone who understands reality better than you. So the idea I wanna get across here is this property that once you find out it's usually a lot harder to fix. And because of that, it's not unlikely that it's beyond your capability. And there's a word for this in the scriptures. The 0:23:36 - 0:23:59 word is a snare. So a snare, there are different versions. But let's just talk about a simple wire, snare. It's a loop. It's a loop with a sliding connection. So like a slipknot, but usually they're made out of metal these days, but it's like a slipknot loop. And what happens is you create a, a funnel 0:23:59 - 0:24:21 to encourage the animal to walk through the place where the snare is set and they don't notice if they notice the funnel they won't go in. So you have to be very convincing and make this camouflage. Now, once they put their head through the snare a as they continue in with the rest of their body, if 0:24:21 - 0:24:41 the snare is set to the right size, it's going to constrain their, their body will hit the limit of the, of the size of the loop. Once they feel it, they start to struggle and because it's a slipknot, it gets tight, the tighter it gets, the more they struggle, the more they struggle, the tighter it gets 0:24:41 - 0:25:04 right by the time the animal notices it's in a snare, it's too late. It can't get out and every attempt to get out will just make it worse. So let me read to you just a few scriptures about snares and hopefully some, some properties will emerge de see 1026 and thus he the devil flatter them and leadeth 0:25:04 - 0:25:28 them along. That's the funnel until he dragge their souls down to hell. And thus he cause them to catch themselves in their own snare D and C 6315. Let such beware and repent speedily. Lest judgment shall come upon them as a snare and their folly shall be made manifest and their work shall follow them 0:25:27 - 0:25:47 in the eyes of the people. So there are many scriptures about how the short term consequences of our choices usually aren't the same as the long term consequences of our choices. Reality is set up that way. Um because it enables us to exercise faith. So it takes faith to think about figure out and live 0:25:47 - 0:26:13 according to long term consequences. That's, that's what faith is. But when justice comes and it always does, it will um it will render punishment to those who chose poorly. And so the long term consequences will always catch up with people. And when it does their folly shall be made manifest. There's 0:26:13 - 0:26:38 an interesting passage in Malachi where the Lord says, uh he, he's saying how many people say that there's no point in serving the Lord because sometimes uh often it seems like wicked people encounter just as many blessings as righteous people. And he and he invites us to look forward to when justice 0:26:38 - 0:26:59 is rendered. And he describes blessing, the righteous as taking up his jewels it's very interesting. And then, and then he says, and, and then you can discern between the righteous and the wicked. There will be a difference, right? Their folly shall be made manifest and their work shall follow them in 0:26:59 - 0:27:17 the eyes of the people, right? DNC 97 be admonished in all your high mindedness and pride for it. Bringeth a snare upon your souls that high mindedness and pride is, is thinking, you know, the difference between a chocolate bar and a silver bar when you don't you say? Well, I know that chocolate bar 0:27:17 - 0:27:40 tastes good and I don't know what this shiny metal is all about and you don't think. Hm, maybe I should look it up. Right? Second Nephi 2622 the devil leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord until he bind them with his strong cords forever because it gets worse over time, right? And with experience 0:27:39 - 0:28:10 , he's leading you in to make it worse. So once you're in a snare, how do you get out here a few passages from the scriptures to talk about that. Second Timothy 224 through 26 says in the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness, instructing those 0:28:10 - 0:28:33 that oppose themselves. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him at his will. I saw two videos recently online. It just so happened that I saw these two. I wasn't looking 0:28:32 - 0:28:52 for them. One was a fox and the other was a little baby bear and both of them had a manmade container caught on their heads and you could tell that they were in big trouble. The bear, the little bear cub was about to walk onto a highway and, uh, fox was just standing there in broad daylight as this person 0:28:52 - 0:29:10 approached him. If you know foxes, they don't do that. They run away unless they have rabies and then you run away. So, um, it was interesting because in, in both cases, the person that was helping manhandled the animal a little bit, they were a little, um, strong handed in their approach. They grabbed 0:29:10 - 0:29:27 this thing from him by the scruff of the neck and started yanking on the container with a little bit of violence. Right? And you might look at that and say, whoa, what, why is this so rough? You don't have to be that rough. Well, look, if you're dealing with a wild animal and you really want to help 0:29:26 - 0:29:47 that thing, you actually do because it's gonna fight you and it might hurt you, which will impede you from being able to help it. But most importantly, if it gets away, you can't help it. You can't chase down a fox or even a bear cub, you're not gonna catch up with that. So you gotta grab it and and 0:29:47 - 0:30:08 briskly yank this thing off its head. And so sometimes when you wanna help people, neither of these animals just sat there and let them do it right. They were freaking out because they thought that the person was trying to hurt them. So I hope the message there is clear. But the point here is that there 0:30:08 - 0:30:34 is a servant of the Lord. There is the servant of the Lord trying to help those who oppose themselves, right? And what is gentle and patient and meek in God's eyes is probably not what it seems in your eyes. Those are probably two different things. Remember the meekness of Jesus, he called people foxes 0:30:33 - 0:31:02 and dogs and he, he built a whip and he trashed the the temple, he whipped people. So it's a good idea to make Jesus your standard and not go by the um sentiments of the common man. Remember holy is to be different and better and we don't get to define what that is God does. But the point here is you 0:31:02 - 0:31:26 escape a snare through the assistance of another. Once it's a snare and once you're in it, you can't get out of it. That's definitional. It comes from the definition, right? You're stuck, you need someone else to get you out. So you might say, well, ok, but why do I need a servant of the Lord? Why can't 0:31:25 - 0:31:47 . I just pray to God and have him free me from the snare. Well, what tools does he have without using someone else? Let's go to heal in 329. It says, yeah, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares 0:31:47 - 0:32:08 and the wiles of the devil and lead the man of Christ in a straight narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery, which is prepared to engulf the wicked. Now, when it comes to the word of God, you've got at your fingertips, thousands of pages of it. When is the time to get to know that? Well 0:32:08 - 0:32:25 , it's not when you're in the snare. Although if the snare doesn't prevent you from reading, that'd be a great thing to do. And you might say, yeah, well, all of the word of God that we have in the scriptures, it came through revelation. So if that's the case, why can't God just reveal it to me? Uh whether 0:32:24 - 0:32:42 it's in there already or he has to say something else to me. Yeah, by that argument, you don't have to read the scriptures ever, right? Why, why even bother just pray and ask God to tell you what you need to know in the moment, you need to know it and guess what? It's not gonna work because God requires 0:32:41 - 0:33:08 that we do what we can with what we have before he intervenes and gives us what we don't have. It's all successive and this is the law of heaven. And so if we want something more than what we have, we can only get it quote unquote directly if we live up to what we have. And if you're in a snare, by definition 0:33:08 - 0:33:38 , you have not done that, you have not done that. And so who's going to pay the price that you have refused to pay? Because once you're in a snare, you can't do it. The only answer is somebody else. So when Elma Junior was in the snare of going about trying to destroy the church that his father had founded 0:33:37 - 0:34:06 in the land who saved him. We say an angel came. Yeah, why? The angel said why? But the text says, why too? Because his father and the whole church were praying for him. If that hadn't happened, the angel would not have come. Mosiah 23 9. His father, Alma Senior says, remember the iniquity of King Noah 0:34:06 - 0:34:25 and his priests and I myself was caught in a snare and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord which caused me sore repentance. And as we'll read in a passage a little later, how did Alma senior get out of that snare? Well, it was through a Benede coming and preaching the word 0:34:25 - 0:34:55 of God to him. And so this is very important. Now, what happens is, we talked about the snares and, and, and the flax and cords getting thicker, right? The snares getting tighter chains are broken through persuasion. And we're gonna focus on this point for, for a while. Ok? If you've ever messed with 0:34:55 - 0:35:17 a chain, I remember one time I was a missionary in, in Chili and in the mission I was in no one had bikes. But we got to the point where my companion and I, we needed bikes. And so I asked the mission president and uh it was faster than Jimmy John's. The assistants came and they had bikes for us. I was 0:35:17 - 0:35:36 like sweet. So we got the bikes and we needed chains because theft is rampant in Chile. And we were knocking doors and going in houses to teach and we needed place a place of uh a way to lock up our bikes when we were in someone's apartment. So we went to the hardware store and, and I said, what, what 0:35:36 - 0:35:54 chains do you have here? And, and the guy showed me and I said, well, what's the thickest chain you have? Because you know, we have these bikes and we don't want them to get stolen. And the guy said, well, any chain can be cut with bolt cutters. And I said, well, what chain do you have? That's bigger 0:35:53 - 0:36:13 than what the bolt cutters can cut. And he showed me this like train sized bolt cutter. He said, there is no chain for which a large enough bolt cutter does not exist. Right? And so we didn't even bother buying the chains. We carried our bikes up the steps and knocked doors and took our bikes in the 0:36:13 - 0:36:32 apartment with us when people let us in and if they wouldn't let us in, I said, I'm sorry, we just can't come in. Um, so the point of this story is that the thicker the chain, the larger the bolt cutters. So the larger the bolt cutters, the more expensive they are and you might have to search around 0:36:32 - 0:36:53 to find them. They're not gonna be as common, but they still exist. Now in the story, it was a bad thing for the chains to get cut. But in our lives, it's a good thing for the the chains of sin to be cut is a good thing. So what you'll find is this pattern that the thicker the chain, the less your ability 0:36:52 - 0:37:15 to break it by yourself and the thicker the chain, the more help you need from someone else. And there's absolutely a point where you can't do it yourself. There's absolutely a point if you want evidence for this to say otherwise will require you to be able to say you have overcome all things that nothing 0:37:14 - 0:37:41 in this life could cause you to have less joy in Christ than you do that. Nothing in this life will cause you to trust him less than you do that nothing in this life would be so difficult that you'd struggle to obey him less than perfectly. And I know that you can't say that unless you have received 0:37:40 - 0:38:08 help from someone else because we only overcome all things in and through Christ. And the way you do that ironically is through picking up a chain. But this one's not a bad chain. It's the chain that is discussed in conjunction with Elijah that he turns the hearts of the Children to the fathers that 0:38:07 - 0:38:33 all dispensations are sealed up. It's the chain of you to God through his servants. That's how you overcome all things. So now I want to dive into Alma five to give some more scriptural backing for some of these ideas and also to introduce some others. Uh We're gonna have to go through a few verses here 0:38:33 - 0:38:53 . So, so bear with me. But it's necessary to read all this. The content is very important and then we're going to zoom into a few things. We'll start in verse six and we're going to read through 14. And now behold, this is, so this is Alma Junior. I, in case you're not familiar with the, the story here 0:38:52 - 0:39:17 , this is Alma Junior going and, and preaching. And he's recalling to, to his audience's mind, the experiences of their ancestors, uh specifically recently with his father and the people that were brought out of bondage through his ministry verse six. And now, behold, I say unto you my brethren, you 0:39:17 - 0:39:34 that belong to this church. Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance, the captivity of your fathers? Yeah. Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance, His mercy and long suffering towards them? And moreover, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from 0:39:34 - 0:40:00 hell? Now, where is going with this is he's gonna start talking about the mighty change of heart and this is where he starts with remembering the situation of the people before and what God did for them. Now, why would that strengthen them in their conviction to obey God? Well, because it conveys the 0:40:00 - 0:40:24 accurate sense of value. So if someone does something for you and you think you already have what they make possible for you or you think that it's because of what you did, you're not gonna value them and then what's gonna happen when they ask you to do something? Well, you're gonna just tread right 0:40:23 - 0:40:48 over it like it's a thing of not. Now, why does that matter with God? Well, our relationship with Him is iterative. And what happens is we really just don't know very much about Him and we don't know much about what's good and what's evil. And so he blesses us in ways that we can perceive. But because 0:40:48 - 0:41:12 our perception is limited, so is our perception of the blessing. But if we act truthfully and honestly up to that, what it does is it opens our eyes to see more of what he does for us. And then that gives us sufficient reason to be even more committed to him, even if he asks more of us than he did before 0:41:12 - 0:41:35 . And so every step of the way is just what's justified. It's just asking the slightest thing and that's why we're always unprofitable servants, no matter how much we sacrifice. He immediately blesses us, commensurate with what we sacrificed. So there's no loss with God and you become stronger and stronger 0:41:35 - 0:41:55 in your conviction of that truth. The more and the more you serve Him, it's a loop. It's a, it's a feedback loop, right? So if you wanna kick, start this, the place to start is to remember the ways that He has blessed you already and to look at and remember the ways He has blessed the people you know 0:41:55 - 0:42:20 about no matter how far back in the fu in the past it was verse seven. Behold, he changed their hearts. Yeah. He awakened them out of a deep sleep and they awoke unto God. Now, I'm gonna pause there. People like citing this phrase that God changed their hearts here or in other places, they talk about 0:42:20 - 0:42:43 this like something God does to you and they're correct but not how they think. And the, the mistake they make is critical. It's a chain. The bad kind of chain all good comes from God. But we need to understand how and why or else we won't really live up to it and we won't have the joy that's intended 0:42:42 - 0:43:05 . We won't receive the blessing that he has paid for. So, let's continue because we're gonna find out how it is that he changed their hearts. Why they awakened out of a deep sleep. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness and remember we talked about that darkness, right. It's this blindness. Nevertheless 0:43:04 - 0:43:26 , their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word. Yeah, they were encircled about by the bands of death and the chains of hell and an everlasting destruction did await them. So we see their situation. They're completely bound up. Everlasting destruction awaited them midst of darkness 0:43:26 - 0:43:55 . I couldn't even see what changed it. Their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word. Not by some magic trick where God magically changed their desires, but by the everlasting word. And what did it do? Did that was that the magic trick? No, it illuminated them. They saw more than 0:43:54 - 0:44:20 they did before. That was the gift. That was the blessing. That's why God takes credit. And it's right. It's information verse eight. And now I ask of you, my brethren were they destroyed? Behold, I say to you, nay, they were not verse nine. And again, I ask, were the bands of death broken and the chains 0:44:20 - 0:44:42 of hell which encircled them about were they loosed? I say to you. Yeah, they were loosed and their souls did expand and they did sing redeeming love and I say unto you that they are saved. So when these, these, these bindings were cut, these bands were broken, it gave them room to grow, to grow beyond 0:44:42 - 0:45:04 where they were before. And that gave them place to feel greater love and joy doesn't say joy, but I promise you verse 10. And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? How did this happen? Right. Yay. What grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from 0:45:03 - 0:45:23 the bands of death? Yeah. And also the chains of hell. Are you ready? Why did they receive the mighty change of heart? Well, here's why verse 11 behold, I can tell you did not my father, Alma believe in the words which were delivered by the mouth of Abdi. And was he not a holy prophet? Did he not speak 0:45:22 - 0:45:54 the words of God? And my father Alma believed them. Did God make Alma believe the words of Abdi? No, he did not. Alma chose to believe the words of Abedi verse 12. According to his faith, there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Alma didn't sit there and beg God to change his heart. He listened 0:45:54 - 0:46:24 to the words of Abedi and he reasoned about them and he knew they were true and he decided to change based on reason about the words that Ain I spoke, you might say, well, but it was the spirit that changed his heart. Sure. The spirit is the, the, the activating factor of all of our understanding. You 0:46:24 - 0:46:51 know, if I go and I fix my car and I, I shear a bolt off and I have to get this bolt out. It is the spirit of God that, that, that works that operation of me figuring out how to get a bolt out of my car. And it is no different than the same effect that convinces me to make what we would consider a spiritual 0:46:50 - 0:47:19 change. It is the same thing. If I'm trying to solve a calculus problem, it is the spirit of God that, that quickens my understanding to do that. So this is not a cop out to say, oh therefore, if I still want to sin, the solution is God impregnating me with some feeling. I don't currently have to forcefully 0:47:18 - 0:47:46 change what I desire. No, no. Use your brain to think about the reasons, the information that He's given you and then you're free to choose and you're always free to choose and there will always be reasons to choose differently and it is 100% on you to prefer what is better, the reason He will never 0:47:45 - 0:48:11 do that for you. The only thing he can do is send you stronger reasons to do what is right to do what is better, more obvious information to show you what is better and we'll get to this in a second. That's not always a good thing. We're gonna continue verse 13. And behold, he Alma Senior preached the 0:48:11 - 0:48:32 word unto your fathers and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts. Why? Because Alma beat them over the heads with a magic wand that changed their hearts. No, he preached the word. He preached the same word that Abdi preached. God came to him years later and he said, blessed, art thou Alma 0:48:32 - 0:49:00 . Well, an angel was sent by God, blessed art thou Alma. For, for your faith in the words alone of Abidi. That's what he tells him. Everything Alma did was just from what he heard. A bene I say for years, for years, that's what he went off of. Continue in verse 13. And they humbled themselves and put 0:49:00 - 0:49:24 their trust in the true living God. What does that mean? They placed themselves at a lower ranking to God. They placed what they had wanted before at a lower ranking than what God said was better. They humbled themselves. They put their trust in the true and living God like it says in, in Proverbs three 0:49:23 - 0:49:52 , I believe, don't trust your own ideas of what's valuable trust. What God says is valuable. He knows more than we do and behold, they were faithful until the end. Therefore, they were saved. They continued to choose to prefer God. And then He says, and now behold, I ask of you my brethren of the church 0:49:52 - 0:50:14 . Have you spiritually been born of God? Have you received His image in your countenances? Have you experienced this mighty change in your hearts? Is this something that God does to you? No, you are the one who chooses to be born of God and you do it when you choose to submit completely to him. Because 0:50:14 - 0:50:50 you want to, how do you receive his image in your countenance? You do what he would do in your place. It's the same. How do you experience the mighty change in your heart? You find and receive the reasons why? What God says to do are better is better than what you would choose to do without him to be 0:50:50 - 0:51:11 freed from these chains is to be lifted into more correct ideas. I want to read to you two verses from Mosiah three and I am highly confident you've never caught what I'm about to show you. Verse five. This one will be familiar for behold the time cometh. It is not far distant that with power, the Lord 0:51:11 - 0:51:27 omnipotent who reigneth, who was and is from all eternity to all eternity shall come down from heaven among the Children of men and shall dwell in a Tabernacle of clay and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk the blind 0:51:27 - 0:51:48 , to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear and curing all manner of diseases. Pause. That's what you think about when you think about the power of God and you think, oh, that I were in the time of Jesus to see him walking around curing all these people and doing these miracles. And you don't understand 0:51:47 - 0:52:17 that for 30 years, he did a greater work than that. And during the three, he did a greater work than that. What was the greater work? It was what he taught. It was the reasoning he provided. There wasn't one time his entire ministry, he was hounded by what were considered the wisest people who happened 0:52:16 - 0:52:43 to oppose him. They could not overcome him in argument. He out reasoned every one of them. His reasoning was so powerful that they stopped asking him questions. Because every time they did more people, the audience that were watching and hearing more people ended up believing him than did before. And 0:52:43 - 0:53:01 their goal was obviously the opposite. They were trying to make him look like a fool, trying to make him look evil. And every time they did, he would just come out looking more righteous and more holy because his reasoning was so great. He said a greater than Solomon is here. And Solomon was considered 0:53:00 - 0:53:25 the wisest man in the world. Verse six of Mosiah three, the one that follows the one I I just quoted, that's the one, no one pays attention to. We talk about Jesus casting out the devils and, and he did that in prominent physically obvious ways like with the the legion of devils that came out, ran into 0:53:24 - 0:53:49 the swines. And then the guy who had broken chains with, with his demon possessed power, he was clothed and sitting at the feet of Jesus and every, it scared people so much that they begged him to leave their, their town. But that wasn't the foundation of what it is to cast out devils, that was a specific 0:53:48 - 0:54:13 kind of doing this or specific effect of doing this. What did it mean to cast out devils? Verse six? And he shall cast out devils or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the Children of men. Everything you do, I didn't pull out the scriptures for this but everything you do, you're, you're inspired 0:54:12 - 0:54:38 by one side or the other. Everything, freedom of choice is not freedom to create the choices. It's to choose between them. You're given the choices by entities that are more powerful than you and some of them are good and some of them are evil and you get to choose. Moses said to Israel, I, I put before 0:54:37 - 0:55:02 you this day, blessing and cursing. And he tells them all the reasons why they should follow God. And he says, and if you don't, this is what's gonna happen. And he lays out these long curses that are promised to the Children of Israel for their disobedience. And that's what servants of God do because 0:55:01 - 0:55:25 in everything we're tempted the one way or the other by different entities. And then we get to choose the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the Children of men, the hearts of the Children of men. That's where your desire is. Where does your desire come from? Well, if you listen to the evil spirits 0:55:25 - 0:55:54 , your desire will incline towards evil. And if you listen to the good spirits, your desires will incline towards good. And one of these points to better than you are and one of these points to worse than you are, there's no staying the same to cast out devils is to free people from less correct ideas 0:55:53 - 0:56:22 about the worth and the availability of options of action. That's what it means. Those spirits possess you when you choose to come under their power by acting according to how they're enticing you to act for good or for evil. Remember the countenance of, have you taken upon him of yourself? The countenance 0:56:22 - 0:56:52 of the Lord from Alma five that's choosing to submit to his influence and his enticements towards improvement or you can choose the other way and you will receive the wages of Him who you choose to obey. So for a servant of God to cast out devils in you, it may or may not be some dramatic thing where 0:56:51 - 0:57:22 you know, some herd of swine runs off into the sea afterwards or you're like convulsing physically, there may be no commonly detectable physically physical evidence of this happening, that may or may not happen. But what always happens is that you will choose to desire greater things. This definition 0:57:21 - 0:57:52 should turn your understanding on its head because this always precedes the miracles. This always comes first and it's a greater blessing and I'll tell you why in a minute. Now, let's go to Ephesians two verses one through five. We're to talk about quickening. No one understands that verse one. And you 0:57:52 - 0:58:11 hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. So he Paul is talking here to a group of people that have been born again wherein in time past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience 0:58:10 - 0:58:34 among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature, the Children of wrath, even as others. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath 0:58:33 - 0:59:05 quickened us together with Christ by grace. He saved. Now, Paul, in my opinion, is among the clearest of writers in the Bible. And yet his words are the least understood because Paul does not teach in simple terms. He uses the, the erudition of a scholar. And so when simple people read the words of Paul 0:59:04 - 0:59:27 , they come away with very incorrect ideas. Not to mention the fact that he wrote in Greek directly. He was fluent in Greek and translators into English, do not understand what he was saying. And therefore they translate it very poorly and usually under the mask of deeply intertwined false ideas about 0:59:26 - 0:00:00 the gospel in general. And so that flavors their translation. But I wanna pick this apart a little, I'm not gonna go through the whole thing, but I just wanna highlight a few ideas. This idea about love God who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith He loved us. Even when we are dead in sin, 0:00:00 - 1:00:11 hath quickened us together with Christ by grace. You are saved in Mark 1021. This is from the story of the, the, the rich young ruler and he he comes, he says, master, what shall I do to have eternal life? I keep all the commandments. It says, then Jesus beholding him, loved him and said unto him, one 1:00:11 - 1:00:42 thing thou lacks go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. Why does it say that Jesus loved him, that this was an act of love that he looked on him. And he thought I'm going to love this guy more. And then 1:00:41 - 1:01:06 what did he do? He gave him the invitation to improve in a way that had never crossed the man's mind as something that God would want. Something that God would ask of Him. He came to Jesus because he thought he deserved eternal life based on how He was already living. He said, I'm keeping all the commandments 1:01:05 - 1:01:28 . What? But I don't have eternal life. So what more can I do? And so Jesus said, well, here you go, do this. So when Paul says, God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace here. Save what's he talking 1:01:27 - 1:02:00 about? He's saying that in spite of where we are, God is going to give us grace by showing us a better way and inviting us to walk in it and that better way is going to be to take up his cross and follow him. Everything that He tells us in this vein will be to the end that we are more like Him in. This 1:02:00 - 0:00:00 is what quickening consists in first Corinthians 216 says, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So Paul is saying, look, you can't backtalk God and try to correct him at his own game because he knows better than we do. But he's saying, he, 0:00:00 - 1:03:03 Paul and whoever he's counting with him have the mind of Christ. They do know the mind of the Lord. And so they can correct other people. They can help other people take a step closer to what God would do in their place beyond the limits of their own understanding because they know better. This is what 1:03:03 - 0:00:00 it means to be quickened together with Christ is to have a greater lens on why he does what he does to, to better understand his discernment of value and to live according to it. In John three, Jesus says, and no man hath ascended up to heaven. But he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, 0:00:00 - 1:03:47 which is in heaven. This is an echo of what Paul says, who hath known the mind of the Lord. But we have the mind of Christ. Jesus is saying, if you want to know more about heaven, find someone who's been there or someone who knows more about it than you do cause you can't construct it from, from where 1:03:47 - 1:04:09 you stand, you receive it from those above you verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not, is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of 1:04:09 - 1:04:33 the only begotten Son of God. Pause. He's saying, I I'm just quoting Paul here back to Ephesians two. You were dead in trespasses and sin you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, you walked after the lusts of the flesh, you walked, fulfilling 1:04:33 - 1:05:02 the desires of the flesh and of the mind. But God revealed something better. He, he did it in sending his son. He does it in sending all who are more like his son than we are. And when you receive that, you receive a ladder out of your condemnation because you receive the way to become more like Him 1:05:02 - 1:05:24 than how you understand to be 19. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for every one that doeth evil, hate the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth 1:05:23 - 1:05:47 cometh to the light that His deeds may be manifest, that they are rotten God. If we love God, we will love His correction because we will know that it is our improvement. It's our pathway to improvement. And we'll know that better things exist at the end of that than whatever we had before reiterating 1:05:47 - 1:06:08 this idea that we're showing these things from heaven. Jesus says in John 633 the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Now, in so many instances, especially in the book of John, when we read things like this. We think that it only applies to Jesus. It maximally 1:06:07 - 1:06:33 applies to Jesus. But the pattern is exactly the same for all of his servants inasmuch as they're like him. Moses 661 says, therefore, it is given to abiding you the record of heaven, the comforter, the peaceable things of immortal glory, the truth of all things that which quicken eth all things which 1:06:32 - 1:07:01 maketh alive, all things which knoweth all things and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice and judgment. So to the extent that you have the fullness of the spirit, you also have wherewith to quicken all things. You also know all things. You also have all power according to wisdom 1:07:00 - 1:07:27 , mercy, truth, justice and judgment. Now, wisdom and judgment are both very much intertwined with everything we're talking about here in discerning value. Do you understand this is this clicking? So if you want greater quickening, find someone who has greater quickening. Now, I didn't touch on this 1:07:26 - 1:07:49 , but let's see where we're going. I want to. So let me back up here. We didn't talk about this prince of the power of the air. What is that again? Think about the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the Children of men, the devil's power. A lot of times people talk about his power over the flesh 1:07:48 - 1:08:26 because he can tempt you in the flesh. Sort of the devil's power is in the realm of ideas. He works through your ignorance. We're saved by knowledge of the truth. Now, we, we don't, we're not saved from our ability to choose that's up to us. But your desires come from your beliefs. 100% 100% of your 1:08:26 - 1:08:56 desires come from your beliefs. His power comes through the beliefs that you hold to free you from. His power requires you to be taught ideas beyond what you understand and for you to accept them the rational evaluation, honest evaluation. And this should clue you in to just how important it is to find 1:08:56 - 1:09:15 people who know more than you, but also that who can explain it to you in a way that's persuasive, right? So some other person could quote Ephesians two to you all day long and you would not have gotten out of it what you just did and someone else might quote it to you and teach you much more about it 1:09:14 - 1:09:51 than I just did or say it in a way that clicks for you much more than it. It does right now. I want to make this as clear as I possibly can. The change of heart comes about through choices. You make not things God does to you. The change of heart comes by finding people who have learned more from God 1:09:51 - 1:10:14 than you have by hearing what they say, by believing what they say and by doing what they say. If you don't do all of these things, you will not receive this change of heart. And so you might say, well, then why is it called receiving it? You just said receiving it. Yes. Why is it described as God changing 1:10:14 - 1:10:41 your hearts? Where do you think the word comes from? Where do you think the information comes from? But it will not happen against your will. Alma 4227 says, therefore, o my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely and whosoever will not come. The same is not compelled 1:10:40 - 1:11:02 to come. But in the last day, it shall be restored unto Him according to his deeds, coming to the and partaking of the waters of life. It doesn't just mean praying that God's gonna change your heart. So you desire to do good instead of evil, it's never ever going to happen. You will not find and you 1:11:02 - 1:11:29 cannot present to me a single person who has experienced this where it worked that way. Your ideas about this are completely made up by people to whom it has not happened as one who has experienced this. I'm telling you it's your choice and it comes by finding people who have learned more from God by 1:11:29 - 1:11:51 hearing what they say, by believing what they say and by doing what they say now, maybe you have not found someone who puts these things in a way that you believe and, and maybe you're being earnest and honest and the argument just hasn't been good enough maybe. But in that case, pray that you find someone 1:11:51 - 1:12:11 who can explain it to you more convincingly, he's not going to do it to you against your will. They're the waters of life. It's not the water board of life. They don't tie you up and dump the water in your head. You know. So you feel like you're drowning, that's not how God saves you. You choose to come 1:12:10 - 1:12:34 and partake of the waters of life freely. He doesn't force you. He won't even force you if you ask him a lot, which is what you're doing when you're praying and you're asking for this to happen to you. He in 1430. And now remember, remember my brethren that whosoever perish, perish unto himself and whosoever 1:12:33 - 1:12:59 doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself. For behold, ye are free. Ye are permitted to act for yourselves for behold God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. You understand. He gives you a knowledge and then you get to choose. That's all you're going to get from Him. Now, if you keep 1:12:59 - 1:13:16 praying, what he's gonna send you is more knowledge and you say, well, wouldn't that be great to have really strong reasons? Way stronger reasons I have right now to do what I already believe is right. I just don't want to do it. So wouldn't stronger reasons make me have greater desire. Yes, they would 1:13:16 - 1:13:36 . So what's the problem? This is the problem. Uh Alma 32 is where you want to go to read this and I'm just putting one verse up here, but you should reread the whole passage. And now as I said unto you that because you were compelled to be humble, you were blessed. Do ye not supposed, suppose that they 1:13:36 - 1:13:57 are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word? Because of what the word, not a magic wand that forcefully changes your desires. So you say, but there, but there's this discussion of compelled to be humble. You know how that happens, read the context of the passage. These people who 1:13:57 - 1:14:15 had no interest in what Alma had to say suddenly became interested when this synagogue that they had been building for, who knows how long and they were poor. It's very hard to do construction work. When you're starving to death, they were kicked out of the building that they built and not allowed to 1:14:15 - 1:14:34 come in because they were poor and all of a sudden, they're the ones that turned Elma wasn't targeting them. He's preaching to everybody. They're the only ones who were interested. So is that the kind of compulsion you want from God? Because he will do that. He will take away everything that you value 1:14:34 - 1:14:59 so that you understand your nothingness. If that's what it takes, he loves you that much. Because what he has to offer is so much greater than that and you can't have it eternally anyway. If you don't deserve it. The pattern here is easy as evidence increases blessings, diminish. That's why by the time 1:14:59 - 1:15:27 it comes to overt public miracles, what you consider to be miracles, the time to have greater blessings through receiving it because of the word has ended. Now, you've been compelled to be humble. You know, when Jesus preaches with greater wisdom than anyone has ever known and they reject it and then 1:15:27 - 1:15:58 he starts raising the dead the time to believe it because of the word has ended. Now you're believing because you've been compelled to be humble. Another example of this, there are many examples but, but just one you could look up for yourself is just how great a change Limona and his father were willing 1:15:58 - 1:16:22 to make based on what little evidence they received. You can actually go through the the scriptures and catalog the catalyst and the change, the amount of evidence that someone received and the change they made because of it. It's always sufficient. But many of these examples are much more sufficient 1:16:21 - 1:16:52 than they need to be. They're superfluous. The more evidence beyond sufficiency that someone is given the less blessing they will receive. That's the way it will be. Now, when we talk about people like Limona and his father, I have to make as clear as I possibly can. The fact that you have already received 1:16:51 - 1:17:13 many more evidences than they had their faith was such that they were willing to give away their whole kingdom. Lemoni was willing to face death at the hands of his father and the loss of his kingdom by receiving the gospel fully through Ammon. His father was willing to give away his entire kingdom to 1:17:13 - 1:17:47 receive the gospel from Aaron. And you go read what these people did to provide the evidence that caused that willingness, you have already received many more evidences than they had. If you continue to take lightly the things that you've been given, the blessings will just continue to diminish with 1:17:47 - 1:18:08 this. You know, we talked about how Jesus looked upon the man and he loved him, going to give one more gift to you in this presentation. I'm going to point out the fact that your willful ignorance of what doesn't bother you will absolutely prevent you from fixing. What does if you look at your life right 1:18:08 - 1:18:30 now and you ask yourself, what's the greatest barrier between Me and God? Unless you have repented of all of your sins, that's going to be something you're doing that, you know, or believe he wouldn't do in your place or something. You're not doing that you believe he would do in your place as you face 1:18:30 - 1:18:54 that challenge, you might find yourself saying, well, I'm just too weak to do what I need to do one. That's not true because God gives us suff sufficient strength to obey His commandments. Now, many times that strength relies on our, using the resources that he's placed in our life, which could be information 1:18:53 - 1:19:16 that we're not reading in a book because we're too busy to read it. It could be talking with a person that we have the ability to talk to because they're too prideful. Could be many things. Right. But that aside, I'm telling you right now that one of your greatest weaknesses is that you don't pay enough 1:19:16 - 1:19:40 attention to the things, you know, but don't bother doing, you don't live up to a rational approach to life and what you think are the little things and it's handicapping you on the things that you recognize as the big things for any one of you. We could sit down and go through your life and I could 1:19:40 - 1:20:03 point to uh at least a few things, but maybe a whole lot of things that are examples of this. It's your problem isn't the thing that you think is the problem. That's a symptom of the problem. Repentance is integral. You have to align all of your life to what God would do in your place. And that can be 1:20:03 - 1:20:24 in seemingly small ways. Luke 1610, the Lord says, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much Alma 37 6 says, now you may suppose that this is foolishness in me. But behold, I say unto you that by small and simple things 1:20:24 - 1:20:46 are great things brought to pass and small means in many instances. Doth confound the wise. Now, in this book, I wrote called Joy on Purpose. I've given you extensive tools to help prioritize your actions in life according to what you deem to be the most important. One of the critical benefits of this 1:20:46 - 1:21:08 is that as you start to pay attention to everything in your life that could be better, you're going to generate long lists of things that you could do that exceed your resources. That's why the prioritization is so important. You should read that book and, and live up to what it says because you will 1:21:07 - 1:21:26 , it will give you the, the power to address the most important things. And as you do that you might find that the thing that you think is the big problem just goes away, it solves itself in some cases because you start paying attention to the things you thought were little that are actually the big 1:21:26 - 1:21:49 things. I wish I could give you some examples here. Your lives are so diverse from one another that it's really hard. Ok. Um Well, I, I had a conversation recently with a f friend who's struggling with a couple of big problems he thinks and in the course of just a very brief conversation, it came out 1:21:48 - 1:22:10 that in spite of his ample income that he makes really good money. His family is still living check to check and he doesn't know how or why that is because he hands his check to his wife and she cuts all the checks. She pays all the bills. He doesn't even know what's going on there. He has no idea. All 1:22:10 - 1:22:30 he knows is that they have no savings and no matter how many raises he gets at work, he just had a substantial one. It, they still have no surplus. Guess what buddy? That's a problem you need to address and it's probably directly connected to all the big things that you think are the problem. So you 1:22:30 - 1:22:53 can't go through life just ignoring huge swathes of your decisions or your condition, you have to actually pay attention to things. And if you don't wanna get overwhelmed by that, read joy on purpose and learn about prioritization, I want to close this up by just making the injunction that it is time 1:22:52 - 1:23:20 for you to break free of these chains. If it was justified before it isn't anymore, the tools are now present for you to break free from these things. Now, more than ever, it's your choice to remain enslaved. Almah 2214 says, and since man had fallen, he could not merit anything of himself but the sufferings 1:23:20 - 1:23:40 and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance and so forth. And that he bringeth the bands of death that the grave shall have no victory. And that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory. And who expounded these things to the king Aaron did says right 1:23:40 - 1:24:07 here, I'm telling you right now that Christ has broken the bands of death. If you seek for what he has made available through those, he's making it available through this information will empower you to make better decisions than ever before. And you'll take step by step closer to how Christ is and you'll 1:24:07 - 1:24:12 receive more and more of the joy that he has, which he desires for all of us.