Hank Smith: 00:05 Hello, my friends. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with one of my best friends in the whole wide world. His name is John Bytheway. Hi, John.

John Bytheway: 00:13 Hi, Hank. Thanks. I like that introduction.

Hank Smith: 00:16 Yes. One of my best friends in the whole wide world. Now, John, we are doing followHIM Favorites. We take one question from this week’s lesson, which is the end of 2 Kings, 17 through 25. And the question this week is how do you remain faithful when those around you aren’t remaining faithful? And here’s why I was looking at the last nine kings of the Southern kingdom of Judah. I’m sure you do this all the time, John. You’re like, “Let me look at those kings.”

John Bytheway: 00:44 I was just making that list yesterday.

Hank Smith: 00:46 Yeah. I was just like jotting them down. And you go from it’s 150 years worth of kings, nine of them, Ahab all the way down to Zedekiah. And there’s only two of the nine who are close to God. So you could say that the majority is not faithful to God, yet here are these two. Hezekiah and Josiah who stand out as, “Nope, I’m faithful to God.” John, how do you be a Hezekiah or a Josiah in a world of Ahabs, Manassehs, Jehoiachins, Zedekiahs, Amnons who are not faithful to God? How do you stay faithful when those around you aren’t?

John Bytheway: 01:23 I wish we could open this up to listeners because there are a bunch of listeners out there who are doing exactly that. You’re amazing. The fact that you’re even listening to this tells us that you are doing what he Hezekiah did. I’m looking like in 2 King’s 18 where it talks about Hezekiah. “20 and five years old was he, when he began to reign.” He was a young adult, right? Verse three, “He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” Verse five, “He trusted the Lord God of Israel.” And I see that in there. Do you trust God?

John Bytheway: 01:59 The promises he has made are so amazing. Do you trust him? Have you looked around you and seen? Sometimes it’s kind of obvious sometimes when you look around, the consequences of not following God. Sometimes though it looks like they’re having a blast. But eventually, that catches up to everybody. It has to.

John Bytheway: 02:19 Hank, you’ve heard me talk about this guy in my ward that is a missionary at the prison. And he stood up in the back of High Priest once. And he said, “Listen, you guys, I have to tell you when I was partying and drinking, I had a great time.” He said, “I was at the great and spacious building, laughing at you guys. Then it turned on me and I lost my marriage and I lost the chance to raise my daughters. And I lost my job. And in 25 years, I spent $500,000 on drugs and alcohol.” And I’m like, “What? Who is this guy?” I’ve been to the prison with him since that to teach there, which is a wonderful experience. But anyway, he talked about, “First, it was fun and I lost everything.” And I think of those who are listening that have this question.

John Bytheway: 03:01 I just want to say, hang in there and keep trusting God. It reminds me of Peter walking on the water. There are a lot of things he could have looked at. He could have looked at the waves. He could have looked at the wind. He could’ve looked at the clouds. When he focused on Christ, he was okay. And that’s what Elder Holland said. As soon as his eyes wandered, then he started to sink. And so, man, we just want to tell you, Hank and I, your friends here, to hang in there and keep trusting God like Hezekiah did. Do that which is right in the sight of God and trust him and all of that. Those good consequences will follow.

Hank Smith: 03:37 John, everyone’s going to have these Rabshakehs in their life who are attacking them. Remember that Rabshakeh. He knew exactly what to say to get you to doubt. He says, “Don’t be deceived.” That’s chapter 19, verse 10, “Don’t let this God whom you think is there deceive you.” Very much like a Book of Mormon antagonist, trying to just push those right buttons. But look what in 2 Kings 19:15 Hezekiah prayed. He went to the Lord. He didn’t go to Google. He didn’t go to anybody else. He said, “Let me pray.”

Hank Smith: 04:13 Look at verse 19. “I beseech thee,” he says to God, “save us out of this hand.” So one, I would say, if you’re going to stay faithful, you have got to pray. That’s part of trusting the Lord is praying heartfelt. And if you’re like, “Well, Hank, I don’t know how to pray. Hank, John, I don’t know how to pray.” Well, do what Joseph Smith said. He said, “I knelt down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.” That’s to me a great definition of kneel down and to offer up the desires of your heart.

John Bytheway: 04:43 And if you don’t know how to pray, say that.

Hank Smith: 04:46 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 04:47 Heavenly Father, I don’t know how to pray. I just feel like we can get a checklist mentality. I said my prayers, but that’s not the point. That when you get down on your knees and sincerely talk, you are just opening up the door to Heavenly Father, to help you inspire you send the Holy Ghost. And that’s why you get down on your knees. Because you’re putting yourself in a place where you can hear him, to use President Nelson’s phrase that he has emphasized. So yeah, I love that.

Hank Smith: 05:15 Exactly. So in Hezekiah’s life, he did two things. He listened to the Prophet first. If Isaiah said it, he was in. Two, he went to the Lord. He prayed, but what did Josiah do? He was the other one we talked about. What did Josiah do that was different than what he Hezekiah did? And that is, he went to the scriptures. Believe it or not, he apparently had not heard the scriptures before someone found a set.

John Bytheway: 05:42 “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. What’s that? 2 Kings 22:8. “Look what I found.”

Hank Smith: 05:50 So he says, “Read it to me, read it to me.” So those of you listening, tell your parents, “Read this to me, read these books to me.” It says that he did everything he could to follow what those scriptures said.

Hank Smith: 06:03 Look at this in verse three, 2 Kings chapter 23, verse three. “And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in the book.”

Hank Smith: 06:22 So, John, I think if I was going to sum this up, I’d say, if you want to be a Hezekiah or a Josiah in a world full of wicked kings, you’ve got to do these three things. Put the Prophet’s words first. Two, you’ve got to pray. And three, you’ve got to get into those scriptures and commit yourself.

John Bytheway: 06:41 Yeah. And I don’t think you look around with disdain on others. You just move forward with quiet confidence. And I don’t know what you think about the church, I love this. I love this. I get so much help. I get so much strength. I listen to conference and I am built up and I am strengthened and I am excited and motivated. And let that give you that kind of quiet confidence. You don’t have to be condemning or judging who everybody else is. But for you, it’s like I’m sticking with … I am staying because I love this. It helps me, it blesses me. And I think the Lord wants to give you that kind of strength as we have just read.

Hank Smith: 07:20 Yeah. And don’t be afraid to do a little makeover on your life. That’s what Josiah does. When he reads scripture and he then looks at what’s happening in his kingdom, he said, “All right, one of these two has got to change.” Either the scriptures have to change or this situation has to change. So I know the scriptures aren’t changing. So it says, he basically does an extreme Israel makeover. He builds the temple back up. He burns down the groves. He breaks down some of the evil things that were happening. So get rid of that music, get rid of those websites, get rid of those apps, whatever it is. Let’s do an extreme life makeover and get back aligned. Let’s get back aligned with God and the scriptures.

John Bytheway: 08:04 There was a talk, Hank, that affected me years ago, and I loved it because it was Elder Robert D. Hales, talking about that he was a fighter pilot in Vietnam. And his motto for their squadron was “Return with honor.” And I believe it was in that talk where he gave the best definition of a friend that I’ve ever heard. A friend is one who makes it easier to live the gospel. And what you just said about eliminating this, that. Ask yourself, is this music a friend, is this TV show a friend? Is this movie a friend? Is this habit a friend? Is this way I spend my time a friend? Is it making it easier to live the gospel? Or is it making it harder? Why would I want to make it harder for me to live the gospel? Good way to think of things in your life as friends, not just people.

Hank Smith: 08:47 I love it. We’ll finish here with 2 Kings 22:19. “Let your heart be tender. Soften your heart. Humble yourself before the Lord.” You too. You’re going to be Hezekiah and a Josiah in a world full of wickedness. You’re going to be just like them. And I love what it says about Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25. “Like unto him, there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might. Neither after him arose any like him.”

Hank Smith: 09:20 We hope and pray that’ll be said about you, that nobody looks to God like you do.

John Bytheway: 09:25 You just be the best version of you. Get your patriarchal blessing out. What am I supposed to do and be.

Hank Smith: 09:31 Get yourself aligned with him and he’ll make your dreams come true.

Hank Smith: 09:36 Hey, come join us over on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. Use whatever app or whatever web browser you use, type in followHIM, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, it’ll come right up. We’re with Dr. Josh Sears this week. You are going to want to hear this one. It is fantastic. And join us next week because we’re going to come at you with another followHIM Favorite.