Hear Him 19: Hear Him in Adversity

We've been talking a lot about what are the things I'm doing in my life that affect revelation. The way I treat people, the way external forces come in has a tremendous influence on heaven. It's not just me sitting alone hearing God's voice. A lot of that up and down is determined by what's happening here. So let me continue that idea and let me take you into the book of Mormon. I don't know if you've ever noticed how the book of Mormon begins. I think you're familiar enough with the book just to think about its structure. It begins if we were to take the tree of life out of first Nephi. If that, if Nephi's vision, if Lehi and Nephi's visions of the tree of life were pulled out, think about the rest of first Nephi. What a tremendous way to begin the book. What would you say is the summary of that message? What's the message of the first book of the book of Mormon? In fact, let's go to the very first verse. If you will turn to the first verse of the book of Mormon, it begins in a very significant way. I just find so much meaning in my life that the Lord chose to begin the book of Mormon this way. I mean, we've got stripling warriors, we've got almus letters, we've got third Nephi in Jesus coming, we've got King Benjamin and King Noah tremendous things coming. But the book begins with a very specific message. If you're there, take a look at that very first verse. The very first verse of the book of Mormon suggests Nephi looking back on his life. Now, remember, these are the second set of plates. What we're reading are that Nephi's second plates. So after he arrives in America, he makes one set of plates. About ten years later, depending on how it just gives us a ten-year window. Here in the next ten years, the Lord says, "Make another set of plates." And it's that other set of plates that we're reading from. That's the second set that eventually becomes first Nephi through Omnai. So Nephi is writing this many, many years later. In fact, when he's writing it, Lehigh's been gone for a long time. When he's writing this, his brethren have seen separated from his brother. It's 2 Nephi chapter 5, and they've separated from their brethren. And they've had many wars. That last verse of 2 Nephi 5 says, "We've had many wars." And that's when Nephi starts to write what is now the first verse of the book of Mormon. Now, looking back on his life, Nephi realizes that three things has shaped his life. Three things made him who he is. Can you find those three things in the very first verse of the book of Mormon? One tremendous influence in all of our lives is what's the first one he mentions. Is family. Our families have a tremendous influence in our lives. Parents, our siblings, our spouse, our children. One of the single greatest influences in your life will be your family. Good or evil? Your family will influence you perhaps more than anything else. Now, go to the end of the verse. The last part of the first verse. What else is a tremendous influence in Nephi's life? And I hope in yours. The things of God. The things of his kingdom, the spirit, the temple, the scriptures. The marvelous things of God hopefully are a tremendous influence in your life. Now, look at that middle one. The book of Mormon begins with the story of how adversity shapes our life. Nephi says that looking back on his life, his family, his challenges, and his faith, the things of God, shaped his life. Now, here's the beauty of that first book. The beauty of first Nephi is that two young boys. Now, I'm going to assume at some point they were about the same place. Maybe when they were little, but spiritually speaking, laymen and Nephi were about the same place. And so they go through the same trials. And it's not that Nephi has good trials and laymen has bad trials, right? That's not the point of the book of Mormon. The first book of the book of Mormon is the story about how two young men go through the exact same trials, but respond so differently. And because of the way they respond, Nephi hears him more and more clearly. Nephi is going to grow in Revelation. If you look at Nephi at the beginning of 1st Nephi, and Nephi at the end of 1st Nephi, two very, very different Nephites. This revelation from heaven, power from heaven, confidence from heaven, has dramatically increased. Nephi has grown spiritually not because he had good trials, but because of the way he responded to his trials. Hearing God in the dark becomes one of the most critical things we do. I wish I could just shout from the rooftops and wave my arms and have loud music playing right now. This is such a critical point. Hearing him in the dark is a critical skill. What Nephi did when trial hit led to increased revelation. Now the contrast to that is the way layman responds every single trial. If we respond to pain and darkness and trial, the way layman did every single time, we are going to lose light. We are going to hear him less and less and less. At the beginning of 1st Nephi, Nephi and layman are somewhere here. By the end of 1st Nephi, they are worlds apart. Why? They went through the same trials. But one reason. There's the message of how the Book of Mormon begins. Think about that. Think about how astounding that is of all the message to begin with. Of all the messages the Lord wants to start with, He begins with the message of how you respond to life, to challenge, to broken bows, how you respond in the darkness, shapes your character. Whether you respond by Nephi and you hear more, or you respond like layman and you hear less, that's up to you. But how you respond in trial will shape your life. So here's what we're going to do today. Today we're going to take a look at a general pattern of how layman responds and what happens and a general pattern of how Nephi responds and what happens. And then on Wednesday we're going to jump back in and go trial by trial and watch it happen. We're going to watch Nephi respond and take a little notch up. And then watch him respond again and take a notch up and then watch him respond. There's so many powerful, wonderful lessons watching Nephi handle trial after trial after trial. And we're going to contrast that in literature it's called a foil. When you cross two characters, Book of Mormon foil is quite a bit. You've got King Benjamin and Amalakaya or King Noah. You've got Captain Muroni and Amalakaya. You've got Nephi and layman. They'll put two people side by side. One is increasing and one is decreasing. And the idea is we're going to watch laymen make, you know, respond negatively. And we're going to watch him grow colder as if this channel is drying up. And we're going to watch Nephi grow a lot more spiritual opening that channel up. And the only explanation is they are responding differently to trial. And so may I just emphasize the very first message of the Book of Mormon. The very first verse is that Nephi recognizes I am who I am because of the challenges. Now couldn't layman say the same thing? His family, his challenges and reacting to the truth. to God is exactly what shaped his character, but he did it in a very different way. So let's start with the negative. Let's start with the negative. I'm going to move this over to the board. And let's start with Lehman. Turn with me to Mosiah 10. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 10. It's marvelous that years later they looked back. I think Mormon's throwing this commentary in years later and he's saying, "Look, now do you see the pattern?" Mormon chapter 10 verse 12. All right, ready? Let me get there. Mosiah, did I say Mosiah? Mormon's writing, but did I say Mosiah? Mosiah chapter 10 verse 12. Mosiah 10, 12. Ready? They were speaking of the Lamanites, known as verse 11. Now the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord. Verse 10, now the, or verse 12. They were a wild and a ferocious and a bloodthirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this. Boy, do you see the brilliance of what we're about to read? Here looking back, here's the tradition of the Lamanites. Here's what Laman always did. So here's the moment that trial comes into your life. Now Laman's going to go this direction. He's going to go away from God. You know what? It's following me, so I'm going to track this. That better? Okay, think you can see that. So Laman's going to go this direction. Here's the moment that trial comes into my life. Here's the line. Now notice the very first thing every single time that Laman does. So back to verse 12. Ready? Now look at the rest of verse 12 and all of 13 and see if you can see a repeated word. Every trial. Does anyone see a repeated word in 12 and 13? How did Laman always feel when the trial hit? Anyone see it? They felt wronged. Wronged. There it is. They felt wronged. They don't deserve this. They felt wronged. That God was somehow not taking care of them, not doing what He should. That they deserve to be treated better. Do you see that feeling? And it's so common in the world today. When something happens, we feel wrong. This isn't fair. I don't deserve this. And we feel wronged. When a trial comes into our life, we feel wronged. How come? That's it. That's the response. This shouldn't be happening to me. I feel wronged. Now what always flows when we feel wronged. Look at verses 14, 15 and 16. Every single time they felt wronged, what's the next repeated word? 15, 16. Roth. Now they're mad. When God isn't treating them the way He should, now they get mad. They were wronged. Now they're Roth. We see children do this with their parents all the time. They just feel, "That's not fair, mom. You can't treat me that way." And then they're angry at their parents. Now when you're angry at God, at your parents, look at verse 17. And thus they have taught their children that they should hate and that they should murder and rob and plunder and do all they could to destroy. Now they want to hate and hurt. And there's the pattern. That's how you respond like layman. If in trial when bad things happen, when darkness comes, when pain hits, if in trial we feel wronged. Why is God doing this to me? And then we get angry. We get angry at God. We get angry at authority figures. We get angry at the person we think is wronginess. And then we want to hurt them. People even want to hurt God. And the way you hurt God is you walk away from Him. You walk away from the things of God wanting to hurt Him, but the irony is, guess who that hurts? It doesn't hurt Him. It hurts you. But that's the tradition of the laymanites. They responded to pain by feeling wrong. That's a very prideful, "How dare this happen to me?" And they were wrong. They got wrath. And now they turn against God. So what direction is layman going? He is running away from God. And every time He reacts this way, it's going to push Him further and further and further. So His reaction to a trial is dramatically affecting His ability to receive revelations. Not that God's not talking to Him. It's that He's getting less and less able to hear Him. If you respond to a trial by feeling wronged and getting wrath and wanting to hurt God, this flow from heaven is going to diminish just exactly what we see with layman. Let us know in the comments about layman's response. Have you seen that in yourself and others? This is a human response. Alicia? I did it myself. I felt wrong because of my medical problems. And it's, you're not alone. You're not alone. This is something that is so common for humanity. It's so common for all of us. The problem is what direction are we running? We're hurting ourselves by running away from Him. I've done the same thing. I don't deserve all these medical challenges. I shouldn't, this isn't right. This isn't fair. I'm wronged. And then the only natural reaction is anger. And you feel yourself. When I do this, I can feel my connection to heaven decreasing because I'm growing more and more angry. Now maybe, maybe before we share more, we should see Nephys. Let's look at the contrast. How could we respond in a different way? What does Nephys do? So let me move this over here on this side. We'll pick up Nephys' response. I wish the Book of Mormon had a summary like they do of laymen. But I found one in the doctrine and covenant. It's not really describing Nephi, but man, it's describing what Nephi did. So let's go there and this perfectly illustrates what Nephi did. So turn to doctrine and covenant, 136. If laymen's response was Mosiah 10, 12 through 17, Nephys is doctrine and covenant's 136. 31 through 34. No, 33. 31 through 33. Let's turn there. Doctrine and Covenant's 136. Now starting in verse 31. Here's a haunting but understandable. I mean, if you think about everything we know about the gospel, everything we know about Christ and Gethsemane and Joseph Smith and Liberty Jail, we know that this is true. We know this is mortality, even though it's a tough thing to hear. Let's hear it. Verse 31. Anyone want to read? I'm happy to if you don't want to. Again. Deon, verse 31. "My people must be tried in all things that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion. And he that will not bear shastisement is not worthy of my kingdom." Maybe we ought to pause and talk about that for a second. Any thoughts? My people must be tried. I mean, talk about that's what mortality is. That's why we made an earth. That's why we came here. here. My people must be tried in all things and hence medical challenges and financial challenges and and all the challenges that we face. My people must be tried in all things because I have a glory for them and they can't have the glory if they don't bear chastisement. Anything you guys want to add to that? I mean that's a true but a hard statement to hear right? There is a glory and you can have the glory if you can pass that test and bear that chastisement. But if you can't bear the chastisement hence laymen you can't have the glory. So wouldn't it make sense in the next few verses that the Lord would say? Let me show you what I'm talking about. Let me show you what it means to bear chastisement. He wouldn't just simply say you're going to be tried and if you don't pass if you don't bear chastisement you're not going to pass the test and you can't have the glory without then telling us what the test is. So now read 32 and 33 just to yourselves and tell me what the response is. Tell me how Nephi is going to respond every time. Okay let's be honest. Maybe not every time. I don't think the expectation is that we're a hundred percent Nephi. I think the Lord knows we're going to have some laymen moments. I certainly do everyone I know certainly does. But I want to have more Nephi moments than laymen moments. So what is a Nephi moment? In 32 put them in order. Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon God. Now there's the critical moment. Do you feel wronged and kind of pull away from him or does trial make you humble and you turn towards him? Does your pain, does your the darkness, does the trial push you towards him? That's Nephi's response. We're going to see that on Wednesday even when Nephi didn't want to leave Jerusalem. Remember he wasn't excited. His heart needed to be softened but he turned to God. He sought the Lord. So number one on this side is to humble yourself and to turn towards God. I love that he says call upon God. You humble yourself and you call upon God. You're facing you turn to Him. Not away from him. So I think this moment that critical moment. Do you feel wronged and huh or do you turn to him and say Lord help me understand this. Help me with this. I'm struggling with this. Can you help me? I need help. I need thy peace in my life. So we humble ourselves and we call upon God. Now notice what it says next. That his eyes may be open that he may see and his ears open that he may hear. For my spirit is sent into the world to enlighten the humble and the contrite to the condemnation of the ungodly. So being humble and contrite, turning to God brings the spirit. Being humble brings the spirit and the spirit. I love what it says here. That his eyes may be opened that he may see. Now do you see our topic? Do you see the reason we're talking about that in this class? There are things you see only in trial. Let me say that again and I want you to just just I want you to think about that for the next two days. There are things you see only in trial when you respond humbly. You don't see those things any other way. Think about the things in your life that you have seen because of trial. I would guess they break down to one of three. I think we could make three lists here. Trial helps you see God and his purposes. I know that's ironic but it's true. Trial helps you see God more clearly and it's only when you respond humbly and turn to him that your eyes are opened and you see him more clearly. You see yourself. That's the next one Alicia. You got it. Tell us why. Why would tell me why you're saying that? What have you seen about yourself in all these medical challenges you have? I have seen that in myself as well and I have had so many people share that truth. I know how strong I am because of trial. I know how strong I can be. I would never have known that without the challenges but you see you more clearly. God becomes clear. I become more clear. Anyone want to guess what I think the third one is? I see others. I see other people much more clearly. I have learned to see people much more clearly in my trials. I love this doctrine. It is a hard concept but I love this doctrine. I love the truth that my trials are an opportunity to grow. Either this direction either I respond like layman and I feel wronged and get Roth and turn against him and I want to hurt him because he is hurting me so I want to hurt him. So I stop praying. I stop doing the things that I know make him happy because I find myself angry at God and I want a hurt God but the reality is it doesn't hurt God. It hurts me. If instead, if when trial comes, when pain comes, if I turn to him, that's why we begin with where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace? When other sources cease to make me whole and the answer is he is the only one. Turn to him in pain. Turn to him in darkness. If you ever have to leave Jerusalem and leave your high school and leave your friends and leave everything that you've known because your dad's taken you out into the wilderness and now you're going to live into a tent, turn to him. If your bow breaks and you get hungry, turn to him. If you turn to God, if you humble yourself and call upon God, he sends the Spirit and the promise is, I will help you see your eyes will be opened and you will see and your ears will be opened so that you hear of that I solemnly testify. Would you ponder the things you have seen more clearly because you have chosen Nephys response in trial? Would you ponder what you've learned about yourself and about God and about the purposes of life when you've responded like laymen? Are you able to step back now and see that those choices turned me away from God and filled my heart with anger and not peace? But I can find peace in trial if I turn to him. Now of that truth I testify and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.