HAVE YE RECEIVED HIS IMAGE IN YOUR COUNTENANCES?

Book of Mormon, Gospel Doctrine Lesson 22 Alma 5-7

INTRODUCTION

➤ Emilee McConkie’s lesson on change.

➤ She referenced Wendy Watson Nelson’s butterfly analogy

➤ A caterpillar asks a cocooned caterpillar how he can become a butterfly

➤ The response “you must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

➤ Alma is a big proponent of change. As the High Priest he is committed to teach his people how to change.

➤ 40 questions designed to help you remember what you know and live it more fully

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

➤ Around 83 BC

➤ After the reign of Mosiah, Alma (ygr) served as chief judge and high priest to the Nephites

➤ The Nephites war against the Lamanites and have a civil war

➤ They repent and start to prosper

➤ They get prideful and covetous (imagine the court cases he judged)

➤ Alma steps down from the judgeship and appoints Nephihah in his place.

➤ Why would he do that? Alma 4:19

➤ Joseph Smith: Teach them correct principles and they will govern themselves

➤ Ezra T. Benson quote (next slide)

“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. … The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 5; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6)

-Ezra Taft Benson

ALMA TEACHES THE PEOPLE HOW THEY CAN EXPERIENCE A “MIGHTY CHANGE” OF HEART

➤ Alma 5:1-5 (summarize)

➤ He reminds them how he was ordained and then goes straight into a history of the people

➤ Alma 5:6, Why does he cover the history? Why should we?

➤ Alma 5:7-8, Think of a heart in meso-american perspective. Loyalty and honor were core factors in society. Hearts weren’t fickle.

➤ He awakened them and change their heart. How is that possible?

➤ Alma 5:9, Agency. Satan’s desire is always to bind and compel. Christ’s desire is to loose and allow for expansion

➤ ATOT: Opening our memory foam mattress. It became something completely different when it was released from it’s packaging.

HOW TO HAVE A MIGHTY CHANGE

➤ Alma 5:13, How did they do it?

➤ 1. They humbled themselves.

➤ There was no great plague or oppression. They chose to change.

➤ 2. They trusted God.

➤ 3. They endured.

➤ The same applies for most mighty changes

➤ ATOT: Losing weight with T25. Acknowledge you need help, trust the system, stick it out.

➤ There is no fitness program that will work for everyone. Yet God’s plan is perfect for all. His course is constant.

HAVE YOU RECEIVED HIS IMAGE IN YOUR COUNTENANCE?

➤ Alma 5:14

➤ Image: vivid representation or copy

➤ Countenance: behavior, demeanor or conduct

➤ ATOT: Our South African foreign exchange student. Being in proximity to her and admiring her made me start to talk with an accent.

➤ The closer we are to Christ the more we will begin to be a reflection of his light. We begin to “look” like him

➤ Alma 5:15-16,18

➤ Why does it help to think forward to the judgement?

➤ Alma 5:19,21-22

➤ I don’t picture a big court room. I picture it like a stake president’s office. He won't need to judge me. I will know where I belong.

CAN YE FEEL SO NOW?

➤ Alma 5:26

➤ How do we talk ourselves out of spiritual experiences?

➤ It’s not enough to have a testimony. You must grow it.

➤ Alma 5:27-29

➤ Stripped is a strong word. Why do you think he uses it?

➤ It implies speed and thoroughness.

➤ Why does he focus on pride and envy? How do they keep us from coming to Christ?

➤ Dallin H. Oaks: Two kinds of pride

➤ Self-satisfaction (you recognize no shortcomings so you cannot repent)

➤ Comparison (deriving pleasure from having more than another)

➤ Thomas S. Monson quote on only competing with ourselves(next slide)

“Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever - this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves.” Pathways to Perfection, p. 81

-Thomas S. Monson

ALMA’S INVITATION TO REPENT AND HOPE

➤ Alma 5:33-34, There are no exceptions, if we come he will receive.

➤ Alma 5:35, It’s not enough to come, we must do!

➤ Alma 5:36-40, Shepherd analogy

➤ 38, He is still calling after us. We must respond ‘to the name by which ye are called’.

➤ He has a role for us, when we deny that ‘name’, we lose direction.

➤ Alma 5:45-46, He saw angel, felt the ground shake, and was comatose for three days.

➤ What does he say is the root of his testimony? Fasting & Prayer

➤ They probably knew his story. He wanted them to know that they didn’t need an experience like his to have a “mighty change”

THE CALL TO REPENTANCE

➤ Alma 5:52, He didn’t say those that produce “bad fruit” will be chopped. There is no neutral. We must produce good works.

➤ Alma 5:53-56, Alma’s call to action

➤ Will ye still persist? Have you been stirred to repentance as they were? If so, did you persist?

➤ Alma 5:57 (1st half), If ye desire to follow, be ye separate. Step out!

➤ Alma 5:60-62, The good shepherd is calling now, ye are his

➤ Neill F. Marriott: “Some may think they have failed too many times and feel too weak to change sinful acts or worldly desires of the heart. However, as covenant Israel, we don’t just try and try on our own to change. If we earnestly appeal to God, He takes us as we are—and makes us more than we ever imagined.” Yielding Our Hearts to God, Oct 2015

➤ Elder Larry R. Lawrence’s talk, Oct 2015: What Lack I Yet?

➤ Like the rich, young ruler in the NT, ask what you are lacking

ALMA SETS THE CHURCH IN ORDER

➤ Chapter 6 - summary

➤ Some repent and come again to Christ

➤ He ordains priests and elders

➤ Some are baptized, so are excommunicated

➤ vs 6, They are commanded to meet together ‘oft’

➤ Why is this critical?

➤ LeGrand Richards, “We do not want to neglect our prayers; we do not want to neglect attendance at our sacrament meetings. We do not want a spirit of darkness to come over us. I want to bear testimony to you Latter-day Saints, as a result of my own experience and training, and that of my children, that I know of no better way that we can keep the Spirit of God burning in our souls and in their souls than by attending sacrament meetings.” (Conference Report, Oct. 1945, p. 38))

ALMA TESTIFIES OF JESUS CHRIST. HE ENCOURAGES THE PEOPLE IN GIDEON TO FOLLOW THE SAVIOR

➤ After he taught in Zarahemla, he goes to Gideon

➤ Alma 7:4-5, Similar to 3 John 1:4, no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth

➤ Alma 7:7, His central message is about Christ

➤ Alma is a forerunner (like John the Baptist)

➤ Alma 7:11-12, What did he voluntarily take on for us?

➤ Pains, afflictions, temptations, death

➤ In verse 13 it states that the Spirit knoweth all things. Why did he volunteer to experience it physically?

➤ vs 12, That he might know how to succor us according to our specific combination of infirmities

➤ Merril J. Bateman quote about the atonement (next slide)

“ For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt “our infirmities” Hebrews 4:15). “[bore] our griefs... carried our sorrows... [and] was bruised for our iniquities” “Isaiah 53:4-5). The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us. The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were “numberless as the sand upon the sea shore” (Moses 1:28). If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us. He learned about your weaknesses and mine. He experienced your pains and sufferings. He experienced mine. I testify that He knows us. He understands the way in which we deal with temptations. He knows our weaknesses. But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith. Ensign, Nov 2005, 75-76.

-Merrill J. Bateman

ALMA ENTREATS THEM TO COME UNTO CHRIST➤ Alma 7:14-15

➤ ‘lay aside every sin’ It sounds so casual and easy. The world teaches that we have to tackle problems over time, God teaches there is another way (Alma know this first hand)

➤ ATOT: My friend giving up smoking the moment she became pregnant. It wasn’t a struggle anymore because she loved her baby already.

➤ We receive callings, burdens and responsibilities to make it easier for us to follow the commandments.

➤ Alma 7:22, what is your duty to God?

➤ Alma 7:17,19-20

➤ They know. They understand…but will they act?

➤ Alma 7:23-24, He teaches them how to do it.

➤ Be humble, submissive, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of patience and long-suffering, temperate (self-control), diligent, asking for what you need, always returning thanks

➤ Having faith, hope and charity will cause good works to flow from you

CONCLUSION➤ Alma’s story is one of change.

➤ Wendy Watson Nelson:

➤ Christ is the quintessential change agent

➤ He opened eyes

➤ He healed limbs

➤ He changed names (Saul)

➤ “He changed a few fishes and a couple of loaves of bread into enough to feed 5,000 people. And he will take your widow’s mite of time, energy, and ability and magnify them, multiply them, so that there is enough and to spare. You just need to ask him.”

“ “Can human hearts be changed? Why of course! It happens every day in the great missionary work of the Church. It is one of the most widespread of Christ’s modern miracles. If it hasn’t happened to you - it should. The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pp. 77-78.)

Howard W. Hunter said: “This is the purpose of teaching. This is the reason we labor so hard, seek the Spirit, and prepare our minds with good things as the Lord has commanded, that we might be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in changing the heart of an individual. Our aim is to plant in the hearts of the children the desire to be good, the desire to be righteous, the desire to keep the commandments of the Lord, the desire to walk in humility before him. If we can be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in bringing to pass this mighty change in the hearts of the youth of Zion, then we have accomplished the great miracle of a teacher. And truly it is a miracle. We do not understand how the Lord changes the hearts of men, but he does. Through a teacher, he can change the hearts of children almost overnight.” (The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, p. 204))

-Ezra Taft Benson & Howard W. Hunter