Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello, everyone. Welcome to FollowHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with John Bytheway, and Dr. Frantz Belot. Welcome, my friends.

John Bytheway: 00:11 Thank you.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 00:11 Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:12 Yeah, we are here. We have a podcast called FollowHIM. We would love for you to join us on the full podcast, but this little clip is what we do, FollowHIM Favorites. For those of you who just say, “Hey, I got five minutes for you guys, give me your FollowHIM Favorites.” So John and Frantz, the lesson this week is on sections 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, and 120 of the Doctrine & Covenants. So John, we’ll start with you, what’s your FollowHIM Favorite?

John Bytheway: 00:42 Well, I’m looking at section 115 verse five, which was actually a youth theme a few years ago, and I wrote a talk that takes an hour on this verse because there’s so much in there, but we won’t use the hour today. Just one of the things that is my favorite in this, is when the Savior says, well, the whole verse is, “Verily, I say unto you all arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations”. And oh, I’d love to tell you the whole thing.

John Bytheway: 01:13 But thy light made me just go, wait a minute. I thought Jesus said when he came to the righteous in the new world, and I thought Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” in the book of John, but here He says your light and in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew, I’d love this, that Jesus lets us share a nickname with him.

John Bytheway: 01:35 Because he says, “I am the Light of the world.” But then he says, in Matthew, “Ye are the light of the world.” And this says, let thy light be, oh, that gives us all something to aspire to. That we can be a light to others. And in third ne fight connects them both. “I am the light, which ye shall hold up, that which ye have seen me do.” So we’re trying to be like Jesus so that his light can be reflected in us and that our can be a standard for the nation. So I love that idea.

Hank Smith: 02:08 That’s a beautiful idea, John. Have you ever been out on a full moon and the light is pretty bright, right? And all that moon is doing is reflecting the light of the sun. That’s all it’s doing. It has no light in itself, but man, if it’s really full out there you can see quite a bit. I think that that reflection of light that can come off of us when we fully face the Savior can really bless lives. That’s awesome, John.

John Bytheway: 02:33 Yeah. It’s I think another way to put that, Helen Keller who you know is blind and deaf and everything, very famous. If you don’t know who Helen Keller is, ask your folks, but she said, “When you face the sun, the shadows of discouragement fall behind you.” And I love to change S-U-N to S-O-N. When you face the Son, the Son of God, the shadows fall behind you.

Hank Smith: 02:57 That’s great. Okay. My FollowHIM Favorite is Doctrine & Covenants section 117, verse 11. This is actually a pretty brutal verse to a Bishop, the second Bishop in the church, Newell K. Whitney. The Lord says that he wants him to repent of his secret abominations, his littleness of soul, and he says to stand up and be a Bishop, not just in name, but indeed.

Hank Smith: 03:31 It’s hard to sometimes tell people that loving someone can mean that you have high expectations for them. And the Lord loves Bishop Whitney. And so he has high expectations for him, and he doesn’t give up on him. If you notice, he doesn’t say, “Bishop Whitney, because of your abominations and your littleness of soul, you’re out, we’re done with you.” The Lord won’t give up on you. If you’re willing to repent and try again, the Lord won’t give up on you.

Hank Smith: 04:03 But just remember when you think, man, we have a Savior with high expectations. That is a form of love. And so when your parents or when your church leaders, anyone has a high expectation for you. Remember that it’s probably because they love you. And they just don’t want you to do things in name.

They want you to do them indeed. Let’s actually become what we are meant to become.

John Bytheway: 04:32 And can you imagine how awful it would be if the Lord had low expectations of you?

Hank Smith: 04:37 Right. He’s like, “I love you. I love you. Do whatever you want.” Yeah.

John Bytheway: 04:42 “You’re not much and you’re not going to be much. So whatever.”

Hank Smith: 04:44 Yeah, this is so much better. Yeah. Yeah. I do love that. John. Yeah. His high expectation says something about us.

John Bytheway: 04:52 It’s affirming to us. Yeah.

Hank Smith: 04:55 Dr. Belot, tell us what your FollowHIM Favorite is.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 04:58 So mine is found in Doctrine & Covenants section 117, it’s the verse right after yours, Hank. It’s verse 12 or verses, verse 12 and 13, it says, “And again, I sound to you, I remember my servant Oliver Granger. Behold Verily I sound to him that his name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation forever and ever,” said the Lord.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 05:21 Now I asked myself, why would this man be remembered? So in verse 13, “Therefore let him contend earnestly for the redemption of the first presidency.” So he was helping the first presidency accomplish a few things, “Said the Lord. And when he falls,” so the Lord already knows that Oliver Granger will fall. Because he didn’t say, “And if” he says, “And when he falls,” and I love this, “He shall rise again, for his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase,” said the Lord.

Dr. Frantz Belot: 05:54 And that’s meaningful to me because not everything we do in life will bring about success or that will feel successful. But becoming the type of person that the Lord wants us to become, like Christ, is what success is, is who we’re becoming. Are we more patient? Are we are loving? Are we more accepting? Are we more willing to work in the kingdom of God? And again, the Lord says that the sacrifice is more sacred to Him than his increase. So I love this section and those two verses.

Hank Smith: 06:34 Yeah. I really like that too. The idea of the Lord can sanctify your failures. That not everything is going to be successful, but it’s about what you’re becoming along the way.

John Bytheway: 06:44 Wow. That’s really nice.

Hank Smith: 06:46 Well, we want to thank both John and Dr. Belot for being here and we hope that you’ll join us on our full podcast. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. But if not, we hope you’ll join us next week for another FollowHIM Favorite.