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Episode: 4.51 - Moroni 10, Part 1 - Moroni's Final Words

Author: Lili Anderson
Duration: 00:40:55

Episode Shownotes

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Full Transcript

00:00:04 Speaker_00
Hi, this is Lily de Hoyos Anderson, and you're listening to Tues in Glory. Thank you for joining me as we come to the end of the Book of Mormon. And perhaps you feel similarly. I'm sorry to be coming to the end of the Book of Mormon.

00:00:25 Speaker_00
It's such an amazing gift to us, a gift of the Restoration, a gift from all of these amazing prophets who recorded the events and the testimonies, the witnesses that they gave us.

00:00:44 Speaker_00
I've got a great love for these men, and I have a particular tenderness for Mormon, who was the chief editor of the book, and again, a special tenderness for Moroni, who concludes his father's labors and adds his own testimony here.

00:01:05 Speaker_00
He is the one we're going to talk about today, his final message to the Lamanites, he specifies it's for the remnant of his people, but also to us.

00:01:19 Speaker_00
And we know that, again, he saw our day and he spoke directly to us about the same witnesses so that we too could become, all of us, either recognize our roots in the house of Israel and come into

00:01:35 Speaker_00
the covenant path or join in with the house of Israel and be adopted in and come to the covenant path, come to Christ. Of course, I'm going to take a little while and talk about current events again, so forgive me.

00:01:50 Speaker_00
There's always a lot going on in the world, and I could talk about this forever, but let me mention a few things.

00:01:58 Speaker_00
Maybe you're aware that the Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on the legality of Tennessee's law that protects women from transgender participation in sports and

00:02:10 Speaker_00
also protects women from having transgenders enter their private women's spaces, locker rooms, bathrooms, so on.

00:02:21 Speaker_00
And it's been interesting to hear reports on the arguments that are being made and how some of the justices are responding, and you're seeing it, you know, according to PartyLine, basically, that some are comparing transgender medical interventions.

00:02:45 Speaker_00
Also, the law, I believe, protects children from having transgender medical treatments until they're 18. I should have checked that.

00:02:57 Speaker_00
I'm sorry, but I think that's the case, because some of the arguments have been about suggesting, supposedly, and I think it was Justice Sotomayor who said something like, well, all medical treatments have side effects, even aspirin.

00:03:12 Speaker_00
And you're like, seriously? We are now equating the effects of transgender hormone therapy or surgeries, actual mutilation of a child's body to the side effects of aspirin? Anyway, we're talking about an interesting time, brothers and sisters, where

00:03:34 Speaker_00
Even though some people see sort of a backlash against woke, you've probably heard people talking about that, nevertheless, there's a doubling down.

00:03:45 Speaker_00
People on hopefully both sides, well, I mean, it would be great if it were just all on the Lord's side, but people

00:03:54 Speaker_00
are doubling down if they have these ideologies that are contrary to the doctrines of family, the doctrines of our creation as sons and daughters of God. We're seeing this huge doubling down in some arenas, and that's not going to end.

00:04:12 Speaker_00
It is prophesied to continue until the Lord comes and cleanses the world.

00:04:18 Speaker_00
I hope that we have people on the other side that continue, and we've mentioned that it seems like the Spirit of the Lord is working on people all over the world, so that there is a resurgence for those who are open to it, honest in heart, are feeling the power of God and coming to Christ.

00:04:43 Speaker_00
a variety of ways and celebrating that or inviting others. And I'm so thrilled to see that all the time. We will end with some good news here from our current events. But anyway, you may be following the Daniel Penny trial that I mentioned before.

00:05:00 Speaker_00
They announced that there was a hung jury on the manslaughter charges, which would have been the 15-year sentence, perhaps, but now the judge is having the jury deliberate again on negligent homicide, which is a lesser charge, but still carries a potential sentence of four years.

00:05:17 Speaker_00
Now, let me just take a pause on this. I hope with all my heart that eventually this case is dismissed or resolved with an innocent verdict.

00:05:29 Speaker_00
I've talked about how essential it is for us not to penalize men for being men and to celebrate the fact that we have good men who are willing to place themselves between the innocent and the vulnerable and danger, which is exactly what Mr. Penny did.

00:05:46 Speaker_00
In fact, somebody commented that was also former military that said that the US Marine Corps trained this man to put himself in harm's way, to protect the country and other innocents.

00:05:59 Speaker_00
And he would have gotten a bronze star for doing this if he were in the military, but now he goes to New York and he's arrested. Now, even if he, and I do hope that he will not be ultimately penalized with any kind of sentence.

00:06:18 Speaker_00
But it's already done damage just for the fact that they charged him. And one of my kids sent me a note on an article that just in 2023, kind of in the middle of the year, apparently there was a black man who was

00:06:39 Speaker_00
trying to defend himself from a homeless guy on the subway, and he ended up stabbing the homeless guy, but they didn't even bring any charges against him because they deemed that he was perceiving the homeless guy as a threat.

00:06:54 Speaker_00
So they don't do any charges against that man, but they bring charges against a man that had many people in the car attest to the fact that Neely was threatening the inhabitants of that car, the people who were riding in that car.

00:07:13 Speaker_00
And he was saying, somebody's going to die today. And he was obviously being affected by either a schizophrenic episode or drugs or both. So anyway, just bringing the charge against this man, Daniel Penney, is A move that is anti-society.

00:07:33 Speaker_00
Now, why do I say that? Some of you might be old enough to remember this. I was quite young at the time. I mean, very young, but I heard about it years later in college, or maybe my parents mentioned it. I don't remember.

00:07:45 Speaker_00
But anyway, in 1964, so I was a kid during that time, there was a woman named Kitty Genovese. who lived in Queens, New York, and she was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on the street close to where she lived.

00:08:08 Speaker_00
And different reports say either 37 or 38 residents of that area passed by and saw that she was being attacked and did nothing. And they even call it sort of this Kitty Genovese effect. And it became a worldwide news story.

00:08:31 Speaker_00
And New York was really dissed about this. They were really, you know, in the news in this really negative way about the fact that, like, why didn't one of those citizens

00:08:44 Speaker_00
help her, or at least a bunch of them come to rescue her or call for help anyway. It was really a scandal at the time. Now, that's quite a long time ago now. We're talking, what, 60 years ago. Actually, exactly 60 years ago. So, look what has changed.

00:09:03 Speaker_00
Now, and that was New York, it was Queens, but now a man is arrested and has to go to trial. And think of the expense. I hope somebody pro bono is representing him.

00:09:18 Speaker_00
But even so, it's been two years of his life that has been disrupted with the threat hanging over him of conviction and a jail sentence, a prison sentence. And yet 60 years ago, there was a worldwide scandal because nobody did anything.

00:09:36 Speaker_00
So do you think anybody now is going to step up on a subway to try to help with the risk of being arrested and charged with this kind of crime just because they're trying to help and defend others?

00:09:49 Speaker_00
The odds are not great that we're going to get people who are going to want to build society and help their neighbors and protect each other.

00:10:00 Speaker_00
It has a chilling effect on all of those positives in society, because if the cost is going to be this high, I better just ignore it. I better just mind my own business. Anyway, it's horrible to think that

00:10:17 Speaker_00
We are in a place where elected officials are doing this to our cities and our society, sending these kinds of messages. I think it's outrageous, and it's a sign of the times. That's what I mean.

00:10:34 Speaker_00
The love of men waxing cold, even to the point where they can't recognize a Good Samaritans Act, and they want to penalize it and punish it. And frankly, there's the racial component.

00:10:45 Speaker_00
which is so terrible because while of course we should not be racist, and of course we should help everybody and want justice for everybody, the fact is that this doesn't help if you're going to apply one's litmus test to whether it's a crime or not to one race and another one to another race,

00:11:12 Speaker_00
That actually foments racism. I'm not saying there's an excuse, we shouldn't ever go there, but it doesn't help the average person feel more kindly toward people who are different, if they feel like somebody is getting special treatment.

00:11:25 Speaker_00
And we've seen this recently with people who are upset about all the money being spent on migrants. Again, people can call that racism, but that's not racism.

00:11:35 Speaker_00
That's just a natural backlash to people who are in neighborhoods that need some of those funds to help with their schools or to help with their streets or to take care of the parks or help the veterans. or a homeless in our own country.

00:11:54 Speaker_00
And yet instead, if all that money is going to people who are from another country, do you think that people are more kindly disposed to other countries and immigrants in general? It doesn't really work.

00:12:05 Speaker_00
And I'm sad about that because again, this isn't ever okay to hate people just because of immutable characteristics. That's not okay. Nevertheless, we're asking for trouble when we apply different standards

00:12:20 Speaker_00
to different groups, and you know that in the Book of Mormon and certainly at the time of Christ, There were a lot of troubles that came from the attorneys and the judges. Now, I have a son who's an attorney and he's a good man.

00:12:35 Speaker_00
And I'm so grateful for that. And it's great to have good people. We know lots of good people who are attorneys. But sadly, that is an area where corruption shows in a society that's going South. And it shows pretty quickly.

00:12:49 Speaker_00
And often then that unequal application of law or the use of legalities in order to persecute a certain group or whatever. Something we've seen all through the Book of Mormon.

00:13:01 Speaker_00
In 2022, one poll found that 80% of Americans believe we have a two-tiered system of justice. That's pretty terrible. I'm grateful that there are attorneys who are representing Daniel Penney and other innocent people or good people.

00:13:17 Speaker_00
I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for good prosecutors who are willing to defend the populace by going after people who threaten the safety and well-being of a society. So we need them on both sides, and we really need good judges.

00:13:32 Speaker_00
At any rate, I do want to bring up one other news item. Forgive me. The pardon of President Biden's son, Hunter, has been in the news a lot, and I just want to not get into the politics of all of that.

00:13:50 Speaker_00
I know every president has this right to pardon at the end of their term, and they have applied it in some strange ways sometimes, and they've certainly been criticized. in several administrations for the use of that privilege.

00:14:09 Speaker_00
What I want to say about this is what has been in the commentary about it. Other than the political stuff, there have been so many commentators on both sides of the aisle, so to speak, who

00:14:24 Speaker_00
have talked about, and they've said it as if it's just a matter of course. Well, I probably would have done the same thing. If I had a son who, you know, might face prison, I would probably pardon him too.

00:14:37 Speaker_00
And they have been so quick to say, oh, it's just human to pardon your son. Now, obviously, we hope that there is an attachment from parents to children. Of course, we want there to be that attachment, but

00:14:54 Speaker_00
For them to say this so glibly is disturbing to me. And in fact, one commentator, I only heard this once, but one commentator said, wow, this is a tough one. Like if I had a son who committed a murder, would I call the police and report on that?

00:15:11 Speaker_00
And he was like, I don't know. I don't know if I could do that. And that was really a bridge too far. All of it is very concerning to me because

00:15:22 Speaker_00
As you know, I've mentioned several times, I have three videos on Patreon on parenting, and it does not teach this kind of permissive parenting, which is a disaster for society. Again, what is this standard?

00:15:37 Speaker_00
Like, I think it was Immanuel Kant who talked about how to measure morality. And you know, I have not found this quote, but I remember hearing about it, so if I'm misattributing that, please forgive me. But somebody smart in the past

00:15:53 Speaker_00
said that the measure of something being moral is not whether or not the outcome will be survivable if one person does it, but the measure should be what would happen if everyone in society did that same thing. And I appreciate that. I really do.

00:16:13 Speaker_00
I think that that is the standard of what is right and what is wrong, except, of course, we know that Christ is the giver of his gospel, and he has given us all that information about truth and error, right and wrong.

00:16:27 Speaker_00
And we just read last week that wonderful Mormon letter to his son Moroni in chapter 7 of Moroni. where he gives us the way to judge. And he says, the way is as plain that you may know good from evil as the daylight is from the dark night.

00:16:43 Speaker_00
That is a tremendous chapter, a tremendous gift. My point here is that even for people who don't have a religious background or don't have a relationship with God or his gospel and his son, Jesus Christ, who is the author of the gospel, maybe

00:17:01 Speaker_00
this other standard could get their attention? What would happen if everybody in society did this? Would society benefit or would it deteriorate? And would there be costs?

00:17:13 Speaker_00
Well, what would happen if nobody ever held their children accountable for their behaviors? And even in their adult years, well into their adult years, This son of President Biden's is not even that far from retirement age.

00:17:30 Speaker_00
I mean, I think he's within 10 years or something of where some people retire. It's not like he's a kid. And it's hard to see that, just in general, people of both parties, as I said, are saying, well, of course you would pardon a son.

00:17:50 Speaker_00
Of course you would maybe not even call if you knew that your child was guilty of murder. Well, Matthew 10, verse 37, says something very different. Look what the Lord says in Matthew 10. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

00:18:07 Speaker_00
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

00:18:13 Speaker_00
That's a pretty clear statement that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us, that our love for God and for understanding that all good things bring us closer to Christ and all evil takes us away. Brothers and sisters, Let's put God first.

00:18:36 Speaker_00
Of course we love our children and our families, but do we think it helps them to get away with crimes and have no consequence, or let's say misbehaviors and have no consequence? What message are we teaching? And what would happen to society?

00:18:54 Speaker_00
And we see what's happening to society when there is increased permissive parenting on every side. OK. Paul Anderson, who is no relation, but has a website called Book of Mormon Study Notes, did some nice things for the Book of Moroni.

00:19:16 Speaker_00
He has some nice things that he does sometimes. I haven't seen it too often, but I like what he does. It's pretty succinct, and he often has some nice comments or nicely worded ideas. At any rate,

00:19:31 Speaker_00
He does summarize the Book of Moroni into seven messages that Moroni gives in this last chapter. First, I'm writing this to the Lamanites. And we see this right at the beginning of the chapter.

00:19:48 Speaker_00
I write something that seemeth me good, and I write unto my brethren the Lamanites, and I would that they should know that more than four hundred and twenty years have passed away since the sign was given of the coming of Christ.

00:19:59 Speaker_00
So he's dating this last message. And as I mentioned before, it's another fourteen hundred years before the fulfillment of the prophecies that

00:20:13 Speaker_00
these Book of Mormon authors, Mormon the compiler and Moroni the finisher, before that knowledge that they were given by the Lord that their record would come forth in the latter days, 1400 years from the last words of Moroni. That's

00:20:36 Speaker_00
playing the long game, brothers and sisters. We've talked about that. God plays the long game. He's not really interested in short-term successes or failures. He's looking at the long term. Eternal perspective always, all things being present with Him.

00:20:55 Speaker_00
But He invites us to look at the long game. That's the game that is going on here. That's the work that is going on. And then, going back to the list, number two is the famous Book of Mormon promise, right?

00:21:12 Speaker_00
includes, if we will ponder God's mercy, this is from Paul Anderson's list, and then ask Him if the book is true, He will answer us by the power of the Holy Ghost. And of course, this is beautiful, right? Let's just read it.

00:21:25 Speaker_00
It's so familiar that we probably all haven't memorized. When ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father in the name of Christ if these things are not true.

00:21:37 Speaker_00
And if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost."

00:21:43 Speaker_00
And then this hugely important verse that I have quoted so often in my life, "...and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

00:21:55 Speaker_00
It's just sort of snuck in there in a way, and of course not by chance, but that is such a powerful truth. In this day, as we've mentioned so many times on the podcast,

00:22:07 Speaker_00
We're in an information age where there's more information available to us instantly than ever before in the history of mankind. But how much of it is true? There seems to be a dearth of truth.

00:22:22 Speaker_00
But how can we tell which of all this information is worth heeding, or listening to, or believing? And it's this. This is why President Nelson has told us that we will not be able to spiritually survive in the last days without the Holy Ghost.

00:22:40 Speaker_00
That's what he's talking about. Now, he's also talking about the need to become sanctified, but this is a huge component of what President Nelson is saying.

00:22:51 Speaker_00
We can't know truth without tapping into this great gift that God has given us, this member of the Godhood that can tell us what is true and what is false.

00:23:02 Speaker_00
We really want to teach our children this, brothers and sisters, because they are bombarded with information. It comes from all sides. I'm not on TikTok. I know TikTok is huge with the kids. And there are some dangerous, dangerous things there.

00:23:20 Speaker_00
So, and on all social media platforms and on all news sources and whatever, like they're changing history as we speak. Now, good guys are bad guys and bad guys are good guys. How do our children know?

00:23:37 Speaker_00
I know they're young, but we can teach them this principle, and we can encourage them that there is truth available, and there's a witness to truth that is available to them if they seek the Holy Ghost, if they live worthy, and they live in such a way that the Holy Ghost can manifest the truth of what they are questioning to them.

00:24:06 Speaker_00
This was something that I used to mention sometimes if I spoke at a baptism, of my grandchildren especially, but I try to teach all my kids this too, that when they were confirmed after baptism, if I was talking about the Holy Ghost, I would say, this key is such a huge part of the Holy Ghost's mission.

00:24:26 Speaker_00
Now, the Holy Ghost has several roles. He is a sanctifier. And He's a companion, and He can protect, and He can give us inspiration, and He can send messages to us from our Heavenly Father.

00:24:40 Speaker_00
He can be the Holy Spirit of promise that seals our covenants to outlast death. Because only those covenants that are sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, which is one of the Holy Ghost's roles, will continue after we are dead.

00:24:58 Speaker_00
So, there are many wonderful roles of the Holy Ghost. This is a huge one. This is a huge one. In a world like ours, let us celebrate that this is available to us, this great gift.

00:25:10 Speaker_00
and let us live worthy of it, and then ask, ask God to manifest by the power of the Holy Ghost the truth of whatever it is we're studying, whatever it is we're seeking, or searching out, or trying to understand and learn. So important.

00:25:25 Speaker_00
Okay, now I'm going to go back for a moment to verse 3. Because This time through, I was really struck by verse 3. Obviously, I love these verses we just talked about, 4 and 5. But I want to talk about verse 3.

00:25:50 Speaker_00
Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things... Notice this starts almost the same way as the next verse.

00:25:57 Speaker_00
When you shall receive these things, I would exhort you that you would ask, okay, so, receive, but in the first go-around, verse three, when you shall read these things,

00:26:11 Speaker_00
If it is wisdom in God that you should read them, and again, think of how humble that is, that here he is, closing up this sacred record, and he's praying that in the wisdom of God it will be possible for people to read it, the ones for whom it is intended.

00:26:31 Speaker_00
I mean, it's intended for all the world, but he's humble enough to say, if it's wisdom in God that you should read these things, that you would remember. What does he want us to do?

00:26:41 Speaker_00
Before checking to see with God whether it's true, if you would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men. Think about that. This is his closing up message here. A few more things are to come, but these are his last messages.

00:27:04 Speaker_00
I would exhort you. That's a strong word.

00:27:07 Speaker_00
I would exhort you, if you read these things, that you would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that you shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts."

00:27:21 Speaker_00
Hey, why did that strike me so much this time? Well, I think it's beautiful. I think, again, look long view. Look at the long view here, the eternal view. It's all about God's mercy, brothers and sisters.

00:27:42 Speaker_00
His working with His children, the whole plan of salvation, the plan of redemption, the plan of happiness, whatever name we give it, and they're all relevant, It's about mercy. It's about His mercy to us. So why doesn't it feel merciful sometimes?

00:28:00 Speaker_00
Because, you know, sometimes it doesn't feel very merciful. Sometimes it feels so hard. Sometimes it feels harsh. Sometimes it feels like God has abandoned us. Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail asks that question, where art thou?

00:28:18 Speaker_00
Job asks those kinds of questions. Lots of good guys ask that question. Like, this is so hard. Why does it have to be this hard? Or, help me, because it is so hard.

00:28:36 Speaker_00
I've talked about since losing Chris and I'm coming up on a year and I'm not looking forward to that in a lot of ways, but I'm aware that this is just part of it, and many of you have been on this path before.

00:28:56 Speaker_00
But I know, as I have mentioned, that I still can sort of see in the wings of my mind and heart that I could become bitter, I could become angry. It's been a hard year, having to deal with things that

00:29:17 Speaker_00
I never had to deal with before, for lots of reasons, but even the things that Chris used to take care of, and now I have to figure out a way, and some of it has been so much more complicated than we intended it to be.

00:29:29 Speaker_00
Chris and I took steps and got professionals so that things would be smooth on the occasion of either one of us passing. And it turned out that a lot of those things weren't done right, or they got messed up somehow.

00:29:42 Speaker_00
And so, it's just been complicated this year. And then having the health problems, honestly, it's just been complicated. But I don't want bitterness or resentment to come in, because I know the Lord is merciful. I know that that is who He is.

00:30:01 Speaker_00
And my failure to see it in every moment of my life is my failure to see it. And I don't want to fail. I don't want to have to repent from being bitter or angry or careless with my knowledge of the God that I know.

00:30:17 Speaker_00
I don't want to be inattentive to the fact that over the years of my life, I have learned of His mercy, and I've learned that He is good, that He is all good. that He is all love, and that whatever happens is part of this long game that He's playing.

00:30:38 Speaker_00
It's not just about now, it's about our eternal lives. He is willing to take us from our fallen state all the way back to His presence, and not just

00:30:52 Speaker_00
where He dwells, but to be able to live the quality of life that He lives, eternal life, which requires us to become gods. Can you imagine?

00:31:03 Speaker_00
Like, the distance between us and where He is, and He is doing everything He can, including sending His beloved Son.

00:31:15 Speaker_00
who was put to shame and scorn and mockery and crucified, killed in the cruelest of ways, in order to give us an opportunity through Christ to have that gap traversed, to actually cross over that chasm

00:31:38 Speaker_00
that separates us from God's life, and to become lifted to that level, to be joint heirs with the Savior. Remember, let's just pause for a second and remember Moses chapter 1.

00:31:53 Speaker_00
Moses is taken up on the mountain and he is shown everything, basically, from the beginning to the end. And what does he do when he comes back? He passes out for hours.

00:32:10 Speaker_00
And then when he comes to, the first thing he says, for this cause, I know that man is nothing, which thing I had never before supposed. Now, this is Moses, who had no idea how large the chasm was between

00:32:27 Speaker_00
Here we are in this fallen world, earthly man and woman, and where God is and how He is. And Moses finally sees that. He sees it up close and personal, and he is passed out for hours because of that.

00:32:44 Speaker_00
And that is the first thing that he has to comment on. Wow, we have no idea. I had no idea, Moses says, how far away the kind of life God lives is from us. And King Benjamin tries to tell us that, man is nothing, you need to be humble first.

00:33:07 Speaker_00
Helaman tells us this in his book. It's actually Mormon who writes Helaman 12 that is all about, like, we're less than the dust of the earth. Like, get it through our minds. Can we get it through our minds?

00:33:21 Speaker_00
That God is so good, so merciful, so loving, that He wants to help us bridge that gap. And He has sent His Son who can bridge it and facilitate our coming back, not only to His presence, but to His character.

00:33:41 Speaker_00
to the quality of His existence, of course it's mercy, brothers and sisters. And we think it's not going to take refinement, we think it's not going to take some heart-wrenching. As Joseph Smith said, he would wrench our very heartstrings.

00:33:58 Speaker_00
Well, if we want the whole package, brothers and sisters, there is no other way. And even then, it's only because of Christ's atonement and the grace of Christ, but ultimately the mercy of God who set this entire plan.

00:34:13 Speaker_00
up from its foundations, so that it could allow people to have this option. Now, not everybody's going to take it. And you know what? Sometimes life is a lot easier if you choose not to. Now, when I say easier, I'm talking about in a worldly sense.

00:34:28 Speaker_00
You know, your heartstrings may not be wrenched as much. Of course, good and bad happens to everybody. But God is working in a special way with those who choose Him. Because not everybody wants the celestial kingdom. We've all been offered it.

00:34:44 Speaker_00
We've all been invited. It's not for the faint of heart. It's not for the weak. And let me just say, of course we're weak. But it's not for the ones who don't have the will, who don't have the desire. It's only for us if we want that.

00:35:03 Speaker_00
And then He can make it happen in us, with us, and for us. through Jesus Christ. We definitely have to give Him what He asks us for. But He asks us for so little. And He asks us, as Moroni is going to tell us, for faith, hope, and charity.

00:35:26 Speaker_00
That's one way to sum it up. And of course, faith has to bring forth the fruits of faith, which are obedience and repentance. Okay. I could talk about that for a very long time because it touches me deeply. But I'm going to

00:35:42 Speaker_00
Go on just a little bit more and touch, I think, one more message before we close part one. Brother Anderson, again, no relation, talks about the power and gifts of God, and how they are real, and they should not ever be denied.

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He gives us a list of what they include, and he talks about some of the beautiful gifts. Remember, this is not a comprehensive list.

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There are other gifts of the Spirit that are mentioned in other scripture, and others that maybe just aren't even specified that are gifts, and we can recognize them if we are

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spiritually sensitive, because they do come from God, and they are a sign of our belief in God. I love that it tells us, in verse 16, that these gifts come unto every man severally, according as he will.

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And severally meaning here separately, like they come to each of us according to our desires. How much do we want these gifts of God? Do we seek them? Do we try to develop them? You know, I had a client years ago who was a young woman.

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but old enough to have already had some really bad relationships and they were pretty doomed to failure to begin with because she was not careful about selecting with whom she had these relationships and they were bums frankly and they

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gave her a lot of grief and she ended up having to break up with him and move on to the next bad relationship. So I'm not blaming everybody who has had more than one tough relationship because that can happen for other reasons as well.

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But in this case, it was clearly that she made terrible choices in companions and boyfriends. And so

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At one point, she was a member of the church, and she mentioned, not that she was living her life in a way that you could necessarily tell that, but she was wanting to kind of get back into that more full activity, bless her heart.

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And at one point she said, you know, my patriarchal blessing says that I have the gift of discernment. I was sorry, brothers and sisters, I did not laugh at her, but I'm sure there was sort of a chuckle inside that I managed to restrain.

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No matter what my body language response might have been, I did explain to her. I said, well, let's review. I said, the gifts that are listed in our patriarchal blessings, it's not a fortune telling, it's not like You will have this gift.

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You will do these things. You know, we know that the fulfillment of those blessings can go all the way through a millennium, or take that long to be fulfilled.

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But in this case, I was like, this is a gift that the Lord is inviting you to seek and to develop. But I said, let's be honest. You haven't really shown discernment in the selection of these various young men that you have had relationships with.

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And this is why you keep getting hurt." And she was taken aback because she thought the gifts were just there. Well, it said in my patriarchal blessing, I must have that gift. I'm like, no, that's an invitation, and they are given to us. as we will.

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Like, if we will do the things that can allow God to develop these gifts in us, or grant these gifts in us, they don't just come because it's something we are foreordained to have access to.

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We have to do something about it, so I'm very glad that that's specified by Moroni. Of course, he says every good gift comes from Christ, and he will not stop giving these gifts unless we don't believe. That's what happens.

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If there's a lack of belief, then the gifts are withdrawn. But that's the only time, because as long as there are gifts,

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of God happening, it's because there are some people who are willing to receive them, and to honor the Savior through whom may come. Okay, I'm going to end here, part one, and I will pick this up in part two to finish the book of Moroni, chapter 10.

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Brothers and sisters, let's choose glory. Let's play the long game with the Lord and allow Him to play His great mercy, to manifest His great mercy in our lives. As ever, thanks to my husband, Chris Anderson, and Doug Larson of Point Digital.

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Take care.