S3 E38 The Role of Covenants in Putting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey there everybody welcome back to another episode of Redeemed Through His Blood.

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Scott Durfey here is always joined by David Durfey
What's up Dave?
Oh sweet to be here Scott.
We're well into summer, halfway through the summer day.
July months it's been really warm here in Utah been kind of nice I love it.
Hey I got something on my mind.

(00:41):
The, this is my study this week.
I read something that had a profound effect on me that I've been thinking about and haven't
been able to quit thinking about it.
And I was a talk I don't even think I have the reference.
Give them by Elder Neil A. Maxwell.

(01:04):
And he's talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ and the will of God and you know like
like he liked to do.
He made this one sentence this one statement.
He says I know that I am unworthy but I am not ungrateful.

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I just I just man that resonated with me.
I that's I and I'm not as worthy as Elder Maxwell but this is the statement really resonated
with me.
I am unworthy but I am not ungrateful.
I think that is the key Scott to our spirituality our spiritual success our relationship with

(01:57):
the Savior.
That is the key to having desires to do the will of God to strive to keep commandments
to make and keep covenants is gratitude.
None of us are worthy.
I mean right King Benjamin said that just remember you unworthy creatures.

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None of us are really worthy.
I know there's that that question we all wrestle with at the end of the temple recommend interview.
But we're worthy enough through Jesus Christ and his atonement.
The key to our spirituality and our success is is not being worthy the key to our spirituality

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success and really our spiritual progression and growth is being grateful.
So I just that's I hope I never forget that statement and I probably will think about
it every day the rest of my life and and encourage our listeners to think about it.
You know you you may not feel worthy but the real question isn't whether you're worthy.

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The real question is are you grateful.
If you're grateful you're going to be fine because I want and grateful for what we're
grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ.
That's what I think of when I think of gratitude.
I think of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
There's nothing I'm more grateful for.

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There's nothing I need more.
There's nothing I want more for me for my family for loved ones then for the full access
and application of the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life.
So listeners you may not feel worthy but never never never become ungrateful and and we really

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show our our lack of gratitude by not striving by not keeping the commandments.
Gratitude in the towel would be a gross form of of a lack of gratitude.
So anyway I I'm just really I don't know there's something about that statement that

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not only resonates with me but there's something about it that motivates me recognizing that
an apostle prophet seer revelator confessed his unworthiness but acknowledged that his
gratitude and as long as we're grateful there's hope for us Scott.

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Anyway I just wanted to I wanted to share that and it's kind of the essence I think
of the whole course is understanding and appreciating the atonement of Jesus Christ
in our life and if people could strive for that more understanding more gratitude and

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believe me those are connected the more you understand it the more grateful you are for
it.
So maybe maybe we could start with that.
Well and the more grateful we are and you've said this fact I think last time you said
it I think they're getting sick of hearing this say this but it's true and and and if
we're getting sick of hearing us say it then that's a good sign that means we're saying

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it may be just enough but gratitude is the beginning of desire.
It's the highest motivating power in my life and and I think that that's the way it should
be in most of our lives.
Elder Scott is the one who really taught that to me that gratitude for the atonement of

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Jesus Christ is the highest motivating power in our lives and and the lack of gratitude
for the atonement of Jesus Christ Scott would would show the gross not only negligence but
maybe mockery of the atonement of Jesus Christ and so it's it's this the key to our spiritual

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lives our spiritual progression or our eternity is the level of our gratitude for which is
usually the result of our understanding of Jesus Christ and his atonement and today we
want to talk about the covenants that we enter into which are part of the application or

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accessing the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ in our life.
We haven't said too much about covenants or ordinances and I like to kind of dive into
that which includes the name of Christ what it means to take upon ourselves the name of
Jesus Christ which I think is such an important part of our relationship with him how we feel

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about his name how we feel about ordinances how we feel about covenants ultimately all
the ordinances and all the covenants of the gospel Scott are the essence of the restoration
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is all about a relationship ordinances are and covenants

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are not another checklist of dues and don'ts when we make covenants with the Lord it's
not another checklist it's about our relationship with him some of the ordinances and covenants
we enter into are definitely conditional upon our faithfulness for sure but many of the ordinances

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and covenants so we enter into are unconditional that God has promised us his love and to have
an or to to enter into an ordinance with him and a covenant with him is is evidence of
his love and his power which he has promised that would those things would be with us if

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we if we just drive we don't have to be perfect we will for sure not be sinless he knew all
of that we live in a fallen celestial hellish world but the covenant is there and through
repentance we that that covenant is is sure that we can repent over and over and over

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again and that covenant is is still there and we don't I think really appreciate how
central covenants are to who God is I want to say that again it's really important we

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understand how important covenants are to who God is you you look at the you look at
the scriptures and covenants are everywhere in the scriptures and many people don't don't
see that they don't appreciate it two hundred seventy two times in the Bible word covenant

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is used I think it's two hundred seventy times in the Book of Mormon so think about that
book Book of Mormon Doctrine Covenants sorry so it's like five hundred and whatever that
is like five forty and then I think it's like nineteen times in the Pearl of Great Price

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so it's it's like almost five hundred sixty times the word covenant and all the other
words that kind of mean that I'm not even counting the word covenant is used in the
holy scriptures our God is a covenant God and covenants matter to him and he offers

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them to us because of his love for us because we are his children I mean any study of the
scriptures just the Bible just the Bible loans God I just let's just review this for
a minute you have you have a covenant that God makes with Adam and Eve before they ever

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leave the garden and covenants after they leave the garden that's all recorded in Genesis
this is just before I mean all of this is in Genesis Scott you have a covenant with
Noah yet we know in the Pearl of Great Price that there were covenants made with the Enoch
that God our God is a covenant God he is a covenant keeping covenant making God so you

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have it with Noah you have it with Abraham over and over again in Genesis 15 Genesis
17 Genesis 22 the new and everlasting covenant that becomes eventually called and when we
talk about the new and everlasting covenant we're really just talking about the Abrahamic
covenant which he renewed with Isaac which he renewed with Jacob which he is renewed

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with all the prophets which he renewed with Joseph Smith which he is renewed with President
Nelson which he removed which he renews with you and me when we go to the house of the
Lord so all of that takes us back the new and everlasting covenant new because it's
been restored everlasting because it goes all the way back to Abraham Isaac and Jacob

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it goes all the way back to Noah it goes all the way back to Adam he makes covenants with
Israel throughout the Old Testament he makes covenants with Moses after they leave Egypt
in Egypt after they leave Egypt he makes a covenants with Joshua and Israel in the land
of Canaan he makes amazing covenants with David in 2 Samuel 7 when Israel kind of reaches

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its height of power he makes a new covenants he calls it a new covenant with Jeremiah and
Jeremiah chapter 31 which is referenced too many times in the New Testament anyway and
you can read all of the covenants that he made with Lehi Nephi Jacob throughout the

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Book of Mormon covenants is scattered throughout all of the chapters all of the books of the
Book of Mormon because it's kind of the center of our relationship with him we have a covenant
relationship with him there's something sacred about that Scott it's not like he's

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our pal or just our just a friendly relationship here we have a covenant relationship and everything
about covenants everything about ordinances which is how we usually enter into a covenant
through ordinances all of that has to do with our relationship there's just something so

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sacred about that I I mean and I'm not I'm not judging or I'm not trying to condemn
but it's a different Scott between living with your partner or entering into a covenant
with your partner I mean it's one's a lot more sacred than the other the responsibility

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the commitment the the love the understanding of the relationship there's just so much more
to having a covenant relationship with God than just seeing him as our our friend or our
care our caregiver or whatever so I I just I want to get into that we can start to talk

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about that but I think it's the essence of of how to access power the power of God the
power of the atonement of Jesus Christ it's really key I think in in working out our salvation
and exaltation when we talk about the work of salvation and exaltation which is now kind

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of become a big phrase right in the in the church it's in all over in the church handbook
of instructions and I love it that's a great phrase to kind of summarize the work of the
church and the kingdom of God on earth is the work of salvation and exaltation it all

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comes down to ordinances and covenants that is not to take away from faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ or repentance or baptism or receiving the Holy Ghost or enduring to the
end that's that's all what we call the doctrine of Christ but in in the doctrine of Christ

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ordinances or covenants I think are summarized by the term indoor to the end president Nelson
kind of has said that that indoor to the end means going to the temple taking upon herself
the name of Christ and making and keeping covenants and and I love that because I I

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think it that ordinance and covenants give us power there is power associated with that
there is knowledge there is symbolism in the ordinances and covenants of the gospel
it this is what helps me to remember is the ordinances and covenants this is what helps

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me to reflect upon my relationship with with my savior with my heavenly father with the
Holy Ghost this this gives me power to become sanctified I mean elder bednar has taught
that powerfully that it's that it's through the ordinances and the covenants of the gospel
that we become sanctified in fact Joseph Smith taught that I'd have pulled that up find the

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page in teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith Scott but Joseph Smith thought that that it
was through the ordinance and covenants that that man would be born again so let's let's
get into it and what questions do you have and what points do you want to make on that
yeah questions will come I'm sure as we go and you know we we oftentimes get questions

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from our listeners at our email address mine might just throw that out at that's he redeems
us at gmail.com you can send those questions here but you know Dave I think over the years
or over the yeah years and episodes that we've been doing this I've had several thoughts around
this and experiences that have you know this this has really piqued my interest this isn't

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something that was natural for me to grasp and to understand not in the degree that you're
describing it one day I met an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and I run into a person there
who is after we started the podcast yeah yeah this was after the bridge started the podcast
and I met the I met a meeting and and this person who described herself as being a member

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of the church and afterwards we had a little conversation after the meeting we had a little
conversation and and she was talking about how she had made covenants how she had been
to the temple how she had but was no longer participating I don't know what that means
exactly participating in our covenants other than we're just not potentially not keeping them

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at the moment but that doesn't necessarily we haven't made covenants but I asked her because
I have had it I've had this experience and I wanted to kind of know if others had as well
and I just said what was it like being under covenant to not living a life of that was in
keeping with the covenants that you had made and she said and I had had the same experience she

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said you know there were times when I felt the covenant pole I felt Heavenly Father keeping
his end of the covenant even though I wasn't oh I love that yeah she was yeah she was saying and
that's how I had felt you know this may I had maybe not been able to articulate it in this fashion
and up until this point yeah but but she had made that description and I thought about that and I

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thought about that ever since this has been over a year maybe two ago that I had had this
conversation with her and I have thought about that and I can actually think about
times as I go back in my mind not in morbid reflection but as I go back in my mind and
thinking about the times when in my life when my life was out of attunement and where I still felt

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the presence of and the pull of and the blessings of and and the direction from the Holy Ghost
as part of my covenants and and she told me she said Scott I broke my covenants Heavenly Father
didn't break his and she she she claimed and I I tend to agree that I felt and feel even those

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covenant poles and those covenant blessings even sometimes in spite of my unworthiness.
Well I love that Scott and that's the God that we believe in I mean I love the the
prophet Hosea and the what he teaches us about the covenant and this covenant relationship and

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so I've just I just have thought about this and I've just turned to Hosea chapter two
for just a minute Scott and there are just a few verses in here I want to read which I
I really love and I think it really describes the character of our God and and by the way
right this is this is life eternal that they might know the the only true God and Jesus

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Christ from now and then we learn who God is best by understanding the covenant that he has entered
into with us that's how we understand him best that's how we really learn his character that's
how we begin to take up on ourselves not only his name but his character that's how we can become

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like him and there is nothing more that he wants than that he doesn't we we don't have much to
offer him but he wants us to have what he has so in Hosea chapter two it says he's talking about
the divorce of Israel the Israel is chasing other gods right he's talking about a marriage that

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we're married to him we are Israel is married to to God and he says after all of their wickedness
and all of this stuff and after the after Israel has played the harlot right then he says in verse
14 therefore behold I will allure her you kind of use the word what you what was the word you used

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the poll poll yeah therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably unto her is that sweet yeah yeah bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably
where I can be you know alone in a in a beautiful place then and have this sweet relationship

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and I will give her vineyards and then he says and it shall be at that day sayeth the Lord that
thou shalt call me is she is she means husband I'll call you my husband again and then he says verse

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19 and I will betroth her unto me forever this is after she's chosen to leave him I will betroth the
unto me forever I will betroth the unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness
in loving kindness and in mercies I will even betroth the unto me in faithfulness and thou shall

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know the Lord know the Lord not just cognitively intimately know the Lord anyway I I just love this
description of a relationship that Israel has with God because of the covenants that God has

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made with Israel and honestly Scott you have to be pretty bad to be thrown out of the covenant
you have to be pretty bad to I mean you have to just kind of turn your back on it and and make a
choice right be totally an infidel and practice infidelity in the covenants that you've that

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you've made with God before he will right and even then and even then he will not forget us
and he and if we will just turn back towards him he will receive us and and betroth us again in
loving kindness I don't know if I'm the only one in the church that's seen it this way but you know

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and and I don't see it this way now but in the past I think I did see it this way where
you know when you're ready and this is how I saw it when you become ready to enter into a covenant
relationship there's so much obligation there you know I am obligating myself and so I better be
ready to toe the line and I better be ready to keep every commandment and I better be you know

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and there's a certain level of up skill on my part that needs spiritual up skill on my part
and I and I think to a degree this is true I think to a degree it's true but I don't think it's all
of it you know I think now when I look think of a covenant relationship I don't think of it as a
obligatory relationship even though it is but it's only obligatory because of my love right

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my love binds me to obligation not your perfection not my perfection not my fear not your fear of
retaliation and punishment and all of that other stuff which is the way I think I kind of saw it
you know now I see my covenant relationship with my heavenly father as an invitation to heal

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not to I don't have to be completely healed in order to enter it that's how my healing continues
yeah and that's how my growth and my coming unto him is is amplified it's not criticized because
of my covenant it's amplified and that invitation becomes sweeter not more bitter because of my

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love for him I think so many people Scott struggle in the church thinking that they have to
to reach some sort of level of perfection or some sort of level of worthiness in order to I mean
I know that worthiness I know that keeping in command was I know all of that's important

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yeah but some people think that they have to almost go beyond the mark before they can enter
any kind of relationship or make a covenant with God that's my point and it just holds us back
because God doesn't see it that way he does not see it that way we had we we had a covenant

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relationship with him before we were born we saw him as our father we were his children
we weren't perfect or sinless there either I mean if you can brother Matthews brother
Robert J. Matthews taught me that if you can commit the the unpardonable unforgivable

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sin in the premortal existence is one third of the of our father spirits did then there must
have been varying degrees many degrees all kinds of degrees of wickedness and righteousness in the
premortal existence there was all kinds of different levels of being valiant being true and faithful
and but we were faithful enough we were good enough there through the Atonement of Jesus Christ

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and we knew that we were going to come down here and according to the plan of the father
we were going to live in hell in a fallen celestial world and experience this so that we could learn
how through covenants and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and entering into a covenant with
him that through him we might think of the veil of the temple that through Jesus Christ

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we might enter back into the presence of God that's that is just the center of the whole plan
and to to think that we have to be sinless or perfect before we can participate in that plan
or even unfallen right I mean we we have the fall in our lives which is the second pillar of eternity

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according to elder mcconkey and if the fall in our lives is so important and it is I mean look
at how much time is spent in the temple alone in the temple endowment we focus so much time on
our fallenness well heavenly father knew we were fallen and and it's part of his plan well he provided
a way for love for to be completely emanating our lives through this covenant relationship

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by taking on us his name it really is about love and it really is about our feelings and
our emotions for our heavenly father yeah I know that their behaviors and actions and those things
matter and I know that the law of God matters here that he wanted the law his love for us

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and our love for him he wanted it to be sealed by us receiving ordinances and making covenants
I mean this is the essence of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel I think it's in well
you know moroni brought it up when he appeared Jesus brought it up in the very first vision

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what does Jesus say to them they they they keep my commandments but they deny the ordinances thereof
or in my mind Scott when he says that they they deny the ordinances or the covenants thereof
I've always kind of seen that to be synonymous power with with ordinances and covenants and

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this is all in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and other prophecies when moroni
appeared to Joseph Smith Scott three years after the first vision three times that night he was
quoting Old Testament passages New Testament passages and many of those passages we don't

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have all of them recorded in Joseph Smith history but but Oliver Cowdery shared them in a letter
uh in more detail about what Joseph Smith had told him that moroni had taught him that night
and later the next day when he appeared to him four different times and and you know I don't think

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members appreciate the um relationship that Joseph Smith and moroni had but moroni appeared to him
22 times 22 times they they talked they had a relationship and um anyway moroni was really
the teacher and tutor for Joseph Smith and what ordinances and covenants meant and a lot of the

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scriptures that he quoted alluded to this and I think one of them was in Isaiah 24 when Isaiah
prophesies the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed
the laws changed the ordinance and broken the everlasting covenant uh all prophets who have

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ever lived have understood that our relationship with God is by covenant it's not just I love you
relationship it is I love you and therefore I desire to enter into a covenant and that there are

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that there are um commandments that must be kept there are laws that must be obeyed there are
sacrifices that must be made there there is effort on my part that I must strive to work out in my

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relationship with my heavenly father all of this helps me to become more like him the again that
is a relationship to we enter into covenant relationships because we want to be one with
someone anyway I uh these covenant relationships god are such a central part I remember present

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packer years and years ago talking about a visit that he had with the stake president
and he asked the stake president kind of what was his priorities in his stake and the stake president
told president packer to make and keep covenants president packer said wow that had a powerful

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effect on him and he knew by the spirit that that stake president understood the essence
of the gospel of jesus christ and that every stake president every priesthood leader every
mother father parent it should strive right to to help those who we lead to make and keep covenants

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this should be the priority of every priesthood unit stake ward district branch in the church
is to make and keep covenants to progress in our relationship and that's what it's about it's
it's not about conforming scott it's not it's not about performing it's not about performance

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conformance it's about transformations about being transformed and and covenants and ordinance
trans they they transform us my my experience this past year working in the house of the lord
two days a week and participating in the ordinances of the gospel and and every time i'm in the temple

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to officiate in sealing ordinances and seal couples to each other and and children to parents
both for the living and for the dead it transforms me just as the officiator in those ordinance god
and i know that individuals who we have we have a group of individuals who every thursday and every

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friday morning are there scott at six a.m and some of them are the same people and some of them will
go four or five days a week and they're doing thousands of names for their deceased ancestors
and it it's really been an amazing experience for me to see these saints in the purest form of that

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word to see these saints come to the house of the lord and to visit with them about how the i mean
i've asked them about this and and and to and to see how the temple and participating in the
ordinances of the gospel has transformed them how completely transformed them and some of them are

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not old people scott some of them are young people some of them are young couples uh some of them
are singles some of them are married some of them are widowed or widowers uh but it has been an
amazing experience for me something that i never fully appreciated until i've had that responsibility

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given to me to to be a sealer in the temple for the last year if a person david is uh
thinking about covenants and wondering you know maybe i have entered into covenants and i'm not
really understanding them or taking them seriously maybe i haven't yet or yet entered into covenants
and you're talking about how covenants are transforming how they change us give us some

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examples what do you mean what do you mean they're transforming how what could what could one expect
that hasn't maybe entered into a covenant relationship or is not really maybe made the
covenant but not entered into the relationship by living that way but what what could we expect how
how do we transform what how do we change what what does that look like you know scott there's

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there's something about the intensity of the holy ghost uh when one is prepared now there it takes
preparation to go to the house of the lord it takes great spiritual preparation you don't have to be
perfect don't have to be sinless you may feel unworthy but don't feel ungrateful all of that but

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there has to be some preparing of the mind spiritually preparing of the heart spiritually
pre preparation of the spirit and when those individuals come who are prepared
there's a certain intensity scott of the holy ghost that is president in the house of the lord

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it is i testify the house of the lord and there is something very sacred very holy very reverent
about walking the in the house of the lord there's an intensity about it there is something tangible
about it uh i i remember the first time i went to the temple i literally thought i was going to die

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and the reason i thought i was going to die was because i was so really unprepared uh it was uh
it was exhausting for me it was uh i had a migraine headache when i left uh i was it the
intensity for me was not a good thing because i was not prepared for it and and kind of the ritual
of it i was totally unprepared for and uh some of the things that were said i took so literal

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that it it scared me there was fear uh it was a super intense in some ways positive in some
ways negative experience for me uh and then i wasn't really worthy first time i went to the temple
i'm still not worthy but i you know i'm i'm worthy enough but you know what i mean i i

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there's a spirit about it and that spirit walking in that spirit in the house of the lord feeling
that spirit uh being in the temple and uh after you've done ordinances for yourself and you've
you've uh you know entered into a covenant relationship with the lord every time you go
back to the house of the lord even though scott i believe that we renew our ordinances and covenants

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in the temple every sunday when we partake of the sacrament elder parry's taught that other
apostles have taught that that the sacrament the sacrament is not just a renewal of the baptismal
covenant as has been taught many times but it's also how we renew our covenants in the house of

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the lord so when we partake of the sacrament i think of my temple ordinances not just my
baptismal covenant i think about that too but i think about my marriage i think about my endowment
i think about the initiatory i think about all of that when i participate in the sacrament ordinance

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however when we go back and we perform these ordinances vicariously for others
the more you do it the more sanctified you become and that is just the natural process of participating
in the ordinances because when you do it and you feel their presence there as i have felt as when

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i've seen in i've seen the the faces of some of these individuals and the joy on their face when
their children who died before the age of eight are sealed to them in the house of the lord
sealing i don't know i love sealing couples i love performing marriages for those who are deceased

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vicariously and there's something really sweet about that and i've had some really tender
experiences doing that but there is something that for some reason i get emotional about
sealing children to their parents there's something emotional about that for me and especially i think
when uh for children who died before the age of eight and i don't know if you know this but

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200 years ago 48 percent of all children who were born never lived past the age of eight
i'll think about that for a minute 48 percent of children who were born over 200 years ago
didn't make it to the age of eight wow and i'm i've been shocked by how many of the ordinances we

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perform are for children who died before the age of eight and i've seen the joy on the faces of the
mother to have that child who they have waited for for two over 200 sometimes 300 years back to the
even 500 years 1500s who have waited to to have that ordinance sealed to them do i think that

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they've been together in the spirit world yes i don't think i i don't think that they don't have a
relationship in the spirit world but they know that eternity is a long time and they desire
to have that ordinance performed because they understand the law and the power of the priesthood
of god and they want it sealed they want it sealed by priesthood they want it sealed by the holy

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spirit of promise they want it sealed and i've seen the joy on their faces when they have had that
ordinance performed for them so it's just so sacred scott and after you have that experience
even a few times and some of these people have that experience weekly over and over and over again

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they are so connected with the spirit world with their ancestors with eternity how can that not
transform you right yeah it completely transform you it completely changes your perspective of life
of eternity of relationships of families i mean you just don't see it based upon the

(42:21):
banal carnal world that we live in you see you see it as this sacred holy eternal
going on and on and on in the power of godliness and the power of god and yeah
yeah your your description is transformative experiencing it i can't right words can't describe

(42:44):
it just it well you and i think i think you did a pretty good job but i think that you know the
description is great but imagine participating in it so i i love that that you but you said something
else you said something about how the intensity of the holy ghost we seem to you know we've spent
the last we've spent the last several podcasts prior to today talking about how do we retain how

(43:08):
do we recognize how do we receive the spirit of the holy ghost in our lives and the importance of
that the member of that member of the godhead administering the blessings of christ's atonement
in our life all of the blessings the compensatory the enabling the the redemptive blessings all of
the blessings in our lives but but i think that's a big one you know the the intensity and i don't

(43:32):
think that um you know oftentimes when we use the word intense that kind of connotes you know sort of
a tight muscles and a locked yeah you know maybe stress yeah maybe stress you know but but i love
that you just a few minutes ago or a few seconds ago you used the term the fullness of the holy

(43:53):
ghost and i think that's really what you're referring to when you say intensity is we're
really filling the holy ghost in its fullness the fullness of the holy ghost is available to us
that's in doctrine comes section 109 scott in the temple in the dedicatory prayer of the kirtland
temple and the and the prophet joseph mith prays that those who will come will receive the fullness

(44:14):
that their incomings will be in the name of the lord that their outgoings will be in the name of
the lord and that they will receive a fullness of the holy ghost the fullness is the intent the
fullness of the holy ghost is the intensity i'm trying to describe right and there's an intensity
of the holy ghost and also an intensity of holiness holiness right there's just this

(44:37):
holiness about it scott i mean you work in the laundry room of the temple you don't just fold
socks you fold socks in a certain way you don't just fold clothes or towels or i work in the laundry
too i'm you know that it's awesome in serratoga spring's temple at least the sealers spend usually

(44:59):
about a half hour a week in the laundry room and uh and i'm learning i'm trying to learn the order
of the laundry room there's an order to it scott and i love i love the order the order to it it's
because it's it's done in holiness everything is done in holiness now i for some that may not be

(45:23):
for everybody i i think some people that might drive them crazy but i know that's the order of god
well isn't it interesting that what we look for we find you know and that's what you've
gone looking for the order in the laundry room and you found it there well so let me just go back
to this the fullness of the holy ghost for so you know the entire podcast 37 i think this will be

(45:49):
either 37 or 38 episodes this season for this podcast so we've talked about the atonement of
jesus christ we've talked about how to change our lives because or through the atonement of jesus
life jesus through the atonement of jesus christ as we have uh uh experience the effects of the fall
of adam and eve and our own fallenness in this life well we've talked about how the atonement

(46:14):
of jesus christ is administered to us through the holy ghost we've talked about how the blessings to
through the through the atonement of jesus christ are the blessings that we need for every problem
every problem spiritual physical emotional mental problem in our lives is available to us through
the atonement of jesus christ as administered by the holy ghost and so if we're participating in

(46:37):
these ordinances and covenants and we have entered into that family relationship whereby we are
entitled through inheritance right yeah through inheritance and by the holy spirit of promise
which is the holy ghost and its fullness again and so all of this culminates there everything
that we have talked about from day one up until now culminates in this covenant relationship and

(47:04):
we participated in the temple but we experience it even outside of the temple it takes place
there at center there at central to that but we experience the blessings in our lives as we live
worthy and participate in those blessings in those covenants and that are there amen i mean when
when you go prepared yeah and uh you're worthy enough and you're faithful enough and you go into

(47:31):
the house of the lord and you participate in the ordinance of gospel either for yourself or for
vicariously those those who are in the spirit world yeah hey you you don't leave the same
you don't leave the same person now i don't know how long that may last
but you you're not the same person there's something about even i i know this is not

(47:56):
scientifically possible but just to make a point it's almost like it changes your dna scott
but you you walk different you talk different there's there's something different there's
there's something about that scott but i and it and it comes not only through the holy ghost and

(48:17):
through the gifts of the spirit but it also comes to some degree scott from our obedience and our
sacrifice the covenants and and promises that we make commitments that we make the responsibilities
we take upon ourselves scott if if um if an individual seeks to keep those covenants not

(48:44):
only do they walk out different not only do they talk different but it changes how they live their
lives right you know the covenant of obedience the covenant of sacrifice yeah the covenant of
living the gospel the covenant of of chastity and and being chased and sexually clean and pure

(49:05):
the the covenant of consecration all of these covenants and laws that we that we commit to to
live and obey uh completely changes as individuals and again it's not a checklist

(49:28):
it's because i want to become more like my loving heavenly father and loving heavenly mother
i want to be more like their son my savior my redeemer jesus christ i want to have the holy
ghost to be with me it is all about seeking to return to my heavenly home not just because of

(49:57):
but through the power of making and keeping covenants when you say when you leave the temple
you walk away you're different um deb and i have been to the temple recently just last week we went
early morning there had been some stuff in our family in our lives and this is not unusual it

(50:20):
was nothing major but it was enough it was enough for us to be fully aware of our fallenness
let's just put it that way right and so we go there and when we left uh when we came out we got in
my uh vehicle uh on our way home and we both just looked each other and just kind of there were tears

(50:41):
in our eyes and we just felt better prepared for life and i think that's what this does for me
you know i i just know that heavenly father has a gift for me and that gift has been made available
to me through his son jesus christ and that gift is an endowment which allows me if i participate

(51:03):
and then if i align and then and for me that's really about taking his name upon me and the more
i can do that in the temple and the more i can do it through that covenant relationship
really allows me in a deeper more holy way to be aligned with to have my will totally swallowed

(51:25):
up by his and as i do that uh you know and i learned this not not at church not at not in uh
not in a podcast not by studying the scriptures unfortunately it's there to be learned for those
who have eyes to see it but i didn't but i learned this in a a you know i needed to learn that it was
only in my complete surrender in my complete complete giving my my life to the to the care of

(51:53):
god 100 it was only in that that i could be relieved from the bondage of self and that bondage of
self it becomes complete or the release from the bondage of self feels more complete when i
participate in taking his name upon me and allowing the spirit to be to dwell with me to

(52:14):
receive the spirit in the fullness and to be with me as i as i leave the temple so not only does it
change me between the door and of the temple and the door of my truck when i leave but potentially
it can change me completely and and permanently and deptly now i go back for a reminder and a

(52:35):
deeper change and a deeper commitment and a deeper swallowing of my will and all of those things
is i'll take it back you know my fallen state i will take my will back i will begin to remember
my fallenness and and that will begin to show up but as i go there and take his name more fully upon
me so that i can have the fullness of the spirit with me my life is just peaceful yeah it i that's

(53:01):
the gift believe me i i know scott and as we go there and we get to understand and know the
giver of the gift this is talked to us about in doctrine covenants 8833 as i go there and i
learn about the giver up the gift i really see the gift for the enormous value that it has well
you come to know the giver that's and that's the only way you can understand you come to know

(53:24):
the giver by understanding all the gifts that he offers us there yep well i love that scott
thank you thank you for that and you know it it all goes back to 80 doctrine covenant section 84
i have verses i think in 1920 21 speaking of the temple the lord said in the ordinances there of

(53:52):
the power of godliness is manifest well that term the power of godliness is manifest in our lives
i would add the power of godliness is manifest in our lives not just outwardly not just that i
don't it's more than just i see it yeah it is manifest in me it is manifest through me it is

(54:15):
in me and that power of godliness has everything to do with more than his priesthood it has everything
to do with the atonement of jesus christ and the gift and power of the holy ghost the power of godliness
is all of that and it becomes manifest in me that it's changing it's transformational that is

(54:43):
transformational the power of godliness is manifest not not just because i see it but because it's in
me it becomes part of you becomes part of your sin you becomes a part of the air you breathe
we are so blessed god we may not be worthy but we are not ungrateful for the fullness of the restoration

(55:15):
of the gospel of jesus christ through the ordinances and covenants that have been restored
i mean in the very first section of doctrine covenant section one the preface right it talks
about why did i restore these things and he talks about in the weak things in the weak things i'm
going to restore i'm going to restore the ordinances and the covenants uh it's in verse 19 the weak

(55:40):
things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones that man should
not counsel his fellow man neither trust in the arm of the flesh but that every man might speak in the
name of god the lord even the savior of the world we'll talk more about the importance of the name

(56:01):
next week scott and then verse 21 that faith also might increase in the earth and then verse 22
that mine ever lasting covenant might be established there you go that mine ever lasting covenant
might be established that's the as the purpose of the restoration and verse 23 that the fullness of

(56:27):
my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple under the ends of the world and before
kings and rulers that's pretty that's a pretty good description of the purpose of the church kingdom
of god and the restoration of the gospel that the everlasting covenant and let's let's uh next
week let's talk about the new and everlasting covenant of the gospel and what that what that

(56:51):
really means scott there's many things connected with the word covenant in the hebrew scott it's
berith the hebrew word for covenant is berith and the ancient hebrus would never say we make a covenant
we use that term pretty loosely but then the hebrus would never say that they would say
carat berith which means we cut a covenant cut a covenant carat berith yeah we'll have a fun

(57:20):
discussion and there would always be blood always there would always be blood and there would always
be sacrifice involved in those covenants which would bind us to our god and to each other
and there's something just really holy and sacred and reverent about that scott and we'll

(57:43):
continue maybe our discussion next week more on covenants ordinances and what it means to take
upon ourselves the name of god looking forward to that discussion this has been a good day today
as well as you contemplate these things you really have we all have a phenomenal opportunity and it's

(58:05):
by obviously divine design that this is the case but as again we partake of the sacrament this week
let's really consider our invitation this will be our invitation to consider what it looks like for
us to take upon us the name of jesus christ what does it mean when we take his name upon us how
does that look how should that affect our lives and indeed how does it hey gang thanks so much

(58:30):
for being with us today and always we look forward to being with you again next week and until then
be well