hello there my name is Tyler Griffin and this is scripture study insights by scripture Central today Moroni chapters 1 through six before we dive into chapter 1 today I want to give a a few items of of overview as well as Foundation setting for these chapters today it's kind of unique you get six chapters but they only cover about two and a half pages total so there there isn't very much column space when you get to the book of Moroni it's fascinating to note that in the 1830 edition of The Book of Mormon it is
the only multi-chapter ver uh book in the entire Book of Mormon that is exactly the same chap that has exactly the same chapter breaks as the 1830 Edition they're retained here the original authors on the Book of Mormon plates they were the ones who would make some some chapter breaks and those are fairly large if you look in the 1830 edition of The Book of Mormon they cover much bigger uh chunks of scripture than our current uh Book of Mormon does but when you get to Moroni it's identical all of the chapter breaks that Moroni
put in they're retained here keep in mind it was Orson Pratt in the 1879 edition of The Book of Mormon who first changed the original chapters and made them shorter in most cases and put them into verses and set up the first timestamps that we had in the book Mormon that was 1879 so here we we come to the book of Moroni these these 10 chapters we're going to cover the first six today and it's also the only major book in The Book of Mormon that doesn't have a single and it came to pass there's
not one because and it came to pass is a literary technique or a a literary form to help push a narrative along to tell a story and the different parts of the story well in the book of Moroni there is no story it's Moroni who opens in chapter 1 saying now I Moroni after having made an end of ab Bridging the account of the people of Jared that's the book of ether I had I had supposed not to have written more but I have not as yet perished and I make not myself known to the
lamanites lest they should destroy me so here here at the outset it's a it's a beautiful moment for us to pause and reflect upon the question what would we have lost if Moroni had followed his original plan which was just to be finished with the end of the book of ether and that very last verse in ether 15 where he says Now The Last Words which are written by Ether are these whether the Lord will that I be translated or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh it matterthe that I am
saved in the kingdom of God Amen so that was another sign off that Moroni had given he he had already given one at the end of Mormon chapter 9 and then he Abridged all of that book of ether what what would we lose had he had he actually finished the record and we only had 518 pages of the book instead of 531 in the English text so in these 10 chapters he's giving us a mixture between a general Handbook of instructions of some basic elements of how to how to run the church which would have
been extremely helpful in those earliest years especially for Joseph Smith and those who were working with him to establish the the Church and Kingdom of God on the Earth but you also get his father's incredible sermon in chapter 7 his father's letter regarding infant baptism in 8 his father's letter regarding the the depravity of the Nephites and lamanites in as they were winding up towards the the last battle and then chapter 10 the final exhortations eight of them that morona is going to give you we would have we would have missed out on significant teachings
for both the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we're grateful that he has survived and he says uh speaking of the lamanites verse two behold their Wars are exceedingly Fierce among themselves and because of their hatred they put to death every nephite that will not deny the Christ when I was younger I used to think that the Nephites which would include the descendants of Nephi Sam Jacob Joseph zoram that whole group I used to think that they were completely and utterly destroyed here Nephi is making it very clear that they will put to
death every nephite that will not deny the Christ the implication is that if a nephite will deny the Christ that they'll just be integrated into the lonite culture and Society of their day the other thing to keep in mind is that there was so much intermixing and probably intermarrying especially in the time period at the end of Elma and beginning of helan and throughout the Book of helan where you have dis uh some exchange going back and forth um in the end of Elma 63 you had thousands and thousands of Nephites who left the land
of zarahemla and went northward exceedingly far northward hel in chapter 3 you had exceedingly large numbers of people who left the land went exceedingly great distances northward and then they spread east to west the idea being that the the seed of Lehi through the nephite line has probably been spread and Scattered genetically so to speak throughout all of the different groups of people who were living here in the Americas during that time so this doesn't necessarily signify that Moroni is the last nephite possible stand possibly standing it means that this is the end of the
nephite nation the geopolitical group designated as the Nephites there is no more every everybody else has now been integrated into other other groups other societies and we also see promises to verify that for instance uh Lehi speaking to his youngest son Joseph in second Nephi chapter 3 verse three he assures him that his seed should not utterly be destroyed so there there's this this idea that it's continuing on which is a big deal for these people who live in a Hebrew mindset where they get their their sense of identity their sense of purpose in life
from their Collective relationship and connection to the the tribe the family the the group that Community um going forward and backward in the family tree that's a big deal to them so now let's back let's go back to moroni's words here verse three I love this now I Moroni will not deny the Christ because he had just finished telling us that the Lites are going to kill anybody who denies the Christ so he's making very clear I will not deny the Christ I would die first so this is a beautiful reminder to us that if
we were in a similar situation would our conviction would our testimony be the same would we be willing to lay down our life for the Lord as morona is displaying here and perhaps the better question would then be it's one thing to be willing to die for Christ it's an entirely different thing to be be willing to live for Christ what about instead of saying if I were in a similar situation I I would lay down my life for him what about saying today I will strive to live for him I will try to build
this connection with him stop for a moment and think through and by the way if you're if you're a parent with children that you're teaching or if you're a leader or a teacher in church and you have a group of students of any age in front of you this would be a good exercise to have them pause and reflect upon what are the attributes of the ideal friend what does a true uh loyal friend do what can you rely on with them and as you list out all of the attributes of somebody who is is
the perfect Friend by the time you're done making any of those lists you can then bring it back full circle to God and to Jesus Christ heavenly father and the Savior they're much more than just a friend they're not buddy buddy they're deity they're Gods they they have all power all wisdom all knowledge and yet from that exalted station and position they they still treat us like friends they they they treat us like a god no question but they also every item that you make on any list of an ideal friend they're going to fit
that that's the kind of being that they are and we are striving to become more like them so instead of instead of being the kind of friend in return or disciple in return that only goes to them when things are rough when we're in crisis mode when we have an emergency when we've lost something or need a miracle or uh need an answer a direction right now let me diagram it this way God is The Giver of all of the best gifts and powers and answers he is a true friend and and defines what a
true friend is even though he's also our God the problem is you and I down on the earth we sometimes treat God not the way a true friend would treat another we treat him as if he's just sitting at a at a vending machine or a drive-thru window in the sky waiting for us to come to him with our latest need or demand how often do we go to him with great energy and great faith even in moments of Crisis or moments of need or moments of important decisions needing to be made and yet when
amazing things are happening in our life when thrilling events are occurring huge blessings have been given how often do we run to him with excitement and a sense of urgency to want to share that with him and to be with him and to build that that connection that Covenant connection it's it's more rare So in this context of Moroni he's given his his whole life dedicated to the Lord he's been faithful even as his people have been destroyed and now he's all alone Moroni doesn't have any friends that he can uh spend time with the
amount of time that he's been alone we don't know for sure but what we do know is that he is going to bury the plates in the hill Kamura in New York in 421 ad we know that and that by the way comes from Moroni chap 10 verse1 that Tim stamp when he finishes up Moroni chapter 10 it's 4:21 technically he might have held on to the plates longer after he wrote moronai 10 before putting them into the ground but that's the last Tim stamp we get the only other time stamp he's going to give
us is the year four 01 a and that's where we find out that he's all alone and that's for chapter 8 when he takes over the plates so you do the math here he's been alone at least 21 years but we know that the last battle took place in 385 ad so his father was at that point and we don't know how quickly after the last battle his father was was killed by the lamanites tells us they killed him in uh Mormon 8 as well so if you go from 385 down to 421 that's 36
years so somewhere between 21 and 36 years and maybe even a little bit after this we don't know Moroni is all alone without a friend but you sense from him in his writing that his connection with God his Covenant relationship with God is so deep that he would he will give everything to God he will live for him and he's willing to die for him but we've learned that no righteous person has ever taken before their time and his mission is isn't complete yet so he wanders alone with the the plates until he can bury
them safely and then whatever happens to him it's in the hands of the Lord so the the principle that I that I'm trying to to get at here is you and I could probably be a little bit better at completing this relationship connection with God he is perfect he is the ideal uh in in every sense of the word for what you would look for in a true friend a loyal friend a faithful friend always there for you never condemning you willing to listen to you uh and your frustrations and devent your struggles and your
concerns to cry on his at his knees he he's always there and he never forsakes us and yet I often forget him or forsake Him in favor of other Pursuits or other things in life so as we as we read chapter one The the message for me is give my life more completely and more fully to the Savior and involve him in everything that I'm doing Don't just run to Heavenly Father or cry out for help from Jesus Christ in moments of of utter Despair and need but involve him in everything that you're doing today
try it and see if it makes a difference in your feeling of of that connection and Covenant connection with God it's back to King Benjamin's three questions how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served who is a stranger unto him and who is far from the thoughts and the intents of his heart Moroni is a classic example of somebody who had nobody else to turn to so he very clearly connected with God in profound ways that we can learn from today and apply in our own lives today verse four he says wherefore
I write a few more things contrary to that which I had supposed for I had supposed not to have written anymore but I write a few more things that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren the lamanites in some future day according to the will of the Lord I love the the Christlike attribute here again the closer you get to the Savior the more you will begin to reflect his light have his image in your countenance the more your words will will Echo his words and sound more like his statements the more our
life will reflect his his path that he marked for us uh and so he in this case Moroni is being very Christlike because he's referring to these lamanites as his Brethren the lamanites instead of his enemies or the people who destroyed and utterly abolished his family his Nation the the the geopolitical group called the Nephites he's not he's not reviling them he's not uh giving a natural man response here he has gotten close enough to the Lord that he's now reflecting more of the the savior's essence of Father forgive them for they know not what
they do that kindness and mercy being extended in exchange for the the Warfare that they have uh inflicted upon Moroni and his people and his family I love this compassion and empathy that you see coming from him the Christlike element now in chapter two you get the beginning of kind of this Handbook of instructions segment of his book so chapters 2 3 4 5 and six are pretty pretty instructive almost as if it were the The Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament kind of the instructions for what to do in in setting up and
organizing and governing the church so in Chapter 2 you get the power to confer the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ introduced how to perform baptisms that was back in 3D Nephi 11 so here he's giving the words for the conferral of the gift of the Holy Ghost this is such a beautiful blessing that Jesus Christ gave to his Apostles when he was with them back in third Nephi and Moroni lets us know verse one these are the words of Christ which he spake unto his disciples the twel whom he had chosen as he laid hands upon
them so there's something about this this ordinance of the laying on of hands that Jesus did in the old world and he did in the new world this conferral of of power and the use of authority to give in this case the gift of the Holy Ghost look at verse two and he called them by name saying ye shall call on the father in my name in Mighty prayer and after you've done this you shall have power that to him upon whom you shall Lay Your Hands ye shall give the Holy Ghost and in my
name shall ye give it for thus do mine Apostles so he gives them power to lay their hands upon people's heads and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost and as the church grew back then just like in our dispensation those keys or that ability the right and the authority to to function in those ordinances of the priesthood those keys were then delegated further and further out to other people to be able to lay their hands on people's heads to give them the power of the Holy Ghost brothers and sisters this is significant because
for all of us who have been baptized and confirmed we we likely didn't have the prophet of God or one of the 12 apostles or a member of the first prescy laying their hands on our head to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost upon us but there is a a line of authority if you will that has been given to whoever it was that did lay their hands upon our head and that line of authority can be traced back not just to a prophet not just to the apostles ultimately it can be traced back
to Jesus Christ himself and that's the beauty of Jesus giving people on Earth the keys to administer the ordinances of his kingdom that if you use the words from doctr and Covenant section one whether by my own voice or the voice of my servants it is the same it's the same Keys it's the same power it's the same Authority that's been delegated it's as if Jesus Christ himself were laying his hands upon the head of that individual which brings up an interesting question why do we delegate all those keys why doesn't Jesus just do all
of the ordaining and the the giving of the gift of the Holy Ghost himself he's a god he's not bound by time the same way way we are he could do that and it would be an amazing experience but the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ working together is to help us grow to become more like him so he could do all of the work in the kingdom and he could do it perfectly way better than we do it but that's not the point the point is us being
given opportunities to practice and to grow to become more like him and so he gives us those opport opportunities to work Brother Brad Wilcox in the October 2024 General Conference talked about us being on the cruise ship called Earth but we're not there as passengers we're not there just to sit back and have a vacation we've been called to be on the crew and it's in working as a crew member working with Christ jointly with him that we grow in our ability to become more like him and that's what's happening here as he gives this
power and authority to these Apostles is it simply an invitation for them to know to now go out and be like him to spread all of that power to spread all of that that light and the spirit of Truth in establishing the the cause of righteousness and through the gift of the Holy Ghost through throughout all of the various uh cities where the church was growing back in in that day in third Nephi and that led to 200 years of a perfect Society of Zion in Forth Nephi of these people all spreading the Light of
Christ and the power of God through those authorized priesthood Keys which now brings us to chapter 3 this is where he describes how uh the elders ordained priests and teachers he says in the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest he be a teacher I ordain you to be a teacher to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ by the endurance of faith on his name to the End Amen those are interesting words for Moroni to be scratching into those plates as it distills upon his soul how easy it
would have been for him at any phase to just give up it was so hard for him to have to see his Society implode and be destroyed for his family to be destroyed he could have very easily be become so discouraged and distraught that he just gave up but he didn't here's a man who is showing us what it looks like to endure to the end and I find it fascinating that on top of many of our temples the angel with a trumpet in his mouth blowing this this glorious message sounding out loud and clear
to the whole world that angel is this guy who was all alone for somewhere between 21 to 36 years roughly he is his his voice is still ringing like a trumpet to this day and it's such a beautiful symbol that we have on top of some of our temples so he reflects that beautiful Christlike attribute of what it means to endure to the end because nobody endured to the end better than Jesus Christ through his infinite atonement who who kept moving forward through all of that infinite agony until he could finally say it is finished
and then and only then did he give up The Ghost and allow himself to to die and morona is reflecting at a at a very small level that that beautiful principle of endurance even in the face of incredible opposition which now brings us to chapter 4 this is the the sacrament uh prayer over the bread we've we've mentioned this before that there is no scripture that a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints hears more frequently and more often than the sacrament prayers these these scriptures are heard and reviewed more than any
other by a long long shot and they are so important that if the priest or the Elder who's blessing the sacrament misses even a single word they should start over and get it precise get it exact that tells you the importance of this particular verse chapter 4:3 and then chapter 5:2 this is the scripture that is used at the most sacred time of are weak as we not only renew all of our previous covenants but as we make a New Covenant with God again and again and again and at the core of that Covenant it's
it's two concepts I will be your God and you will be my people so once again we we come into this Covenant relationship earlier we were using the the phrase friendship but really it's this this powerful connecting relationship to say I'm here I'm still here life is hard there are a million things that have been pulling me other directions but I'm here I came to the sacrament table to not just renew old covenants but to make a new commitment I will be thy people and I want thee to be my God please forgive me please
heal me please help me please inspire me and direct me let's look carefully at these words I love I love the approach of listening to these uh to this verse in particular over the bread first with fresh ears pretend like you've never heard anything about the church before this was uh Elder Richard holap shared this with me on one occasion that if you didn't know anything else about members of the church and you'd heard what people believe about them what they say about them but you don't really know them or what they believe and if
you found out that this is the verse they hear more than any other it's at the most sac time of the week for them it has to be perfect and this is all you got as a window into their soul to see who they are and what they believe listen with those fresh ears and describe this people as they hear these words oh God the Eternal Father we ask thee in the name of thy son Jesus Christ to bless and S sanctify this bread to The Souls of all those who partake of it that they
may eat in remembrance of the body of thy son and witness unto thee oh God the Eternal Father that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy son and always remember him and keep his Commandments which he hath given them that they may have his Spirit to be with them them amen if that's all you got about a group of people you would know a lot about their theology about their Doctrine this blessing on the bread is so powerful because what you have here is all three members of the godhead you have
oh God the Eternal Father you have his son Jesus Christ and you have the Holy Ghost they are perfectly United and perfectly at one with each other and their work and their glory is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life so you would expect there to be a relational connection between the godhead and us if it's a covenant saying I want thee to be my my God and I'll be thy people you got to have some sort of a connection there and it's there the thing that makes the sacrament prayers so profound is
it cuts out all of the other details all of the other people all of the other relationships and it brings us down to the core most important relationship we have which is between us and God and His Son and the Holy Ghost the godhead the sacrament prayers bring us to be at one with them which is kind of a a beautiful application and fulfillment of Jesus Christ's intercessory prayer in John 17 verse 20 and 21 where he prays that we all may be one with them the godhead who is perfectly United and one now keep
in mind the sacrament prayers they are so Broad and so deep that you can spend the rest of your life studying them and still never never discover all that they have to offer kind of like Temple worship the symbolism is so layered and full of rich and beautiful meaning that you can keep studying it let's just go down one more layer and look at at one another aspect here and that aspect is so in a relationship in a in a covenant connection there are kind of expectations for that relationship that Define the the boundaries and
and how to maintain establish and maintain that relationship well it's beautifully outlined here brothers and sisters it is not us who go to God to set the terms of the relationship or the connection or the agreement or the Covenant that's God who holds all power and all things all wisdom and all all love in his uh characteristics and attributes he is the one who offers to us the Covenant and the terms of this relationship agreement and in here he gives three things that that he expects of us in this relationship if we truly want to
say we want to be his people we want him to be our god so let's look closer at this verse at what does he expect of us in this Covenant relationship this Covenant connection what are the verbs what are the things that we're supposed to or expected to do in order to keep this relationship active and progressing and and healthy in in positive ways so if you go back to the beginning the the prayer begins oh God the Eternal Father we ask thee in the name of thy son Jesus Christ to bless and sanctify this
bread so that's what God is being asked to do bless and sanctify bread so that when that tray comes by we're not just seeing little pieces of bread we're seeing simp symbols of Jesus Christ as it says here to The Souls of all those who partake of it they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy son so the first thing the first verb that involves what I'm supposed to do in this Covenant connection is I have to be willing to eat in the ancient world especially table Fellowship is incredibly important in a relationship
if you don't eat with somebody the the relationship is distant if you're willing to sit and enjoy a meal with somebody that's that's welcoming them into your inner circle that's a big deal now stop and think about that from a Hebrew ancient culture context in our modern world every Sunday other than state conference and general conference the Lord invites you and me into table fellowship with him he invites us to come and literally break bread with him to share that meal he is bringing us into that relationship he's the one who's defining the terms of
that but we have to be willing to come to the table and partake and eat and to share that table Fellowship with him so that's the first step we need to be willing to eat that bread and we eat it there's a sub uh concept here in remembrance so we don't just eat bread we eat bread that triggers memories spiritual memories uh we we think about we Ponder on the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ the price that was paid for us to be able to have this table fellowship with him so the next thing he
says is we witness unto God we are eating that bread we are partaking of that Sacrament as a witness as evidence that's what Witnesses do they show evidence they they provide testimony in a court of law about the the state of things that are being questioned and in this case we're standing as a witness of God at all times and in all things and all places that we may be in even unto death that God is good that God is powerful that God hears and answers prayers according to his will and his timing so we
witness unto notice the wording unto thee oh God the Eternal Father God has already witnessed unto us that he loves us that he's willing to save us and willing to work with us he sent his son to do that so now we witness to him in return because any relationship worth worth pursuing and worth developing is always going to be two-sided we don't want to ever have a relationship that is just one decided or that is completely hands out and no willingness to do anything in return so we witness unto him that we are willing
notice the witness then has all of these subsets that we're willing to do some things and what are we willing to do take upon us the name of thy son so number one or we'll just list these a b and c number one we're willing to take his name upon us when you were born you took your father's name upon you you became a part of that family when we're reborn as Covenant Disciples of Jesus Christ we take his name upon us because we have now become his children the children of Christ The Sons and
Daughters of Christ as described in mosiah 5:7 and ether CH 3 verse4 it's a different relationship president Nelson describes this beautifully in his article the Everlasting Covenant October 2022 Leona A must read again and again and again that you enter into a different relationship a different connection with Christ when you make a covenant with him and now we're willing to take his name upon us at a rebirth we get his name we become adopted Sons and Daughters unto Christ which doesn't take anything away from your relationship with your dad or your heavenly father it actually
enhances both of those relationships when we become Covenant children of Christ so we take his name upon us we're willing to always remember him again it's not a temporary or fleeing or passing thing to remember him or to run to God when we're in trouble alone now of course we do that but hopefully we get to the point in our relationship with him in our covenant connection with him our desire to connect with him that when something great happens in your life or even when something mediocre happens in your life that our first response might
be oh I want to share this with him I want to go to Heavenly Father I want to turn to Jesus Christ I want to think about the Lord I want to turn to them and share this moment or this gratitude or this frustration or this this little uh decision that I'm making I I want to work with them I want to become more at one with them we see it modeled by the Savior throughout his life he's constantly turning to God constantly turning heavenward and that's the invitation that this now offers us that we
always remember him and and that we keep his Commandments which he hath given them that's part of a relationship that he has defined the terms of what it means to be loyal and connected in that in that relationship so if we do all three of those things you'll notice the prayer started with what God would do bless sanctify this bread but in essence It's Not About The Bread it's about connecting us with him and with Jesus Christ so the bread becomes a symbol for Christ and we let the savior in to us he becomes a
part of us symbolically to the point where the final part of the prayer is also back to what God is going to do so this middle stuff was all what we are being asked by God to do and in exchange he doesn't say and once you do that then you've prevented my wrath from falling upon you no he he's not that kind of a being he's a loving merciful kind God and look at the ending that they may always have his Spirit to be with them amen you and I in Ence also become symbolized by
this sacramental process because Sacrament comes from this amazing word that is split into two parts here this suffix here m n t it simply means the process or the product of whatever came before it and in this case sakra or Sacra is the the Latin root of to make pure holy sacred so it's a process and the sacrament itself is also the product it it's both but if you step away from this and look at a 30,000 foot overview of what's going on the bread and later on the wine that becomes water for us those
are symbolic placeholders for Jesus Christ who was the most sacred or Most Holy of all but he is doing for us what He himself worked through that process of becoming the product of Holiness of all that is Holy the holiest of holies so that Sacrament is a reminder of what you and I have the capacity to become we're working through the process of becoming sacred until that day when Jesus Will present us spotless before the father and this symbolic sacramental element shows up in a variety of ways throughout the the savior's life and his teachings
for instance in John Chapter 2 when he turns water to wine you know we get to to chapter 5 to the blessing on the wine you'll notice that we have the same connection between the godhead and us but we have a slight variation on the terms of those agreements that we're being asked to make in the blessing on the wine you're only asked to be willing to always remember him and then the promises that they may have his Spirit to be with them but there's a missing word in chapter 5: two it doesn't use the
word always have his Spirit to be with them to always have his Spirit to be with them perhaps requires these three elements all working together but even if you're struggling to keep his Commandments even if you're struggling with taking his name upon you if you'll just remember him if you'll think about him if you'll include him in your life in that moment you'll have his Spirit to be with you to guide you to the next step it may not be his Spirit to be with you in in huge overwhelming spiritual abundance but it's exactly what
you need to get us to that next step in our covenantal connection and and Reliance upon him him so back to the the water to wine Miracle what you had there were six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews in other words we don't know exactly how they used them but people who came in unclean have some sort of an interaction with these water pots of stone to purify them which means people who were unclean interact act with water and the people walk away clean which would then leave the
water to one degree another defiled and dirty or we might say if you were to get a cup out of that water of the purifying pot that that would be a bitter cup and it was made bitter by people like you and me who brought the uncleanliness into that setting and interact with that water in a in a beautiful uh symbolic transaction the dirtiness gets transferred from me to the water so there's now a bitter cup in the mix here and it's me and it's you who put the bitterness into that cup so Jesus Christ
drinks that bitter cup down to the drgs and Elder Max said he drank history's bitterest cup without becoming bitter and then he bleeds from every poor now he wasn't physically drinking a literal Cup in gony or on the cross it's a symbolic uh lesson to teach us what he was going through so he takes our bitterness bleeds from every poure out comes that blood and in remembrance of that blood he gives us a cup originally a cup of wine now a cup of water and that cup that he gives us is sweet he puts all
of the sweetness into that cup for us we put all of the bitterness into the cup for him so when that tray comes comes by this Sunday and you take that little cup or before that you take that piece of bread I hope that you're seeing a lot more than a piece of bread a little cup filled with some water I hope you're seeing an infinite price that was paid to redeem our soul and an ongoing uh willingness of God to endure to the end in our relation relationship with him that he keeps reaching out
to us keeps inviting us into his house to his table to have this table fellowship and to break bread with us and to share that meal with us to remind us I have not forsaken you I have not cut you off I offer my spirit to you to to guide you will you just remember me and will you keep my Commandments and you be willing to take upon yourself my name he keeps asking us these questions over and over so the process of bitter becoming Sweet Water to Wine it's reenacted and played out every week
that we go to to church to the sacrament table we bring in the bitter the hurt the pain the sin the struggle the questions the difficulties and in return he offers us this sweet cup of forgiveness a cup of Hope a cup of redemption a cup of ultimate salvation it's a cup of Fellowship a cup of connection with him that his symbolic representation of blood that he shed we now take it in his blood becomes part of our body part of our soul it's blessed and Sanctified to our souls not just our Our arteries and
veins even though that water will now coarse through our our veins it becomes part of our soul the very fibers of our spiritual and physical being as we every week become more and more open to connected with and focused on Jesus Christ and His Infinite atonement and God the father's goodness in giving us his son and and now offering us the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Ghost to always be with us and even if it's not always with us to remember him so that it will be with us at
least in that moment when we're remembering him and focusing on him and striving to to renew and reestablish that Covenant connection with him I love the sacrament I love these words I love striving to take my Sacrament worship to the next level every week it's so easy to become complacent and to zone out and to think about everything else going on in your life can I give you one one suggestion to consider trying next time you're in a sacrament meeting and the sacrament is being prepared and blessed and then passed through the congregation and if
you catch yourself with your mind wandering to something can I invite you to bring that into the sacr experience and share it with the Lord in table Fellowship kind of like you would with a true and trusted friend with whom you would share everything in your life that is going on so share with him in that moment what your mind wandered off to it's clearly something that's either disturbing you bothering you or you're working on it you're trying to figure it out or make sense of it instead of beating yourself up because your mind wandered
try shifting that with a smile in your soul say heavenly father I want to build a more meaningful and Powerful connection with thee relationship with thee and I want to share this thing that my mind wandered off to help me with that please help me make sense of it help me know what to do with it or help me to overcome it if if your mind wandered to something inappropriate help me I'm struggling with this so the sacrament becomes at least a once a week reminder of you're connecting with God you're not invited into his
home invited to the table Fellowship to then ignore him and not think about him or commune with him or talk with him spend time sharing whatever it is that's going on in your mind and in your heart sharing it with him and asking for him to give you counsel and guidance and Direction and most of all his Spirit to be with us to guide us in that process it could be just something small and simple like that that could help help us try a little harder to be a little better as art of cap and
president hinley used to say I love that phrase try a little harder to be a little better and president iring said if you want big Improvement in your life look for things that you repeat often and make minor incremental improvements in those things and the cumulative effect over time will be major Improvement movement well Sacrament is probably one of those places that uh Elder irings uh concept would directly apply to because it gets repeated so often now to finish up chapter six he he gives some directions about church membership and church attendance he talks about
what you need to do to come into the church you can't be baptized he says in verse one unless you bring forth fruit meat that they were worthy of that baptism and what is that they have to come forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and witness unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins there's this willingness to say I want to become a covenant son or daughter of Christ but it means I'm going to have to let go of some of those things that I've picked up from the world
or adopted from the world and it says None were received under baptism sa they took upon them the name of Christ having a determination to serve him to the end it doesn't do us much good to want to become adopted Sons and Daughters of Christ children of Christ Children of the Covenant if we want to maintain our status with the world and all the labels of the world we have to fully want to be in the family of Jesus Christ which means we live by the house rules that he has established for his house for
his family and then it tells us that after they were received under baptism or rought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost they were numbered among the people of the Church of Christ and their names were taken that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God nourished by the good word of God Brothers sisters I I don't know what your experience has been in life I don't know how you feel when you when you open up uh the scriptures and read how the degree to which you feel like
they nourish you I will just say that the Lord has prepared a veritable Feast a banquet and he offers to us an invitation to enter into table fellowship with him not not just at a Sacrament setting which is a very literal sense of table Fellowship where we're physically eating and drinking something but every day we can have table fellowship with him by feasting upon the words of the Lord that he provides to us in the scriptures and from our modern prophets then we can actually be nourished by the good word of God rather than just
walking through the banquet hall of God and looking at the the feast that is laid out and thinking oh that that would be nice someday no we consume it to the degree where like the sacrament bread and water become part of us these words become part of us that's the only way for us to be nourished by them as if they actually become a part of of my life which means I need to learn God's Will and then I need to do it I'm not going to be perfect at it they're going to be stumbles
and and mess ups all along the way but that's the point I'm building a covenant relationship with him he is kind and patient and he'll keep working with me and forgiving me and nourishing me along the way with additional uh Direction so let's look at what what the outcome is for being nourished by the good word of God Maroni continues here nourished by the good word of God to keep them in the right way and to keep them continually watchful unto prayer continually watchful not just in moments of need not just in moments of panic
and emergency and crisis but continually means if you're driving to work if you're falling sleep if you're doing the dishes if you're folding the laundry if you're changing a diaper if you're caring for a special needs child if you're studying for a test everything we're continually doing these things with the Lord as an opportunity to connect with him and involve him with what we're doing in our life and the more we do that the more he will help us recognize that he is involving us with what he's doing in his work and in his glory
and we become more instruments in his hands to do his works and then the last part of verse four is relying alone upon the merits of Christ who was the author and the finisher of their faith you see the more we get into Covenant connection and relationship with Jesus Christ the less we rely on the arm of Flesh alone the Lord will inspire us with the wisdom that can be gained from from from the sources in the world from Wise people and good books and good instruction he'll help us tap into those and use those
in the ways that he inspired them to be shared in the first place and then it goes on to say and the church did meet together of to fast and to pray and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls the church met together of because this is a process where the real identity is going to be found not just at the individual level but at the group level the Lord will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children the children to the fathers and he will help all of us to
turn outward and to become one in Christ and I love this next verse it says they were strict to observe that there should be no iniquity among them and then he gives some clarification as to what would happen if one were found in serious transgression and then he finishes in verse 9 and their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the spirit and by the power of the Holy Ghost for as the power of the Holy Ghost LED them whether to preach or to exhort or to pray or to
supplicate or to sing even so it was done beautiful cross reference for you to put in the margin there next to verse 9 is Doctrine and Covenant section 46 verse 2 where the Lord gives a a a the triangulation of this idea that it doesn't matter what's been written it has always been given to those in authority to govern the meetings according to what the holy ghost whispers is needed and I don't think that applies just to official Church meetings I think that applies to family scripture study to family dinner to date night with a
spouse to relationships with children with siblings with parents with friends that all things are to be governed by God helping us know how to how to proceed whether to in this case for a meeting to preach or exhort or pray or supplicate or to sing even so it was done same thing in all of our relationships but of all the relationships we're striving to build there is none more important than our relationship with God the Father his only begotten son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost who are one who are striving to help us to
become one with them and he's given us all of these connecting points to remind us of that beautiful and loyal friendship that he offers to us in a Godly way not in a buddy buddy way but in a very Divine way to bring us into that Divine friendship that he offers it's a beautiful statement that he'll make later on in the doctrine of covenants when he says when Jesus Christ says ye are my friends let us treat him like a true friend is my prayer in the sacred name of Jesus Christ amen know that you're
loved [Music]
