Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. If you’ve been following us this year, you know that we take a single question from each week’s lesson. I’m here with my co-host John Bytheway. Welcome John.

John Bytheway: 00:17 Thanks Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:19 And we are looking at Isaiah 50 through 57, and I thought a young person might say to me, “I feel like I’ve made too many mistakes. I feel like I’ve ruined my life. I feel like I’ve sinned too much. Is there any hope for me?” And that seems to be answered by some of these chapters, don’t you think?

John Bytheway: 00:40 Wow! I mean, I think it’s answered hundreds of times in the scriptures. Of course there is. That’s the whole message. And if you’re not seeing that, go pick it up again. I noticed, not to switch over to the Book of Mormon real quick, but it’s a kind of a fascinating factoid that the King James Bible nowhere appears the word plan. In the Book of Mormon though, I always ask my students, what’s your favorite name for the plan of salvation? And they all say plan of happiness.

John Bytheway: 01:07 But the one that’s most frequently used in the Book of Mormon is plan of redemption. So look at that word. I’ve done too much. Oh no! You can be redeemed. And that is the most common. And it’s used by Alma, four sons of Mosiah who were troublemakers out with Alma the Younger trying to destroy the church. And then what happened? They were redeemed. And so they used it the most, plan of redemption. And boy, that’s the happy message. There is a Redeemer. Redeemer is in that word redemption.

Hank Smith: 01:35 Excellent. Right out of the Come Follow Me manual this week. It says even though the Israelites spent many years in captivity, and even though that captivity was a result of their own poor choices, the Lord wanted them to look to the future with hope.

Hank Smith: 01:49 And we could say that same thing to those listening. Even though some of the things we go through are a result of our own poor choices, that’s happened to me many times, the Lord wants us to look to the future with hope. He says in Isaiah 54, “I have called thee. Yes, things have been bad. But with great mercy, I will gather thee.” Great mercies of the Lord are available to you. He wants to bless you.

John Bytheway: 02:15 And I think that’s one of the wonderful things that we learn about the nature of God through the scriptures is how incredibly forgiving he is, and how he just keeps inviting over and over and over. And when we do dumb things over and over and over, he just keeps inviting over and over and over. It’s like he said, “Yeah. You didn’t like the consequences of that, did you? But come up to higher ground because I’m here and I’d love to take you by the hand and bring you back.”

Hank Smith: 02:42 I think that’s beautiful. I remember last year was we were studying the Doctrine and Covenants how often the Lord kept saying, “I forgive you. I forgive you.” He was a relentless forgiver. He would pursue people, and find them, just so he could forgive them. And sometimes we think, “Oh! The Lord, he doesn’t want to see me. He doesn’t want to talk to me. He doesn’t want to hear from me.”

Hank Smith: 03:00 That voice is not the Lords. The Lord wants to talk to you. You’re never unworthy to pray. You’re never unworthy to go before your Father in heaven or go before your Savior and just talk. Talk out your feelings and let them know that you want to do better. And that you’re weak. It’s okay to tell them that you’re weak. They know. They’re filled in on your life.

John Bytheway: 03:22 Fully informed.

Hank Smith: 03:24 They’re fully informed. Yet they still smile down upon you anytime you try to become more like them or try to draw closer to them.

John Bytheway: 03:32 Just the fact that you could get on your knees and just tell them, “Heavenly Father, I messed up.” Just that right there is huge. He knows that you did. Go tell him and talk it out like you said. I think I’ve said it before, but a little quotation I heard years ago, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees or upon her knees. So get on your knees. It just, tell him because what we’ve been reading, Hank, over and over again is that promise of, “I’m ready to take you back.”

Hank Smith: 04:01 I will take you back. And he knows you’re going to mess up again and again and again. And he still loves you. There’s this great verse in Isaiah 54 where the Lord said, “The mountains shall depart, the hills will be removed, but I will still love you.” You know how long it would take for a mountain to erode?

John Bytheway: 04:19 That’s a lot of erosion.

Hank Smith: 04:22 He’s like, “Do you see Mount Everest? Mount Everest will erode to nothing, and I will still love you. Are you convinced?” Even in verse 11, Isaiah 54, verse 11, he doesn’t see you as a sinner. Look how he sees you. He says, “Oh thou afflicted, thou tossed with the tempest and not comforted.” He feels bad for those who are stuck in sin or in difficult situations. He’s not looking to punish you. He’s looking to help you. He wants to be with you. He wants to help you. He says, “I can protect you. Come to me and I can protect you.”

Hank Smith: 04:55 So to anyone out there who feels like, “Oh Hank, John, I’ve done too much. I’m lost.” You’re not lost to him. You’re only a prayer away. Start doing the little things that you know you can do, reading a few scriptures, listening to the followHIM podcast. Maybe get rid of some of the accounts that you follow on Instagram or on TikTok, and just slowly make those changes. And you’ll see the Lord come into your life. And he’ll help you rearrange things. He’s good at that.

John Bytheway: 05:25 Well said.

Hank Smith: 05:26 Awesome. Well, join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can find it wherever you get your podcast. We’re with Dr. Jennifer Platt this week, and she does a brilliant job with these chapters of Isaiah. And then join us next week for another followHIM Favorites.