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Well, hello everybody and welcome out to our podcast. My name is Scott Durfee. Join today

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as always by our good friend and teacher, Mr. Dave Durfee. Say hi Dave.

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Good to be here Scott. That's good to have you with us too as always. So listen gang, let's take

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care of a couple of real quick housekeeping items before we dive into our topic today. First off,

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we want to just say thank you so much for those who have been engaged and in listening to the

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podcast and a special thanks to those of you who have responded and sent notes of encouragement and

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construction and criticism and everything. We're just really grateful for your participation. We

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sense that you're really enjoying the things that we're talking about and finding real life

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application and that's really kind of one of our many goals as we set out to do this. So he redeems

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us at gmail.com. Send us your comments, send us your thoughts. Remember as you're listening to us

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on the various podcast outlets that you're liking and maybe even commenting and leaving a review,

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those things help a great deal and we appreciate it very much. So last week and over the last few

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weeks now we've been talking about an important topic that will certainly find its way surfacing

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into I think most all of our discussions going forward and that of course is who we really are.

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We began by talking about who we are a couple of weeks on that, at least a couple of sessions,

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and then we move into who's we are as we begin to establish a relationship with our Lord and

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Savior Jesus Christ, our higher power for those in recovery or whoever. And you know as we do this

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and as we started to identify who we are and learn who we are and learn our origin, learn about a

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family name and why that's important. While this is intended to do is to help us understand that

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who we are is really the essence of everything going forward because that helps us know that I,

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because of who I am, I can face all things that are placed before me and I can do it successfully

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and that helps us to establish that faith. So today we move into a topic that isn't challenging by

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any means but it is certainly misunderstood I think or mistaught even sometimes and that is the

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fall. We're going to be moving in now to why our humanness, why are we the way we are, why do we face

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what we face and why even when we face of all of our efforts and everything else do we sometimes

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come up short of our spiritual quests or other things that we're trying to do. Over the last

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couple of days Dave, I've had an opportunity to be in a situation like I often am because of my

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association in the recovery community with a young man who at one point had a few years of

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being sober from drugs and alcohol and but since then has just really been facing a lot of difficulty

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and it doesn't fully or hasn't fully by his own admission understood who he completely is.

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Long story short we've spent some pretty hellish hours over the last 24 hours in some pretty dark

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places with this young man who is just struggling. Brief background raised by a good family has had

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plenty of challenges in his life like anybody else but it was raised by a good family, decided to

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go on a mission and was a great missionary, did a fantastic job serving the Lord on his mission,

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came home and it's kind of a similar story to mine, came home and began to struggle and he's

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in his 30s now, he's got a couple of kids, two or three kids and his just life has finally caught up

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and one of the things Dave and maybe we can move into it from here but one of the things that he

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mentioned to me, it was either last night or super early this morning when I was talking to him about

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this but one of the things that he mentioned was is that he said to me, he says, you know what I

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just need God in my life again, I just need to figure out how to get God back in my life

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and he even said it, he says I guess I just need to kind of remember, he didn't say who I am but

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he said I just need to remember what I was created for, what this is all about. True words but nonetheless

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Dave in spite of his struggle, in spite of all of our struggles no matter how good we are, how good

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we try to be, there are times in our lives when the fallen man just absolutely has the ability,

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if we let it and if our faith and if our knowledge of who we are is waning at all just really has

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the ability, these kinds of things to tip our lives over so let's talk about that today shall we?

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Well Scott it's the great test of life is to decide you know where we're going to spend

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our time in this world feeding the wolf of the flesh or feeding the wolf of the spirit.

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I think we all know that Native American parable about which the grandfather teaching his grandson

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you know that he has two dogs or two wolves inside of him and one is good and one is evil

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and that they're always fighting against each other and the grandson thinking about this

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finally asks well who wins and the grandfather wisely answers the one you feed and that's the

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great test of life is that do we spend time taking care of our spiritual needs are always

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always focused upon the things of the flesh and I appreciate your introduction Scott and again

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we're talking really about identity here in a way today we've talked about that we're sons and

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daughters of God we've talked about who's we are that we belong to Jesus Christ through covenant

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that we become his sons and daughters we've talked about being the sons and daughters of

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Abraham and Sarah through covenant and now we talk about being sons and daughters of Adam and Eve

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and it's it's not you're right it's not always comfortable to talk about it and it seems as though

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it's somewhat pushed aside oftentimes we don't really understand the significance of it so I'm

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hoping that today that we can help you and I and help others to understand the the positive aspects

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of this part of the plan of redemption you know it's one of the elder mcconkey said three pillars

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I've always kind of seen it as one of the three hinges of a door that is so critical in the plan

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of redemption which we again fought for in the premortal existence before we were born so I think

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understanding the fall and understanding our true identity identities everything identity determines

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eternity and understanding that we are human and that we should celebrate our humanness that the

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plan of happiness included celebrating our humanness and teaching us to rely upon the Atonement of

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Jesus Christ is critical in this spiritual quest that we all have in this most important test who

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are we going to choose gods of the flesh or god of our spirit comes right down to that doesn't

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I mean that's basically you know the bottom line gods of the flesh or gods of the spirit and there's

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no question that the difficulty is for me it has been and I don't think I'm alone in this is being

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able to put enough energy or momentum behind my quest to really tune into my life as gods of the

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spirit with gods of the spirit and it can and the natural man really makes that even difficult

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sometimes too I so what I'm kind of relating to and I had this with this young man that I'm talking

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to when I say young man he's in his late 30s but with this young man that I talked to last night

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you know one of the things that you know we think about is you know I just keep making a mistake I

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just keep screwing up I just keep making a mistake and so people think and I've been there uh two

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you know where you think at some point is it all natural man and and the reason we think that is

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because it is easy to get clouded it is easy for that god of the flesh of you as or however you

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put that it's easy for us because we are natural man to kind of incline ourselves towards that

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and it seems like sometimes when that happens that that really has the ability to kind of override

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everything else in our lives and it can be a real problematic avalanche spiritual avalanche if you

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will that just kind of gains momentum the wrong way if we don't interrupt that or remember and

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we get back to that word again from a couple of episodes ago but you know we'll get back to

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remembering really who we are and who he is and remembering that the fall Dave may have actually

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been put there and I say that tongue-in-cheek because I know it was put there for our ability

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to progress not just in the life to come but also in this life right yeah definitely it's part of

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our progression but it is it is critical Scott that we confess that we are natural men it's so

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critical in our progress that we we confess it and that we accept it yeah that it is part of the

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plan I love this I love this amazing scripture in mosaic 319 which I think most members of the

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church know and for non-members it's something for them to really consider king benjamin says

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writes for the natural man is an enemy to god and has been from the fall of adam the truth is

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Scott we are all natural men right and then and we are all part of nature and we isaia said this

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and then amulet quotes isaia in mosaic 14 all we like sheep have gone astray at times in our life

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we are all we have been enemies to god we are every time that we sin every time that we that we

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mess up and then he goes on and has been from the fall of adam and will be forever and ever

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and last he does really two things he yells to the enticings of the holy spirit and become a

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saint through the atonement of christ the lord I just really think Scott that identifying the

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the the nature of humanness in all of us is critical in understanding the importance of the

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atonement of Jesus Christ in our life and learning to rely upon him and also upon the holy spirit

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upon the comforter I every person that's ever been born Scott was born with the light of christ

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not only were they valiant spirits everyone that has a body was a valiant spirit and and fought

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and defended the plan of redemption and accepted Jesus as their savior before they were born

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but they were also promised that they would receive the light of christ and that the light

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of christ would be with them to identify good from evil and every person in this world Scott

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is entitled from time to time to have the holy spirit with them in times to protect them to

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comfort them I every day I pray recently for people in Ukraine that they would be comforted

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by the holy spirit God has given us these gifts to help us to not just get by not just to get

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get through this world but to actually to thrive and to learn to learn lessons by experiencing

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the fall as we turn to him and rely upon the holy spirit and the atonement of christ you know I

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it occurs to me a lot of times I think about the fall in terms of my own life right in terms of

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why are things so struggle for me why do I keep revisiting the same whatever challenge it is that's

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in my life right and it comes up again and again and again or they come up whatever and I'm not

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talking about anything specific I'm trying to make a general point because at the end of this

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general point here's what I really my observation has become quite acute to this over the last

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several years especially when I say several maybe over the last 24 years now as I've been engaged in

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my recovery process as you know a member of an active an active member of a recovery program 12

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step program but you know the thing that it occurs to me there too is is it's like this natural man

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thing can affect me not just because of my actions but because of the actions of others in other words

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you know I have kids you have kids and you know and I have great kids and so do you but those great

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kids sometimes yeah it can be difficult watching kids be adults and you know and sometimes I think

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I think parents and and my experience has been this with parents and spouses and everything else

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in these situations parents a lot of times have a really difficult time seeing this as any kind of

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a blessing any kind in fact I've heard a lot of parents say it's my fault you know what did I do

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wrong to have a kid mess up like this you know and stuff like that well not only not only is it hard

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to watch them sometimes grow up and become adults but sometimes it's hard to watch them

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as children and what happens to them as children that's right you know we're the world has become so

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so far to the to the extreme in its in its evil leanings that it's just hard to watch sometimes

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even your children your small children go through the things that they go through

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the abuse that they might suffer or the bullying that they go through or the the things that they're

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taught I mean the Scott the world is just so influential on each of our lives but especially

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children if we're not careful about how we how we teach them and and the things that they view

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and the things that they watch and and sometimes even doing that you can't you can't protect them

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we now live I heard an apostle say this in a meeting that I attended when I was a branch

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president the MTC he said we now live in a world that is more wicked than it is righteous

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and if you try to raise your children in this world and you don't do a better job teaching the

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atonement of Jesus Christ than you do teaching the commandments of God you're going to lose your

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children because they're not going to keep all the commandments and and that's not only true

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but people are going to sin against them yeah and uh meaning against the kids yes against the

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children and if we don't if we don't teach them the importance of relying upon the atonement

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of Jesus Christ and how he covers them unconditionally for the sins committed against them and conditionally

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by through repentance based on the sins they commit yeah wow that's the that's the most important

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thing we can teach our children but we also need to teach them that this that's this fall in this

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wicked world that we live in was something that we chose and fought over to to come down into experience

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so you're telling me that we chose to come to this life and I'm saying this tongue in cheek I know

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it's true but you know we chose to come to this life we knew it would be difficult we probably

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didn't have a clear concise depiction of what it would be like we had to conceptualize all this

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right we didn't have bodies to have any kind of relation to you know what it is that we were told

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that we were going to be experiencing but then we well we we cognitively understood but we couldn't

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have possibly experientially uh understood until we experienced it so what what would what would

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put us in a situation like that there to have enough trust to be like okay I'm going to take your

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word on it we obviously had a extremely clear concise glimpse of who we were or who we are we

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obviously had a complete understanding of who he was at that point right we didn't understand what

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was about to take place not fully cognitively we did but it hadn't taken place yet and but you know

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and we get back to a couple weeks ago and I and I don't and I don't want to digress to this but

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you know we get back to a couple weeks ago and we were talking about how the atonement how the

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how the atonement was covered retroactively and ahead of us as well right and so all of this is

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covered but you know we still struggle sometimes with our own relationship with that fall yeah

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for sure Scott and I think the advantage that we had there was that we could get a glimpse yeah

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of the beginning to the end and then we understood that maybe not everyone would experience the full

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blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ here but they would experience the atonement of Jesus

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Christ here every person that is born on this earth Scott is blessed by the atonement of Jesus

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Christ I don't care where they're born I don't care who they're born to or what religion or not

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religion that they that they identify with every person that's born this earth is blessed by the

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atonement of Jesus Christ and we understood that and we understood that he would suffer for what we

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would suffer not only suffer for our sins but suffer for our pains and our sicknesses and we

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understood that that the atonement would cover us and if in this life if if we went through this

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life and we never had the opportunity to accept the fullness of the Jesus of Jesus Christ or if

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we did and we failed in it that it wasn't the end that there would still be opportunities in the

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spirit world that there would be opportunities perhaps even beyond that I don't know but that

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we would have every opportunity to accept all of the blessings and the full effects of the atonement

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of Jesus Christ by making and keeping covenants with him and so we we we understood that and

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and we were we were willing to say okay we'll experience hell in order to gain heaven this is

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a celestial world and God God was willing not not only willing but it was a necessary part of the

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plan of redemption that we that we experienced some pretty terrible things and the Adam and Eve

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we won't we won't talk about necessarily the events of the fall and their decision and to

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partake and how Eve was beguiled and and Adam persuaded and and all of that we won't we won't

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go into that so much in this in this podcast but Adam and Eve did a great favor for all of us and

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that we understood that because of what they did that it allowed us great blessings and experiences

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here that would help us to become more like our Heavenly Father yeah kind of hard to understand

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though you know sometimes when when people and I've seen this and I've had this in my own life too

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it's it's hard sometimes to it's difficult to make the decision to embrace that what you just said

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because when we are in the I don't know how else to put it but when we are in the throes of addiction

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when we are in the throes of depression or whatever it is whatever it is that the atonement and it

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doesn't matter doesn't have to be extreme it can be a something that seems big but may not seem big

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to others too I mean whatever it is inside of our souls that's going on you know the atonement is

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there for us to to help us heal and and and that's you know what you said about the atonement

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has effect on every single person that's living is so evident in to me and to those that understand

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I think and I'm not proclaiming that I understand this completely or wholly but those that have

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some understanding it's even it's even sometimes even sometimes when when all hell has broke loose

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when the world seems to be raging against us when there seems to be little hope for peace

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or clarity in our lives even then even then the atonement is working in our lives and sometimes

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it's just a matter of acknowledging that and you know getting back again and we talked about I've

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talked about these steps from the 12 step programs you know getting back to those steps you know being

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willing to turn our well in our life over to the care of God as we understand him and you know and

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I might add parenthetically having a desire to understand him more you know one of the things

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that we face in life and you know and I'm just going to read a little tiny bit out of a book

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called the big book of alcoholics anonymous one of the things that we sometimes struggle with in life

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is you know finding a solution and how that works right how these things work and you know part of

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all of this this goes through and talks about how it works and then it says our description of the

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alcoholic the chapter to the agnostic and our personal adventures before and after make clear

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three pertinent ideas a that we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives we talk about that

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right and that's that's out of the scripture all of this actually by the way anecdotally comes

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most of it from the beatitudes taught by the savior b that probably no human power could have

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relieved our alcoholism and you can really move that word alcoholism and put anything

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any care of the world you can put my depression you can put my victim you know what happened to me

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when I was a little kid you can put my divorce you can put my challenge at work you can even put

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things in there is seemingly insignificant to some as you know how am I going to handle getting my

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kids to school and grocery shopping and all of those other things done done in one day it doesn't

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have to be some magnanimous problem you know huge problem and then b as c this is the point

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that God could and would if he were sought and you know and I think that's the problem with

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sometimes you know this fall creates not just in alcoholics not just in addicts but in every

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fallen person so that excludes nobody that is completely inclusive of everybody that's ever

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lived but you know but what that sometimes do is I sometimes know I have faith that God can

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and I have faith that God will but for me not sometimes you know sometimes that I know he

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would and I know he could for you but I just don't know if he would for me because I screwed

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up so bad I've made this mistake over and over and over again and when at what point is God

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going to be so mad at me when it's like you know what Scott you're taking this fall thing too far

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and I think we see that a lot you know with just just because of our human nature sometimes

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well the fall has no favorites Scott the fall has no favorites and and even even prophets

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are fallen they see themselves as fallen they've seen themselves as natural men enemies to God

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they see themselves as as having evil natures through the flesh it's so interesting I think

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this is my favorite prayer in the scriptures is the brother of Jared in ether chapter three when

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he's praying when he's after he's been asked by the Lord what do you what do you want me to do

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so that you'll have light in your ships and your barges yeah and he he he offers this prayer

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it's so powerful to hear him and I and he means it he's sincere and and I believe he really means

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everywhere this Scott he prays oh Lord thou has said that we must be encompassed about by the floods

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now behold oh Lord and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness

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before thee the fall made all of us weak and then he says for we know that thou art holy

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and dwell us in the heavens and that we are unworthy before thee because of the fall this

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is the brother of Jared who in a moment is going to see the Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit in

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his premortal state yeah so I mean how how faithful how much faith how much how good is he to be able

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to have this experience but he confesses that he is unworthy and then he says because of the fall

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our natures have become evil continually Scott he doesn't say that he's evil

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he says that our natures in the flesh are evil continually we are never going to be free

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in this life of the temptations and polls that we face every day through the flesh

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we're never going to be free from it no every day we're going to experience this

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Nephi when he cries out in 2nd Nephi chapter 4 oh wretched man that I am

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wow if Nephi's wretched I know who are you right yeah who am I yeah yeah yeah you got that right

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and you know and I think though that sometimes as we see words like unworthy and wretched and you

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know like I stand unworthy before God and I'm a wretched man and you know those those things start

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taking on a connotation that I think gets a little bit misconstrued right we when we say and when

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when he's saying I stand unworthy before they that doesn't mean he's not saying I don't I don't

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believe that you'll be able to help me I don't what he's saying is he's recognizing his own

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powerlessness in a situation and recognizing the Lord's powerfulness or his ability his all

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his complete power in order to to rectify or fix any situation whether that's lights in a boat or

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a messed up psyche or brain or addiction or whatever he has the ability to change all those

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things and so when we go before him and we and when either say or when he when he's saying the

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brother of Jared when he's saying I'm unworthy when we stand before you unworthy I think sometimes

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we misconstrue that is unworthy is unacceptable yeah yeah good point and again I want to emphasize

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we are dual beings we're dual beings and when he says because of the fall my nature or our

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nature all of our natures are evil continually he's not saying we're evil not at all no and I

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know Nephi from times of times feels wretched and and and so do I and so do you and so do we all

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but it's important to understand that in our spirit that our spirits are inherently good

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it's it's important to understand that we are naturally evil because of the flesh but we are

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inherently righteous and good because of our spirits yeah and that inherently component

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at some point when it begins to override the natural component exactly when you feed that yeah

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when you feed that wolf instead of the other yeah it makes all the difference in our life Scott

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but so many people don't for example maybe this is a place to share this this experience the man

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who comes in to me when I was serving as a bishop and confesses a long addiction of pornography

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and I know this man he's a he's a wonderful man he's served in wonderful important positions

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in our ward and he confesses the sin of pornography and as he's confessing this God he keeps

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he keeps saying I desire I desire this I desire that sometimes I anyway he's describing this and

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I'm going who who is this person I thought I knew him I I do know him he's been this he's been that

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he has this beautiful family and finally I put up my hand and I stopped him and I said so so just

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a minute you keep using the word desire to describe your your addictions and your behaviors

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what if you use the word temptation instead of using the word desire I was just uncomfortable

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the way he was describing his his sin and the way he was describing himself I didn't know really

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what I was asking Scott but as he sat there and I watched him ponder this the lights I could see the

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lights come on and his lights got a little bigger and he set up a little straighter and he said

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so what you're saying is I'm not a scumbag and I said yeah yeah that's right that's what I'm saying

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yeah you are not a scumbag tell me what is the deepest desires of your heart what's the deepest

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desires of your heart and he described beautifully he got really emotional and described beautifully

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that he wanted to have a forever family and I said okay so that's what I thought

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and then he said so what you're saying is that this is coming from an outside source

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and I said yeah it's a temptation it's a it's coming from an outside source for sure

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and then he said so what you're saying is I can beat this I can overcome this

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and I said well no that's not what I'm saying you can never overcome this until you learn to

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rely upon Jesus Christ and his atonement yeah and as he said that he shrunk a little bit lower

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and we could then begin to discuss you know how he could become a saint by relying upon the atonement

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Jesus Christ and it was a changing point for him and I'm happy to to tell you he was about lost his

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family but he was able to to overcome that and and and still has his beautiful family and and I trust

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they'll be together forever so uh what a powerful story and and you know and we all have stories

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we've all heard stories or been that guy ourselves you know the names are different the circumstances

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are different but we all have those experiences in our lives it's how we approach those experiences

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I'm so glad he approached it the way you know you you you debonai um my wife uh my angel wife and I

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have the opportunity to teach an institute class uh at a young single adults ward at b y u every

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wednesday night and and that's been uh kind of the highlight of my life I just love being there

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with those young bright minds and hearing you know when we sing hymns it's like it's belted out you

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know you've been around it more than I have it's just such an awesome wonderful spiritual experience

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all right you know and and one of the things that as I heard you tell that story you know when the

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guy says and and I'm not laughing because it's funny I'm laughing because I can relate I think

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all of us can you know when he said so you're saying I'm not a scumbag is that way is that what

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he said something along those lines so you're saying I'm not a scumbag it's funny it's not funny

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ha ha it's really interesting it's peculiar how sometimes we we think that we're a scumbag

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you know because of something that's going on or not going on in our lives you know we we uh we

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talk about this very thing in our institute class uh this very topic in fact we use a book uh you

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know from elder anderson the divine gift of forgiveness that is the curriculum that we use

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and it's it's wholly dependent I mean it wholly focuses on the atonement on redemption on healing

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on all of that and I've seen lives change literally lives change because of their reading and applying

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the principles in that book but when we talk about this stuff and we say you know it's just a matter

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and and we say it as we say it like that sometimes I know I do hey it's just a matter of applying

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the atonement it's just a matter of getting God in your life it's just a matter of whatever

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and when I put that word just there it's like I had a guy say to me you make it sound easy when

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you say you just have to do it that way and you know so I have to be careful not to make it seem

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that way because I know it feels big and that's one of the questions that comes up in our class

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constantly you know you say apply it you say bring you know and the question comes up well how do I

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do that let me let me respond to that because I got that question a lot when I was teaching Scott and

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and I this is what I've learned uh President Eyring has said whenever you feel the Holy Ghost in your

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life you know the atonement of Jesus Christ is doing its work so I've asked my students that

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instead of just focusing on the abstract of you just got to apply the atonement of Christ in your

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life I've told them focus more on getting the Holy Spirit in your life because if you have the Holy

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Ghost in your life the atonement is being applied you are being forgiven you are being strengthened

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and enabled you are receiving mercy just focus on getting the Spirit and the influence of the Holy

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Ghost in your life focus on that now I know there's more to getting the atonement of Jesus Christ in

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our life by accessing it through repentance through ordinances and covenants and all of all of that so

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many other ways but I think I think our students and our children would be better served than

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instead of saying uh you just got to get the atonement in your life yeah we need to start saying

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we need to live by the Holy Spirit in our lives we need to walk in the spirit we need to talk in

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the spirit we need to think with the spirit and act more in the spirit of the Holy Ghost

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that's how we get the atonement in our life yeah and you know that Comforter and that's what it's

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called right we go to the book of John and the Comforter which will come you know uh the Comforter

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will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said to you yeah and one of the things he

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said to us is come unto me another thing that he has said to us is I have paid for these things

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so you would not have to right if you come to me and so on so you know we we we have all this but

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I think that's wise wise wise direction Dave is you know when we are and this is one of the things

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that I've really been focusing on too you know there's a couple things in my life that I'd like

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to get better and you know focusing on my relationship with the Savior would certainly make those things

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better and I know that and we've been taught I teach this I mean you know when I do public

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speaking sometimes I teach that what we focus on expands right and if we focus on I'm fallen if we

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focus on I'm a screw-up if we focus on all those things then naturally that focus draws our attention

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to that but if we focus on our relationship with our Heavenly Father through the Lord and Savior

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Jesus Christ and what that meaning has in our lives is interesting how that just that you know and

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one of the descriptions of repentance is turning our back on or away from I should say turning

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away from something you know and if as we turn away from that and stop focusing on the problem stop

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focusing on the fallen and I start focusing on the solution in other words the Lord and Savior

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Jesus Christ and what he's done and I get that comfort through the Holy Spirit and I know that

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God's in charge of all of it it helps absolutely Scott so I I'm thinking right now again of a

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scripture in Mosiah chapter four when you know here is a whole group of people who as a result of

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King Benjamin's address have been forgiven of their sins have received a piece of conscience

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that's all described in Mosiah chapter four verse two and they I would say that they've been not

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only justified but they've probably been sanctified I don't know but these are these are people who

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have repented who have become worthy and who who have really accessed the power of Christ in their

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life and received the spirit and it describes that in verse three and then over in verse five

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King Benjamin begins to speak unto them and it says for behold if the knowledge of the goodness

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of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness we could say your fallen nature

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your fallen state if if the goodness of God has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness

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and you're worthless and fallen state then I say to you you have come to a knowledge of the goodness

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of God and his matchless power and his wisdom and his patience and his long suffering towards the

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children of men and also the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world

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and then later in verse 11 he encourages them he says commands them that I would that you should

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remember and always retain in remembrance the greatness of God and your own nothingness there

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it is again and the goodness and long suffering towards you get this unworthy creatures yeah

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they've just been justified sanctified for giving of their sins and he's calling them

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unworthy creatures and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility calling on the name

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of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come well which was

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the atonement of Jesus Christ yeah the birth and the suffering of Christ so I even when we're you

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know I used to have students all the time come in Scott into my office and while I was teaching the

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repentance and forgiveness class and they would come in and they would say I think I've repented

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and I think I've been forgiven but I just can't quit thinking about it and and I can't believe I

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was tempted by that same sin yesterday I thought I was forgiven and I thought I was behind me and

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I thought I had overcome it but I was just tempted with that same sin yesterday what is wrong with

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me I must be terrible and I would look at them and kind of smile and and feel their pain and say

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you know welcome to the club yeah welcome to the club a saint will never well now it's a blessing

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that we don't forget our sins so that we don't make the same mistakes sure so that's a good thing

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sure but saint can also use the sins of the past against us and saint saint can use the flesh

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and he continually tempts us Scott and just because we're tempted doesn't mean that we're evil no

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it means that we're fallen it means that we are in a celestial world and we need to kind of celebrate

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that more and accept that and I think it would take a lot of pressure off of us thinking that we are

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just bad people yeah instead of instead of kind of celebrating the idea that heavenly father knew

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I was going to sin heavenly father knew I was going to be surrounded by sin this is all part of

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the plan and if I do experience sin or if I think about sinning and I'm tempted by sinning or I mess

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up God's not surprised by that he has given me a savior and a redeemer yeah not only is he not

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surprised by that but he hasn't changed in his attitude towards me or you or anybody else because

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of it period he just doesn't he loves us exactly perfectly before after enduring all of the stuff

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that we're going through you know one of the things David we're getting close to wrap up time but

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you know what I just want to share this real quick I think one of the things that really can rob us

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of our serenity of our peace of our connection with our heavenly father actually can even rob us

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rob us sometimes of our understanding our concept of who we really are spiritually is comparison

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right yeah I mean because we see we judge ourselves against other people and we judge ourselves

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our worst selves against everybody else's imagined best self because we don't have any idea

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in most cases what other people are going through so we may see somebody you know who's telling us

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the things that you just said you know they may they may say hey you know we need to celebrate it's

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okay heavenly father knew you know and all that stuff and we think that of course he did and even

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we see that work in other people's life but again getting back to one of the very first things I

386
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started this discussion with today is but we are comparing our of course he would for you

387
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but he's not going to for me because I'm screwing up worse than you and we're judging

388
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ourselves according to and benchmarking ourselves against a misconception that we have of other

389
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people's greatness it's got not only is that natural man us yeah doing that but this again

390
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comes from an outside source the accuser the accuser the accuser puts that in our mind yeah

391
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we we are in a natural state that has allowed satan to put temptation and thoughts into our

392
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minds so I know that I know that we do that but I I actually believe that much of that comparison

393
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and misjudgment comes again from an outside source the accuser which we talked about 100

394
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being the title one of the titles of satan we talked about that yeah yep so I think that

395
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celebrating our humaness and accepting it can help us to do two things number number one be a

396
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little more kind and merciful yeah when we understand that we are the children of adam and eve

397
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that we are fallen lost carnal sensual and devilish and you can't believe how many prophets teach

398
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that in the book of Mormon and how many living prophets have taught that we're all fallen

399
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that should make us more kind and merciful second we need to learn how to rely more

400
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:20,480
upon the atonement of Jesus Christ knowing that as natural men and women as fallen beings

401
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:28,640
that we can merit nothing of ourselves that we are completely utterly totally dependent upon

402
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:38,080
upon Jesus Christ for our salvation and exaltation and isn't that awesome that is the best news ever

403
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:44,880
that's the good news that I don't have to work it all out I have to put my part right but it's not

404
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:51,360
all up to me in fact it's all up to him all I have to do is make a decision I have to make a choice

405
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:56,240
and when I make that choice obviously my life will align with the choice otherwise it wasn't

406
00:45:56,240 --> 00:46:01,920
really a choice right that's the test exactly and that's all the test is that's the test which is

407
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just seeing if we'll align because he loves us he loves us perfectly he's given us everything

408
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that we have now and in the future and for some of you that are thinking well I don't want what I

409
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:17,280
have now well that's good you're on the right path because turning it over to him will get us right

410
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to where all of those things will start to feel more I loved your thoughts Scott it really struck me

411
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:33,280
struck me you said what I choose to focus on expands I love that and I think I thought about a

412
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magnifying glass and that if I choose to focus upon the natural man that's going to expand in my life

413
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:52,160
and I'm I'm going to naturally lean that way and that's more of the natural things of life and the

414
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:59,920
sins and temptations of flesh are going to fill in the gaps of my life or I can I can choose to

415
00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:07,680
focus upon Jesus Christ in his atonement and we've been commanded to do so look unto me he said in

416
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every thought doubt not fear not if we focus if we choose to focus on him I know that that will

417
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:23,520
expand in our life and that some of the things of the natural world and natural man things

418
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:30,800
will just kind of fall out of our life as Christ in his atonement expands in our life

419
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that's a hundred percent 100 accurate I agree with that completely we're out of time while these

420
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these this time that we get together goes fast doesn't it it's such important stuff that we're

421
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:46,240
talking about I I hope that there's been a couple of takeaways for everybody today I think one of

422
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the main takeaways that I'm going to put back into my life or refocus or re-emphasize in my life

423
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is just that focus right just just focusing on my relationship with him and you know I'll put I'm

424
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going to put off focusing on all of the changes I need to make in my life I'm going to put those

425
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off till tomorrow I think today I'm going to focus on my relationship with him and and I'll probably

426
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end up doing that tomorrow too and you know and I say that kind of as a pattern or a directive

427
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because you know as we do it that way what happens is you know we talked a couple of weeks ago at

428
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some point when we're in the the natural man and it's totally consumed us sometimes it's not

429
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uncommon for us to look in the mirror in those empty eyes and say who are you where did you come

430
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how did you get here but if we focus change our focus and focus on him especially in light of

431
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our fallenness you know it gives us the opportunity and I've had this opportunity too to look in the

432
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mirror like what I see and say you know what Scott I love you because I know he does too

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what a great time it's been to be with you we're grateful for you we're grateful for your

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engagement for your participation remember to send us emails at he redeems us at gmail.com

435
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:06,240
thanks for being with us look forward to being with you again Dave how about you yeah god bless

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everyone hope you have a blessed day thank you all right thanks we'll see you all next week thanks

437
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:16,400
for being with us and once again don't forget to send us emails don't forget to like don't forget

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00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:21,360
to tell your friends and if you are so inclined we sure would love a review from you as well

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00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:39,840
have a great and blessed day everybody god bless