Welcome back, everyone.

This is week 18 of Our Mothers Knew It, and our second week

in King Benjamin's Sermon.

Sadly, it's going to end this week.

You have two chapters, basically, of King Benjamin's teachings, and

then the last chapter is You see that rain pass to his son, Mosiah.

But there's some good stuff in those two chapters.

We're going to go from four to six this week, where we left off last

week in three, you saw King Benjamin relaying the words of the angel, right?

He teaches them about the natural man.

He has this trembling frame and he helps us understand that life

is short and that we should use this probationary time to do good.

And he's going to keep that message rolling this week, but this one is more

Action packed, I guess I would say, because I think they begin to hope.

You'll hear the people's reaction this week.

You'll see how their hearts respond to these beautiful words of truth.

And you'll see momentum kick in.

Like, you can feel the change.

In fact, In this week's study you're going to see a mighty change.

But I like to sort of break that down and try and figure out how

King Benjamin helped that happen and the role that the spirit played.

You're going to get all kinds of goodness from this week's study.

I really liked thinking about this week Well, Elder Piper referenced

Elder Renlund's talk, and he gave this little quote in this last conference.

He was talking about building trust in God, and this is Elder Renlund speaking.

He said, his goal, meaning God's goal, is parent, his goal in parenting is not

to have his children do what is right.

It's to have his children choose to do what is right and

ultimately become like him.

Notwithstanding God's trust in us, our relationship with him will

grow only to the degree that we are willing to put our trust in him.

in him.

That's this week of study.

You see people who, I don't know what their backgrounds were, I don't know

if they were all relative believers before, or if they were coming from

all kinds of places, but these two big civilizations that are coming together

to become one under this one name are going to choose to change all at once.

It's almost like seeing a whole bunch of Alma the Youngers at

once, or King Lamoni's dad, a bunch of those all at once.

You see All these people who consume the Word of God in this holy place,

and then they want to change.

And you get to see this rapid progression happen in just two chapters of study.

It's just riveting to watch.

So let me give you a breakdown since we're only going to cover 3, 3, and 3.

Three key sparks or insights that I love from this week's study.

Three really good questions to get you chatting about what is here

and then also three object lessons.

Hopefully between those nine things you're going to get a broad view of

what King Benjamin offers this week.

But let me break it down a little bit chapter by chapter

so you know what to expect.

First off in chapter four this is where you're going to learn from King

Benjamin about the value of charity.

You know these are people who want to retain a remission of their sins and

he's going to teach them about the pure love of God and how to do that.

It should be offered freely, and he has some beautiful words about that.

He's also going to teach them about being valiant without being exhausted.

So he gives us some guideposts.

I think they're really pertinent in our day.

When you jump into five, this is when you see the people make a mighty change.

They themselves Choose to make covenants with God.

They're not even necessarily invited by King Benjamin They just want to like they

can feel this stirring in their hearts They can feel that they don't have the

dispositions they had before and they want to make changes and they want to make

Permanent connections to God and it has so much application in our day So you'll see

a lot of that in four you also get that or in five in you also have that invitation

to be steadfast And immovable in five.

He doesn't just want them to be converted You here.

He wants them to be converted always, and so he tries to give them guideposts

and tips on how to get rooted in Christ.

You'll see some of those in four and five.

In six, this is where you feel that passing of the torch happened.

It's a really short chapter that focuses on making a record of those

who make their covenants that day, and then also King Benjamin sort of

setting affairs in order and officially passing the crown to his son Mosiah.

And then you just get a little snippet of it.

How good of a King Mosiah will be because he stands on the shoulders of his dad,

Benjamin, and his grandpa, Mosiah.

And because he himself chooses to be a disciple of Christ and honor

the commandments that he knows are right, he becomes a mighty, mighty

king in all the best humble ways that his dad and his grandpa was.

And it's just awesome to watch.

This is a great week of study.

Grab your scriptures, grab your notes.

It's time to get started.

Spark number one I call spiritual siphons, because I think you see this really cool,

almost automatic reaction that happens in the hearts of those who just heard King

Benjamin teach the words of the angel.

So we're going to kick it off.

This is in Mosiah 4.

1 and 2 is where we'll begin.

And now it came to pass that when King Benjamin had made an end of speaking the

words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, He cast his

eyes round about on the multitude, and behold, they had fallen to the earth, for

the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

Remember a few weeks ago we talked about that awe that you feel that this is a

holy place, to be standing in awe of God.

That's where they're at.

I don't think this is, uh, a fear of hell and damnation as much as it is an awe of

how big God is and how close they came to destruction by being in this fallen world.

The same way later when we study King Lamoni's wife, as soon as she comes out

of her kind of comatose state, that's the first thing she shows gratitude for.

She just realized how close she was to destruction and she's so

grateful for the Vastness of God.

I, that's how I feel like their hearts are.

Then this is two, And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state,

even less than the dust of the earth.

And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying, O have mercy and apply

the atoning blood of Christ, that we may receive forgiveness of our

sins, and our hearts may be purified.

For we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven

and earth and all things, who shall come down among the children of men.

Remember the, Angel's key message was that Christ is coming, that the

atonement of Jesus Christ covers all of you, that it covers all kinds of

sin, that he will be merciful and forgiving to those who come to him.

So I feel like this is not them feeling hopeless as much

as they're feeling hungry.

I think this is what hungering and thirsting after righteousness

looks like and sounds like.

They feel that empty place of the natural man that they have chosen

to set down and there's a A little window of time where they are feeling

hungry, and they know they want something to fill them up, and so they

turn to a source that can fill them.

What I think is beautiful about this is, visually, it reminds me of a siphon.

Like, when you move water out, immediately something else rushes in, right?

That's kind of the whole idea, is that that force continues, because

as the original content is going out of the container, something else

is pulled in by that vacuum effect.

That's what I think happens with the spirit, you guys.

When we set down the natural man, when we set down, I mean, look at the

history in scriptures that we see.

When Peter sets down his boat full of fish and walks away, it makes

room for something else to fill.

It almost draws in the spirit.

I think you see the same thing, like, do you remember Elder DeFeo's

talk from conference where he talked about Bartimaeus setting down that

beggar's coat on his way to receive the miracle of his blindness being cured?

You see it with the anti Nevi Lehi's when they set down their weapons

of war, There's, you know, an itch in their hands, I imagine, where

they're used to holding weapons.

Now they want to do good and to consecrate their lives to God.

And you see it all throughout Scripture.

These people who take these moments to set down and feel that hunger.

And what the Lord does in that beautiful moment of consecration, when we choose

to set down what we thought we loved for something Heathen knows we'll love more,

is He lets the Spirit flow in and fill us.

And that's what you see happening to these saints.

So look in verse three, And it came to pass, that after they had spoken these

words, the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with

joy, having received a remission of their sins, having peace of conscience,

because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ, whom should

come, according to the words which King Benjamin had spoken unto them.

They are filled.

in this moment where they felt the ache and the hollowness of setting down the

natural man immediately like a siphon.

The spirit comes in and it fills their hearts and they feel peace and joy.

They have that remission of sins, a clear conscience, and they want to Hold it.

You know, there is such beauty in this to me, because oftentimes I think when

we encounter something divine we fear, the same way the shepherds in the fields

feared when the angel first came in Luke 2, we fear what we don't understand.

We fear even a little bit when we're asked to set something down.

Trusting that there must be something greater that he's

gonna fill up our hands with.

It's that moment of hunger and hollowness that I think pulls the spirit in rapidly.

God, I honors our efforts to sacrifice and to consecrate.

And when he sees those things happen, he pours in his spirit.

To me, it's the same thing that Alma taught us.

Well, he'll teach us soon in Alma 32 about giving place.

So you remember his chapter all about experimenting on the word.

This is how he says it.

This is Alma 32 28.

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed.

Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be

a true seed or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will

resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts.

And when you feel these swelling motions, you'll begin to say within yourselves, It

must needs be that this is a good seed.

Or that the word is good.

For it beginneth to enlarge my soul.

Yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding.

Yea, it beginneth to be delicious unto me.

Where they felt hunger before, they now feel full.

And it's delicious.

And they're expanding.

They're not just full from where they were before.

He's stretching them.

He's enlarging their mind and enlightening their understanding and stretching

what they thought was good before to something that is so much bigger.

This is what President Eyring said.

True conversion depends on seeking freely in faith with great effort and some pain.

I love that he said that.

I just hadn't read that from an apostle before.

True conversion depends on seeking freely in faith with great effort and some pain.

Then it is the Lord who can grant the miracle of cleansing and change.

Combining our effort with the Savior's ability to change

us, we become new creatures.

So I guess the question is, how do we give place if this world is so full of Doubts

if we have past experiences in this mortal world that lead us to doubt the goodness

of God or to doubt that his promises Are sure or you know to doubt that his mercy

and atonement can really offer us what he says it can That's what I think you

have to keep reading in the chapter So this is chapter same chapter but verse 9

you have to trust in the order of things What he says is basically if you doubt

begin here believe in God This is nine.

Believe in God.

Believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth.

That he has all wisdom and all power, both in heaven and in earth.

Believe that man does not comprehend all the things that,

which the Lord can comprehend.

And again, believe that you must repent of your sins and forsake them.

And humble yourself before God, and ask in sincerity of

heart if he would forgive you.

And now if you will believe all these things, see that you do them.

What I like about that verse is, it kind of pushes down all of

the exceptions I make for myself.

You know, why I doubt God's love for me, or why I might doubt the power

of the atonement in my life, or why I might doubt my place in this kingdom.

It helps me push all those down in this order.

For me, I never read it this way, but I think it was Jack Welch.

I read it in a book.

I think it was Jack Welch who pointed this out, that you can

actually see verse nine as an order.

Like, just begin with believing in God.

Start there.

If you can't understand everything else, if you can't say you have a testimony

of the restoration yet or of the temple yet, just begin with what do you believe?

Do you believe in God?

And do you believe in his nature and his attributes?

Do you believe the kind of God that we worship?

And if you can get there, then believe that he is.

Once you've established that maybe God can exist and you've planted that little seed.

and it starts to sprout, then believe that he is what he says he is.

That he created all of these things for you.

That his intent was to bring you joy.

Stretch to that far, and once you have that much belief,

stretch to the next level.

That's where you believe that he has all wisdom and power,

both in heaven and earth.

He can do things you can't understand.

In fact, that's where his next phase of belief is.

Even if you believe that about God, and you still can't wrap

your head around it, believe that that's the very nature of God.

That you're, you're not going to be able to grasp how he can forgive

so mercifully, even someone who has made the same mistake over and over.

You don't have to understand it.

You can't comprehend the nature of God fully, so you just have to

trust that he is who he says he is.

And if you can get to that level of belief, then you get to chapter, verse

10, where he asks you to then repent.

If you can believe just that much, then repent.

Choose to change.

And then if you believe enough, do these things.

And for me to, in my perspective, I think that's him saying, plant the

seed, experiment, and watch it grow.

And at some point you're going to taste the fruit, and you're going to be

able to say, this is delicious to me.

It was worth everything I had to set down.

It was worth, I received so much more than what I offered.

In fact, my favorite verse on all of this is what you find in Psalms.

So if you go in Psalms 30, verse five, it says this.

For his anger endureth for a moment.

In my mind, I swap out hunger.

Hunger endureth for a moment.

The lack I feel when I set down the natural man, that, that fear and that

emptiness, it endures for a moment.

But in his favor is life.

Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Not just any joy, but a fullness of joy.

That's what he offers in exchange for anything he's asked you to set down.

And I think King Benjamin's teaching that it's absolutely worth it.

So much of Benjamin's focus this week is to help them hold on to

this experience that they're having.

He doesn't want them to just have that EFY high, you know, where you've just come out

of this incredible experience and you're.

on the road, and you're feeling it, and you're like, I'm going to make some

changes, and then you get back into the real world and things fall apart slowly.

He doesn't want that for them.

The same way most of us probably felt this big push to get to the temple as

soon as we heard the words in conference, and then slowly over time that kind of

eases back into our natural rhythm and.

Benjamin's job is to keep that stirred up, right?

He doesn't want them to set this joy down or to lose the remission of their

sins that they've obtained at this point.

He wants them to retain it.

And again, because I think his focus is so much on agency, he tries to help

them see that they get to control how to retain a remission of their sins.

And he's gonna teach them in 11 and 12 of chapter four, it says, and again, I

say unto you, as I have said before, that as you have come to a knowledge of the

glory of God, or if you have known of his goodness and tasted of his love, and

have received a remission of your sins, which causes exceedingly great joy in

your souls, even so I would, you should remember and always retain in remem.

the greatness of God and your own nothingness and his goodness and long

suffering towards you unworthy creatures and humble yourselves even in the depths

of humility calling on the name of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in

the faith of that which is to come which was spoken by the mouth of the angel

and behold i say unto you that if you do this you shall always rejoice and

be filled with the love of God This is not just a taste of the love of God.

This is to be filled with the love of God.

And then he says, And always retain a remission of your sins, and ye shall

grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the

knowledge of that which is just and true.

That word, remission, is personal to me, right?

I, um, I battle for remission, not for mine, but for Jason's.

Like, we've talked many times about it, but I just feel like

there is such relief in remission.

He, his cancer has come back several times over the last seven

years, and when you get that clean scan, there, here's the thing.

When I, when we head into a scan, my brain, for about two or three weeks

before the scan, prepares itself.

I swear it's just a self defense mechanism, but like I start thinking in

my head about, okay, what would I need to do if, if the scans came back bad?

And in my brain, I even have levels of bad, you know, like if it's just a little

bit bad, here's what I think we should do.

And this is how we should arrange school.

And this is probably the rides I'm going to need to work out.

Like my brain just can't stop.

I'm constantly trying to figure out ahead of time so that I'm not caught

off guard, which is ridiculous because it doesn't matter how much I prepare.

I am caught off guard, but it's like, I'm bracing myself for

an expectation of hard news.

And then a few times, lately, a few more times, we have had that beautiful

moment of a remission announced where there is no evidence of disease.

And I Rejoice, you know, because all those weights and feelings of

struggle and how am I going to do this?

And how can what do I how will I handle this?

All of that just drops off your shoulders and you literally feel like you could

float a little bit But in no way does my brain think Oh good, we're done.

You know, because I just think that's the nature of cancer.

It's this unruly tide that I can't control.

In fact, it just ebbs and flows at these random rates and I, there's nothing

I can do in my life to control it.

So I'm just at the mercy of it.

And what I love about King Benjamin's sermon is he's saying

these people here essentially feel like they just got clean scans.

They were just looked at by the Lord and he deemed them worthy.

He granted them the forgiveness that they needed.

He granted them a remission of their sins and said, You

are whole before me right now.

And they feel that lift.

That's why I think they fall to the ground in joy.

There is something about that moment of And I, I'm sure it's at another

level when it's spiritual, but for me, even the physical relief is,

it is tangible and it is powerful.

And that's what they feel in this moment.

But I think what's powerful about what King Benjamin does that is very different

than what cancer scans do is he says, do you want to keep this feeling?

You actually get to control this one.

I felt this from the Lord several times where I can't control Jason's cancer.

There, there is really almost nothing I can do to.

Keep it at bay.

But what I can do is control my stance.

I can control my testimony.

I can control my connection to God and the joy that I feel

because of those connections.

I can control my marriage and how it's going.

I can control a lot of those things.

And so he tells me to focus my attention there.

And I just think it's a powerful reminder that he's trying

to put choice in your hands.

King Benjamin and the Lord, they're trying to say, you get to choose how to,

how you're going to keep this remission.

If you want to keep this spiritual cancer at bay, here's what you have to do.

And that's what's in the verse.

So here's just a few.

One of the things I think you have to do is remember the taste of his love.

When you have tasted his love, that freedom and peace that comes with it.

knowing you are forgiven.

Even just of your natural man condition and that you will indeed be resurrected.

There is a taste of his love and you have to remember it.

And every Sunday when you partake of the sacrament, I think it's his way of saying,

don't forget what this tastes like.

Please remember what this offering is.

And so he asks you to retain that in remembrance.

Do something in your life so that you can hold on to that remembrance.

Another way you can control whether or not you're in spiritual remission or not is

that you can remember the bigness of God.

I think the same way, you know, if you think about David.

fighting Goliath.

There's no way he thought he was just a really good shot.

Like that one little stone happened to hit the exact spot that would

make this gigantic man topple.

There's no way he thought that was his effort.

The same thing happened, I imagine, when they stomped around the walls of Jericho.

You know, when those walls finally tumbled down, there's no way

they thought they're marching.

did the tumbling, or that Moses thought that his staff

really separated the Red Sea.

Every one of us knows exactly how capable we are and how big God is.

And what King Benjamin is teaching is if you want to keep that spiritual

cancer at bay, keep it in remission, then you need to remember the

goodness of God, how big he is, and how small you are in comparison.

The amount of work that you had to put in compared to the amount of

suffering that he put in, he is.

vast.

He is big.

There's some beautiful quotes in the notes from different apostles

who talk about even though we are nothing in comparison to the gift

of God, we are something to him.

In fact, we are everything to him.

And I love that you hear that in Benjamin's words.

He wants them to understand that they are small in comparison, but the Lord

of the universe is focusing on them.

That that tells you something about the character of God.

Then he tells them another way to keep their their remission in at

play is to call on the name of the Lord daily standing steadfastly in

the faith of that which is to come.

I really love both of these.

First, I think the daily piece is just critical.

I think it's almost like the manna in the wilderness.

There is something about Choosing to come to him daily, that constant

discipleship that says, I'm not in a transactional situation with you,

I'm in a relationship with you.

I actually want to see you and feel your love every day.

I want to taste of your goodness every day.

I want to do the good things that you need from me every day.

It says we're in a relationship and I'm here for the long haul.

So I love the daily piece.

Then I also love that last one of standing steadfastly in the

faith of that which is to come.

Because remember, what they learned from the angel that is to come is

that the Savior will come and that he will suffer for the sins of all.

For me, the reason this piece matters so much is I think it

helps them breathe for later.

You know, like, they don't have to panic if they make mistakes two days from now.

Even though they have new light and knowledge today, they may falter.

a week from now or two months from now.

And what he's saying is, stand steadfastly in the promise of that which is to come.

Meaning keep coming back, keep repenting, keep this remission of your sins.

Remember that this atonement doesn't just apply to the sins you've done up

to this point today, it will apply to everything that's all in the future.

So you should rest on that strength of the Lord and not panic or not get hyper

fixated on being perfect in his eyes.

Because What the angel has promised is he will continue to take care of you.

He will continue to be merciful and continue to forgive.

That's just his nature.

That's how you control remission.

That is something that is so sweet to me and so empowering to me

that I just, I loved reading it.

I loved studying it.

Um, this is Elder Christofferson.

He called this, in the last conference, being valiant to the testimony of Christ.

When you do those things, remember his love, remember what it tastes

like, remember how much you need him and how big he is, come to him daily,

and then stand steadfastly in faith.

That's what I think it means to be valiant in the testimony of Christ.

So this is Elder Christofferson.

Beyond this testimony is the question, what do we do about it?

The inheritors of the Celestial Kingdom receive the Testament of Jesus in the

fullest sense by being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost, and overcoming by faith.

The principles and truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ govern

their priorities and their choices.

The testimony of Jesus is manifest in what they are and what they are becoming.

Their motive is charity, the pure love of Christ.

Their focus is on pursuing the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And then he compares it to those of the terrestrial

kingdom, just one kingdom down.

He says, at least some of those who will be found in the terrestrial

kingdom also accept the testimony of Jesus, but they are distinguished

by what they don't do about it.

Not being valiant.

Sorry, not being valiant in the witness of the Savior suggests a degree of

apathy or casualness, being lukewarm, as opposed to the people of Ammon in the

Book of Mormon, for example, who were distinguished for their zeal towards God.

That's King Benjamin's imitation.

If you love this remission feeling and the joy that is filling you

up right now, grab hold of it.

Keep it with you and then act and if you do act on those simple daily

discipleship opportunities that he's laid out for you Then your nature

changes and all of a sudden the rest of your life is better That's if you

look through the rest of the chapter, that's sort of what he articulates.

You'll be a better parent You'll be a kinder to those in need You'll sucker

those who stay in a need of sucker rather than get self righteous or

judge them because you think they got themselves into this mess your nature

will be different if you choose to come to him in this daily, simple way.

And so he promises a few of those blessings.

If you look from 13, 16, you'll see a few of them laid out.

I won't read the whole thing for you here, but he says, You

won't have a mind to injure.

You'll live peaceably.

You won't suffer that your children will go hungry.

You'll teach them in righteousness.

You'll help them know how to love and serve one another.

And then you'll help those who are in need.

If you doubt your capabilities as a disciple of Christ.

The trick and the antidote to that doubt is to dive fully in,

you know, live the gospel and watch how he changes your heart.

Spark number three, I call come as you are, because I love the way King Benjamin

created a holy place for these people.

Remember, he's weak and like shaking, his frame is shaking.

I wonder sometimes if his voice was delicate, like if he couldn't

project the way he probably could have when he was younger.

And he worried if.

If he was able to get the message across because he sends out

almost like emissaries into the crowd to see how are they doing?

Do they believe the words I've been teaching them?

I don't think this is King Benjamin taking the temperature of the people

to see if his talk landed well.

You know, that's, I don't think that's his situation.

I really think this is him saying, You need to take the next step.

If you believe the words that I've taught you so far, really believe

them, then you'll want to act.

You'll want to do something.

So I think he's trying to feel out, are they ready for the

next step in this process?

Do they want to go further in this connection to God?

And so he sends out people to find out how this group is feeling.

And remember, just last week we studied that there are so many people there

that they can't even number them.

And this is the reaction that happens.

This is Mosiah 5, verse 2.

And they all cried with one voice, saying, Yea, we believe all the

words which thou hast spoken unto us.

And also we know of their surety and truth, because the spirit of the

Lord omnipotent, which hath wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts,

that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.

Because they're in this holy place that King Benjamin created.

They had a chance to soak in the spirit.

And because the spirit filled them, now they want to change.

They weren't compelled to change.

They weren't shamed into changing or felt peer pressure by others.

They want to change.

But they needed to get into this holy place first and be around holy

people and experience what that spirit feels like in order for that,

that desire to change to occur.

That's Benjamin's job was.

And I think it's our job too.

Our job is to gather people in give them holy places, let them be by

holy people and in groups that are, you know, devoted to God, and let

the Spirit just work on hearts.

Rather than setting up barriers before they can enter, I think our job is to

throw open the doors and let people gather in our homes and in our sacrament meetings

and in our youth activities so that they can feel and drink in the Spirit.

because the Spirit will motivate them to change.

They won't need to hear it from us or feel the pressure from us.

You see that in these saints.

So if you look through five, six, and seven, this is what you see.

And this is them, the group speaking.

And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will

and to be obedient to his commandments and all things that he shall command

us all the remainder of our days that we may not be bring upon ourselves

a never ending torment as has been spoken by the angel that we may not

drink of the cup of the wrath of God.

And now these are the words which King Benjamin desired of them, and therefore he

said unto them, Ye have spoken the words that I desired, and the covenant which

ye have made is a righteous covenant.

And now because of the covenant which ye have made, ye shall be called the children

of Christ, his sons and his daughters.

For behold, this day he has spiritually begotten you.

For ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name.

Therefore, ye are born of him, and ye have become sons, and,

his sons and his daughters.

What I think is beautiful about the way King Benjamin articulates this is

he helps them understand that they're choosing this change on their own.

He could have, as a king and as the spiritual leader of this people, said, I

just want those who are already ready to make covenants to come to this gathering.

But instead, he said, I want everybody, I want all your kids, even your rebellious

teenagers, I want your spouses that are grumpy, I want, I want all of you

here, and we're gonna create this holy space, I'm gonna teach truth about

the commandments of God, and I'm gonna let the Spirit do its mighty work.

And that's what happens, they want to change.

That's why I love the way King Benjamin demonstrates it, he says,

this is exactly what I hoped for you.

He could have changed it.

He could have chosen to use that hope and set up barriers to say, well,

since I really want just people who are willing to make that next covenant,

I'm going to create some barriers of entry to even come to this event.

Instead he just opens it wide and then lets them choose to

engage and where things go next.

The reason I call this spark come as you are is because I

just heard a podcast recently.

You may have heard it as well.

It's about these FSY directors and how they Deliberately chose

to do this for their big event.

I think it was in London and how they kind of threw open the doors both with

their marketing and with their invitations out to people that the barriers that

might have been there in the past with Expectations about what your hair

color might look like, or what your clothes are, or those kind of things.

They set all that down and just said, Just come.

Just come.

Gather with us.

Come to this safe space that will be a holy place.

Where we will teach truth.

And then watch what happens.

What I love about podcasts is they started to articulate how they saw

these changes happen in others too.

They saw people who felt the spirit and made changes in their life.

That, it almost like set them on a different trajectory.

And I think that's his invitation.

I think the Savior demonstrated this in his ministry all the time.

That he went where sinners were.

That he walked the roads with, you know, prostitutes and with publicans and all

kinds of people that others pushed aside and he said, No, you all can gather

here, but you won't stay the way you are.

By feasting on the Spirit that is here, you will want to change.

I won't have to pressure you to change.

I won't compel you to change.

You'll actually change.

Want to change because you won't have any more disposition to do evil.

You'll want to do good continually That's his promise and I think it's

the promise for us, too I do think there's a bit of a caution here in

that I don't think these Boundaries are the same with priesthood leaders.

I think there are Well, let me read you this quote from President Packer and

then you can tell me what you think.

He says this, some members wonder why their priesthood leaders will

not accept them just as they are and simply comfort them in what

they call pure Christian Love.

Pure Christian Love.

The love of Christ does not presuppose approval of all conduct.

Surely the ordinary experiences of parented teach us that.

teach that one can be consumed with love for another and yet be

unable to approve unworthy conduct.

We cannot, as a church, approve unworthy conduct or accept in full

fellowship individuals who live or teach standards that are grossly

in violation to that which the Lord requires of his Latter day Saints.

If we, out of sympathy, should approve unworthy conduct, it might

give present comfort to someone, but it would ultimately not contribute

to that person's happiness.

That I think is a really important distinction, especially when it comes

to priesthood leaders and being able to be in the temple and other things.

But for those of us who are members, who are asked to judge not and to forgive

fast and to open our arms wide and show charity, to remember that we are all

beggars here, that we are all people who need the grace of Jesus Christ.

And so we are intended to open our arms and welcome and bring them to

places where the Spirit can fill them up and give them a desire to change.

on their own.

That will happen at his hands.

This is something I thought we saw beautifully in conference.

Basically, I feel like what our leaders did in conference is the

same thing King Benjamin did.

They gathered anyone who would listen, whether you were a member of the church

or not, you could tune in to conference and listen to leaders teach truth.

And the words they spoke were welcoming, warm words.

This is President, or sorry, Elder Uchtdorf.

The peace he gives is not like what the world gives.

It's better.

It's higher and holier.

Jesus said, I come that they might have life, that they

might have it more abundantly.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the good news of great joy.

It's a message of matchless hope.

a message of yoke bearing and burden lifting, of light gathering, of

heavenly favor, higher understanding, holy year covenants, eternal

security, and everlasting glory.

Joy is the very purpose of God's plan for his children.

It's what you were created for, that you might have joy.

You were built for this.

This is Elder Uchtdorf opening those doors wide saying anyone can come

and listen to this Tawkak Conference.

Come, come and listen to the words of truth and then let the spirit of what

I just taught you about joy and God's purpose in your life bloom up in you.

You hear something really similar from Elder Kieran, again, just

from this last conference.

Everything about the Father's plan for his beloved children is

designed to bring everyone home.

Imagine if you were one of the people who just happened to stumble upon Conference,

the same way some may have just stumbled upon King Benjamin's Sermon, and then sat

down, because they felt welcome there.

They could come as they were, but never leave the same.

Jesus will, this is again Elder Kieran, Jesus will is

the benevolent Father's will.

He wants to make it possible for every last one of his father's

children to receive the end goal of the plan, eternal life with them.

None is excluded from this divine potential.

If you are prone to worry that you will never measure up, or that the loving

reach of Christ's infinite atonement mercifully covers everyone else,

but not you, then you misunderstand.

Infinite means infinite.

Infinite covers you and those you love.

The Savior, the Good Shepherd, goes in search of his lost

sheep until he finds them.

He is not willing that any should perish.

Mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever

will come, him will I receive.

I think that example of what our leaders did at conference should

reverberate into our lives.

As we open up our arms and reach out hands of kindness to others, we should

do it with broad, wide arms, and bring all in and make all see how they are

loved by God and a part of this plan.

And then help them understand that even though all of us come

to the gospel as we are, None of us, hopefully, leave that way.

That's Elder Holland's message, that if you come as you are, don't expect to

stay that way, because that's the gospel.

That didn't happen for any of King Benjamin's people either.

They all came exactly as they were that day when they heard this invitation,

but they left new creatures, and that's the invitation for us as well.

We've covered some key insights.

Now let's jump into the questions portion just so you have some good conversations

this week or have good things to stew on while you get into your scriptures.

My first question of the three comes from Mosiah 4.

This is when King Benjamin is trying to give some direction to people about

you should give, that we all should give abundantly, and then he gives this

advice to those who don't have enough.

Those who are poor right now and declaring their hearts somewhere.

So this is verse 24 and 25.

And again, I say unto the poor, Ye who have not, and yet have sufficient,

that ye remain from day to day.

I mean all you who deny the beggar because ye have not.

I would that ye should say in your hearts, I give not because

I have not, but if I had.

I would give.

And then 25.

And now if you say this in your hearts, you remain guiltless,

otherwise you are condemned.

And your condemnation is just, for you covet that which you have not received.

I think this is King Benjamin's cautionary tale of sorts.

He's saying if you're in a position where you, you really can't give

because you already lack, then you can say that to the Lord.

I wish I could, but I can't.

So your heart is declared guiltless.

But he does warn that there's, if you're constantly.

Envious or coveting or it's almost that opposite end of pride.

You know, you can have pride that looks down on others and pride that creeps