Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello, my friends. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m the host of a podcast called followHIM and I am here with my co-host and our wonderful guest this week. My co-host is John Bytheway and our guest is the incredible Dr. Scott Woodward. Welcome to you both. Thank you.

John Bytheway: 00:16 Thanks, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:17 Yeah. Now this segment is called followHIM Favorites. We don’t go over our full podcast, that you can find that wherever you get your podcasts. But for this lesson, for this segment, we just pick one thing from sections 102 through 105. Each of us is gonna pick one thing to highlight for followHIM Favorites. So, John, let’s let you go first, then I’ll go then, Scott. So, John, take off.

John Bytheway: 00:41 Oh, thank you, Hank. These are always tough because you can’t go wrong. So many beautiful verses, but I just kind of highlighted one section, 104 verse 82. That’s a long section. 82 towards the end. And this is what it says: “…inasmuch as ye are humble and faithful and call upon my name, behold, I will give you the victory.” And a way to apply this to ourselves–I heard somebody say once, I think I was a teenager, and it’s not exactly a scripture, but I think it’s true. Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees or upon her knees. And look what the Lord is promising here. Be humble. Be faithful. Call upon my name. I will give you the victory. I love that He loves us to keep in touch and to call upon His name. And there’s a nice little formula there. It doesn’t say the victory immediately, but He’ll be with us. He’s on our side. And so, I like that verse.

Hank Smith: 01:43 Okay, John, I’m gonna go. John, Scott, I’m gonna go next. I’m gonna go all the way back to our first section here, section 102. Which I hope you’ll listen to the full podcast on this, because Scott, not only does he tell us really funny stories, he just, he kinda leads in with nothing is so exciting as the minutes of a meeting. And that’s what section 102 is pins and needles. Here we go, ladies and gents. Section 102 is the minutes of a meeting, but what it is, is it tells us about church membership councils and when someone has done something that the church needs to look at in order to protect the member, protect other members, or to protect their church, that this is the system the Lord has in place. And I noticed in section 102 verse 17 that the Lord is very concerned about the individual who is coming in.

  02:33 And He calls upon people who are in this meeting to stand up for the accused to prevent insult and injustice. And I was just thinking about any youth who might hear, followHIM Favorites. Now, this is never gonna happen to you. You’re never gonna be brought in front of–as a youth you’re not gonna be brought in front of the stake and the high council. But even when you go to maybe see the Bishop to go talk about some things that have gone wrong in your life, I hope you realize that this is going to be a place of love and a place where you’re gonna feel safe. You’re not gonna be insulted and injustice is not going to happen there. I would invite both of you to, to add on to this, that you, we can feel safe with our Bishop, right? And that you’re gonna be okay in there.

John Bytheway: 03:23 Oh yeah, I’ll go first, I think. I loved when a young person would come in. To say, look, this isn’t, I’m your advocate. I’m your friend. I’m your–this isn’t you versus me, or you versus the church, or you versus your family. This is Satan against all of us.

  03:43 And we together are going to get the Lord’s help. And we’re on the same side, the same team. So I love this section about that–that aspect you highlighted Hank.

Hank Smith: 03:54 Yeah, I think that’s, I think you caught the spirit of that section, wouldn’t you say Scott? 102, the spirit of that section?

Dr. Scott Woodward: 04:00 Yeah. Amen. Absolutely.

Hank Smith: 04:02 Yeah. Alright, Scott, you’re up. followHIM Favorite.

Dr. Scott Woodward: 04:05 Okay. Alright. followHIM Favorite, I’m gonna go over to section 105. Let’s go verses 9 and 10. So section 105, they have come to–so Zion’s camp has marched 880 miles. They’re now at the border of coming into Jackson County to get their land back. But then they learn that it’s not gonna happen. Actually, the Lord–again you have to listen to the whole podcast, I guess, to get the full context–but through a series of events, they found out that they’re not going to be able to redeem the land of Zion. And have the people that were kicked out of there go back to the land that they own. So, the Lord explains in here that it’s not time to redeem Zion yet, because they still have some things to work on personally.

  04:55 And I think I love verse nine and 10. He says: “Therefore, in consequence of the transgressions of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait…”–and really, the rest of the church–“should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion.” Well, how long does that little season need to be? He says in verse 10, well, as long as it takes to do this, he says: “That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands.” And I think what I love, what makes this one of my favorites, is because I can see the attributes of God in full display here. He is very exacting of what He requires, in order to really, you know, live in the Zion community that he’s trying to build in Jackson County, Missouri.

  05:47 You’ve got to live the law of Zion. Like there’s no way around it. You can’t get Zion blessings without living the law of Zion. He says in verse five, you gotta live the law of the celestial kingdom if you want the kind of blessings that come from that. And so, but what I love about verse 10 is he says, listen, you just need time to work on it. You need to be taught more perfectly. There’s more things you need to learn. You need to experience more things and you need to know more perfectly concerning your duty and the things I’m gonna require at your hands. And so, I love that the patience also and the mercy that’s displayed here, right? Where he is just saying you’re not there yet, so let’s take some time out here to get it right.

  06:26 Let’s wait a little season for the redemption of Zion until you are ready to be Zion people. You know, the image that comes to mind, it’s a favorite analogy. I heard from Brother Brad Wilcox, who was so good. It was a fireside that he was giving. And he said, he was talking about this attribute of God, and he used the analogy, we’ve all experienced this. Where it’s the sacrament, there’s a priest up there, he’s blessing the sacrament, and then he messes up the prayer, right? And then the bishop kind of looks over and gives him a little head shake, holds up his finger. You know, one more time. One more time. And some of us have been in meetings where the priest has just messed up four or five, six times, and the, the audience, we start to feel kind of awkward for him, right? And the bishop just again, patiently will look over and say one more time. Sometimes they’ll even walk over there and tell him exactly what…

Hank Smith: 07:12 Help him out. Yeah.

Dr. Scott Woodward: 07:14 And Brad said, you know, the Bishop doesn’t have a special switch that he can flip and opens up a trap door underneath the priest and sucks illiterate priests down into the basement. You know? And after, you know, three strikes and you’re out.

Hank Smith: 07:30 Bones and skeletons down there. Priests gone by. Priests gone by.

Dr. Scott Woodward: 07:32 But the Lord, like the Lord wants us to get that prayer right? Right. He says, yep, try again, try again. But he’ll just give us as many times as it takes. And I think the Lord’s patience combined with His seriousness about us getting the law right. If you have a law that you’re struggling to keep right, a law of God, there are certain blessings you are not going to receive until you learn how to live it. But the Lord’s saying, listen I’ll, we can wait a little season. We can wait a little season. You’ve got some things you need to learn to be taught more perfectly, to have more experience, to know more about your duty and what I’m requiring at your hands. And so, as long as it takes you to learn it, it’s like I I’ll be here.

  08:17 You know, I’ll be here all day. And so, I just love the attributes of God that are displayed here. He is not just a grandpa’s just gonna give you a big hug, like you’re fine, give you a little noogie and let you like, come enjoy the blessings of the celestial glory and Zion without living the law. But he is also not so strict and harsh that, you know, he is not a three strikes and you’re out kind of God. He’s just, saying, listen as long as it takes. One more time, right? You just picture the bishop again looking over you. Now again, if you feel like you’ve messed up so many times, right? Just looking over and say, try again. I love that verse in Mosiah 26 where the Lord tells Alma that as oft as my people will repent, I will forgive them. As often as you need to repent. Like do it. That’s a, it’s a glorious thing. And it’s trying to help you learn to live the laws that are gonna bring the kind of blessing that God, God wants to bring into your life. So that’s glorious to me. That’s a favorite.

Hank Smith: 09:08 That is a followHIM favorite. Thank you, Dr. Scott Woodward. We hope that you’ll join us on the full podcast because you can get more of that on the full podcast. You’d find it wherever your podcasts are. But if you don’t, that’s okay. Come back next week for another followHIM Favorite. We’ll see you then.