Episode #178-PT.8 Of The Temple Covenants Series: The Sealing Covenant W/Isaac Musser

0:26 The. You're listening to the Mormon Renegade podcast. Isaac, how you doing? Man, I'm pretty good. I'm nervous, but I'm pretty good. You're going to do great, I have no doubt about it. Well, first, look, I know it's always nerve racking when you're like, hey, you want to like come on the podcast and talk to me and maybe a few more. I know that it's always a bit unnerving, but man, I sure am glad you're here. Well, I'm grateful for the opportunity and we're going to go over some interesting things and I hope it does some good. I I'm sure it will so dude, let's just dive right in. We're going to talk about the, the, we're going, we're doing the temple covenant series, right? And we're to the point now where, where we're on the ceilings, right?

1:22 The, the marriage covenant, yes. And those are hugely important, right? I wouldn't say they're necessarily the last ordinance you make, but it's probably one of the most important that you'll ever partake of in your life. It's very important. And do you just want me dive in? Yeah, just dive right in, man. OK, Brother Wooly, and I don't know if you heard this before, Brother Lauren Wooly and I found this in in my or in Brother Muster's Book of Remembrance, but he described the endowments as being in three parts. And so the first one is described as this, and this is what we call the first anointing of the first endowment. It is, you were, to put it simply, you are anointed to become OK.

2:17 And then the second is that actual blessings are bestowed right or realized. And the third one is Jesus Christ himself. Right. So I want to emphasize this point. When we talk about the temple ordinances, we talk about a process. It is not complete until the whole work is finished. Right. And, and so this marriage ceremony or this marriage covenant is interesting because it's kind of in between. It's in between the first anointing and the second anointing. And it's A, to a degree, it's a completion or that's not the right word, but it's a, it's a bridge between the two, the first and the second, but it has far reaching implications. And so one thing I'd like to talk about, and this is something I don't know why it isn't talked about more, at least amongst the associates I deal with. But when we talk about these covenants that you have already gone over, a covenant is a contract and a contract spells out obligations and responsibilities on both parties.

3:43 And the marriage ceremony or ceiling or contract or covenant spelled out some very serious responsibilities. And so in talking about this marriage ceremony, I think it's important that we keep in mind our responsibilities, our obligations that are connected to these covenants. When we, I like this analogy, when you go in and sign a contract on, on a vehicle, you put some money down, the banker or whoever's representing the lender as you sign some papers, in those papers you agree to terms or conditions, right?

4:36 Those conditions spell out what you're going to do. They spell out you're going to make the payment on this day, this amount, you're going to make sure you have insurance on the vehicle as long as the bank has a right to it, and so on. There's conditions laid out in the contract and it's spelled out very well. You're supposed to read it. You're supposed to understand it. Now you walk away after signing that contract with an understanding that that's your car and you can call it your car until you miss a payment, until you don't carry insurance on that. Right.

5:18 Then you jeopardize the ownership of that vehicle because the contract has not been fulfilled. Right. And so I look at this a little bit with marriage and this is just a, a preamble, if you will. We, we make this marriage contract or, or we enter into this agreement between US and the Lord and we can call our spouse, our spouse. But we need to remember that there's conditions and obligations in that contract that have to be met before this is finished.

5:58 And that this is only a step in the in the in the progress of accomplishing this eternal marriage. Oh, that is such a fantastic way of looking at that, right. I, I could not have put that any better. My, you know, certainly I can have put that better myself. And I can't think of anyone ever explaining it that way. But I think you're right because so often and, and look, I want to say this runs the gamut of Mormonism. This isn't just an LDS problem or a fundamentalist problem or whatever. There's kind of a, a feeling from time to time and, and I hate to admit it, sometimes it comes more from the brethren is what I've observed where it's like, hey, we got sealed, she's mine, I'm good, right?

6:41 Everything else can stop, right? It's all done. And I like how you put that like, no, not yet. We still have obligations we have to meet even though we get to call her our spouse now. That's right. It, it is incomplete and we need to remember that because if we don't understand that there's conditions and responsibilities, then how are we going to fulfill them? How are we going to accomplish it? And that's that's what I think you're trying to accomplish by going over these covenants is try and give people an understanding that they have a responsibility. Going through the temple ordinances isn't something you do to check off your list and say I've done it.

7:24 Right. And, and if we, if we do it that way, and too many people I believe do do it that way, they miss the whole point. And instead of instead of those temple ordinances being a blessing and a help for them to understand the way back to our Father in the way to exaltation, it becomes a condemnation upon him. We want to guard against that. And these are the most, you know, if we look at the way that the brethren in the past described these ordinances, they were the most solemn and important covenants we could enter into, and they needed to be done with our eyes open, understanding them.

8:05 And that's what we're trying to do. Let let me ask you a question here and, and I'll only ask you to, to kind of speculate on this from from your perspective, right? You, you were born and raised a fundamentalist. Why do you think it is that, that maybe we haven't had our eyes more opened on this subject, right? I mean, look every as far as I can tell, and please correct me if I'm wrong, Steven, you've been at, I mean, Isaac, you've been at this a lot longer than I have. Everything we do in Mormonism kind of points us to the temple, right? And how is it we've missed the boat with not having our eyes wide open going into this? I think there's a natural tendency in it. It's really hard to to throw a blanket statement that covers all of the different motivations. But when we, when we undertake to become like our Heavenly parents, to follow down the way that Nephi describes the way back to well, to fulfill our whole purpose in coming here, it's a lot of work.

9:11 Yeah. It's a lot of work. We have to be something more than we are. We have to become something more than we are. And a natural inclination of mankind is, is to look for the easy path. And so if we can turn, whether it's baptism, whether it's a sacrament, whether it's whether it's the temple ordinances, whether it's callings in the priesthood, whatever, whatever it is, if we can turn those into a more simple way that we can do and still live our lives. Right. And still get where we think we want to go. Then we, our minds try to do that. And I think we have to work doubly hard because of that natural tendency in us to dumb down our religion to look and say, what are we here for?

9:59 And are we accomplishing it? You know, if I can take a minute, I'll go, I'll go back. You know, we talked about the temple ordinances and they cover so much ground and trying to help us understand where we came from and where we're trying to go. But in the beginning we have the pre existence where obviously we saw that our Heavenly parents were different than us. We saw that they had greater capacity, greater ability. We they demonstrated something we wanted and so we sought to follow after our Heavenly Parents and they went to great efforts and work to give us an opportunity to follow in their footsteps.

10:43 And the scriptures tell us that the sons of God shouted for joy when they found out that this plan was established and that there was going to be an earth created, that they could get these experiences and learn how to become like their Heavenly parents. They shouted for joy. And what do we do when we get here too often? You go what's the easiest path? Right. And, and we, because of our natural condition, we forget we came here for a very serious purpose. And the temple tries, in my mind, the temple tries to help us understand this is a very serious purpose. And here are the steps you need to take.

11:24 And, and so this marriage contract, and I've called a contract just because I want to make that impression. The first part of the marriage ceiling will oftentimes it's been referred to as marriage ceiling is the contractual part of it. I know I'm not saying that right, Dave, but is the part where we agree to something and, and those parts need to be well, they need to be written upon our part. All of these covenants that we make need to be written upon our heart to where we don't forget them so that we have that we take the ownership and responsibility to try and fulfill them.

12:07 You know that one thing I, I, I have to be careful how I say this. There is a mentality or an idea that if we do our best, the Savior will make up the difference. And I think we have to be careful how we view that because the Scriptures don't give us authority to believe that if we need to put forth the lackluster effort that the Savior will compensate for that. The only place in the scriptures were that I'm aware of where it talks about the Savior stepping in and making up the differences after we've done all that we can and all that we can is a lot.

12:51 It is. And we have to remember that. And so let's go back to the beginning. We saw our heavenly parents. We saw that they were more than we were in that pre mortal condition. And we wanted to be be like them. And so they says, OK, here's the way. Here's what we did in order to become what we are. It is not an easy path. It requires a lot of work. Work. Now we will help create the opportunity which we are forever in their debt to do. I'm seeing and I have a bad connection here with you, Dave.

13:31 Yes, it shows that your Internet connection is a little weak, but it's still coming through. So it just looks like you're a little behind us all on the video, but it'll be fine. OK, well the video doesn't matter to me because I'm not the best guy to look at so. You know, when I first people kept saying you should do video and I'm like, look, I love you guys too much to subject you to two hours of having to look at me. So you know you're you're just fine. OK, I was going to read a a quote from the Prophet Joseph. It's real short, but I like it because it talks about these steps, and this is for the sake of reference for anyone that wants to look it up.

14:15 This is page 348 of the teachings of the Prophet. But he says when you climb up a ladder you must begin at the bottom and ascend step by step until you arrive at the top. And so it is with the principles of the gospel. You must begin with the 1st and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation, but before you will have learned them. Oh, excuse me, but it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil, before you have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world. It will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave.

14:56 So we're not. The Temple doesn't have all the answers, but it is part. It is rungs in that ladder. Absolutely. Just as much as as baptism is, as the confirmation and the reception of the Holy Ghost is, as ordinations in the priesthood are, they're all steps going up that ladder. And what we want to do is we want to actually climb the ladder and not just look at it and say we, well, there's a ladder. We have to climb the ladder. And the temple ordinances give us an opportunity to see and understand more clearly what those steps are, you know, and to also measure ourselves to that. Absolutely.

15:42 And you know, it's, it's interesting that if we look at even temple architecture, especially if you know from the LDS perspective of things, those old pioneer era temples, they were laid out in an ascending way, right? Is that graduated covenants? You were working your way up in the building, right? That wasn't by accident. And so this idea that you're putting forward here that that you're quoting Joseph from about ascending a ladder, that's absolutely a pattern that God had used many times even before or at times when temples weren't available. Where do you have you go to do that? You went up the mountain, right? And there is, that's right.

16:25 There's this feeling that you are going up, you are ascending up as you partake of these covenants. And I think that's so important to keep in mind. And likewise in terms of ceiling, I don't think it was by accident that in those old pioneer temples, the the ceiling rooms were often just adjacent to the celestial room, right And so. That's right. They're, they're very much, there was a very specific pattern that the Lord had revealed. Because of that, he was trying to drive home the point about ascending that ladder or climbing the mountain of the Lord. That's right, an interesting quote from Harley P Pratt. So when the Prophet Joseph was restoring these ordinances in Nauvoo, of course the temple wasn't finished and he was doing it in the upper room of the red brick store. But he instructed the 12 and others specifically through all of these ordinances in 1845 after the Prophet was had been killed, the 12 were governing the church, or at least those that worked with them were governing there. And they were trying to finish the Nauvoo Temple and so that they could complete these ordinances within the temple. But something interesting is, is this order of marriage. A lot of people have heard about the sealing and they wanted to be sealed for time in all

17:56 eternity. And so they were asking the 12 can we be married after this order? Can we be married after this order? And part of P Pratt addressed them in a letter that says the Prophet Joseph never gave us authority or authorized us to separate this ceiling from the rest of the endowment that it was meant to go together. Now, I know as time passed on because of circumstances, often these marriages, this marriage ceremony was used and has been used for thousands of people. And I'm not finding fault with that. What I, I'm just trying to point out is this was meant to be together. This was meant to be part of that ladder, the sending ladder. You stay, take one step, you take another step, you take another step and they build upon each other until you get to this point.

18:48 And then you go from here, there's another last step and another step and another step, and you're not. You haven't climbed where we want to go until you've climbed where we want to go. Right. And so this is a necessary step, but it is in the middle of a process. It's in the middle of the ladder. And so let's let's go into. So if we look at this as a contract, I'm just going to read you the beginning. Now I've laid this foundation, we're going to review a little bit of how where someone, what someone has done to get to this point once we get to that point in this contract. But but this isn't for everybody. This is this marriage covenant.

19:35 The ceiling, if you will, is for those that have made certain preparations that have developed or or exhibited a certain determination and commitment. That's what this is designed for and the contract will spell that out. So let's this is the groom's covenant. This is this is what he is agreeing to do. You brother so and so take sister so and so by the right hand and receive her unto yourself. Say that's first part, then to be her lawful and wedded wife, second part and then. And you to be your lawful and wedded husband. I just want to stop there now.

20:23 We're all used to that. Most marriages have something similar to that. Right. So you have someone that that has now agreed to receive her unto yourself, to be her, to be your lawful and wedded wife. You're accepting her as a legal and lawful wedded wife and you're receiving her to yourself as if she is a part of you and you to be your lawful wedded husband. Now that lawful and wedded husband, that husband part, I want us to remember and underline that in our heads. What does a good husband look like? Now, the world has a lot of different views of what a good husband is, but this husband, this man, this groom that is entering into this covenant has made other covenants.

21:12 He is taking upon himself other obligations. He has something in mind as that where he won't stand up or ought to. So keep that in mind. We this is that kind of of a man when he thinks about himself as a husband, what how he's supposed to treat this wife If there's a standard there. Now he does this, he accepts this bride, if you will, he accepts her unto himself to be his lawful and wedded wife and him to be lawful wedded husband for time and all eternity. Now a lot of people focus on that and that's beautiful. I, I love that part of it, time and eternity. But but let's again, that's part of that's part of the fulfillment of the contract, that eternity part. We need to be faithful in time in order to see that eternity. We have to make the payments.

22:17 We have to make the payments and make them consistently OK. And this is the part that many people, so we this is the part the groom has said this. Yes, I accept this. But this is part that needs to be understood and you don't understand this part very well if you haven't gone through the 1st endowment. So I'm just going to read it through. So it's because someone else isn't reading this, it's listening to this. Do you brother so and so take sister so and so by the right hand and receive her unto yourself to be your lawful and wedded wife and you to be her lawful and wedded husband for time and all eternity. With a covenant and a promise on your part that you will fulfill all of the laws, rights and ordinances pertaining to this holy Order of matrimony in the new and everlasting covenant. Doing this in the presence of God, Angels, and these witnesses of your own free will and choice. Now that I don't know how contracts are written, I don't know if you call that a clause, I don't know what you would call that, but that is a pretty strong condition there. You, you say I will do this with the covenant and a promise on my part that I will fulfill all of the laws, rights, and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of

23:48 matrimony in the new and everlasting covenant. Now that says a whole lot. I mean, that's. Huge, yes. And so that part, I don't think a lot of people have have been explained or or I should say, have taken the time to understand what they're agreeing to, right, especially outside of the temple. Right. But many people, well, many people have grown up. We want to get married in the temple. We want to be sealed for eternity. We want to have families or forever. We want that blessing.

24:29 But there is this condition here that is required for us to fulfill in order to live up to, in order to be eligible, if you will, for that contract to be fulfilled. So this contract is made between the groom and God. Yes. Yeah, you're telling, you're telling God this is what I'm going to do exactly in conjunction with taking the responsibility of being married to one of your daughters. Exactly. And so the sister, the bride, she says something similar to you sister, take brothers so and so by the right hand, except it words are different. She has a different role and give yourself to him to be his lawful and wedded wife for time and all eternity. Now again, we can underline that wife word. What kind of wife is she?

25:30 Is she going to measure herself to why it's going to be the kind of wife that she's going to be striving to be should be influenced by the covenants that she has entered into prior to making this. Right. And so it's not just your standard old biddy that the world might look at. And just as this man is not the standard old man that people would refer to, these are different individuals with a different commitment and they should look different and they should act different in their daily lives. So he's, she has agreed to be his wife for time and all eternity, but her this has this exact same wording in for the groom As for the wife with a covenant and a promise on your part that you will fulfill all the laws, rights and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of matrimony in the new and everlasting covenant.

26:33 Doing this in the presence of God, angels and these witnesses of your own free will and choice. Now, people need to understand if they're going to say yes to that, they need to understand what does it mean to fulfill all the laws, rights and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of matrimony? Absolutely. And and that needs to be the focus as far as I'm concerned, when we make a covenant. You know, when I was a little kid, one of my mother's taught us this song. And I just love this, this rhyme, and I remember it and it says, before you make a promise, consider, well, it's important and then engrave it upon your heart.

27:23 People need to understand what they're agreeing to. They need to wait out, they need to count the costs. And then they write it upon their heart because they're going to do what they can to fulfill it. Absolutely, people. That's the contractual part. Go ahead, Dave. I was going to say, I think people, I think there's a natural inclination. Look at some of this. I do not want to come across wrong because I don't want to destroy some of the magic of the newlyweds, right? But but so often because it, because it is a great time, right?

28:03 I, I don't think the Lord wants us deprived of that. I think that's part of the beauty of this life is that experience of, of falling in love and, and, and being married. However, sometimes what I see is, is you know, it. We talked about the one extreme where someone just goes, well, you know, OK, we're married now. We're good. It's all good. We're sealed. Nothing, nothing left. No, no need to keep courting or anything like that. We're good. The opposite would be kind of almost like turning your spouse into an idol, right? And I think the way that this happens is you forget that you didn't just make covenants not only to your spouse, but you also make covenants to your God first and foremost concerning this marriage contract. And he is an integral part of this. And if you try to to separate God from this contract, in my opinion, in my opinion only, you've got not much promise there if that's how you're going to going to go forward with it. Oh, absolutely.

29:12 A lot of people, they focus on the blessings that are pronounced after individuals have entered into this agreement. They focus on the blessings and they act as though they've obtained it. They act like they have a right to that car that they signed the contract for without making the payments. Right. And sooner or later they're going to find out that they misunderstood the contract. Yep, They can't. They can't expect the blessing without a tearing to the laws that govern that blessing. The Prophet Joseph laid this out very clear. There's no irrevocable decree there.

29:53 The law is connected to the blessing. If we want the blessing, we have to abide in the law. Yeah, it's the only way it works. Absolutely. Can I ask? You. So we need to understand the law. Go ahead, Dave. Can I ask you another question about this marriage contract here? And because I, I, I think you're 100% right. We wouldn't buy a car or especially a home and land without really understanding that contract, right? What's expected of us. And so I do have some questions here concerning this for, for the men. When it says you will receive her unto yourself, what does that mean, right? It sounds pretty simple on on the surface, but I'm guessing there's some stuff underneath there.

30:37 I think there is. You know how Paul the Apostle talked about how men should love their lives? Right, like Christ. Like as to yeah, but he says you should love your wife as if it was you, as if it was your own body. You would not hurt yourself, right? You would take care of yourself and then you would give your life for your wife as Christ gave his life for the church. So that gives us an insight, I think at least how a good husband should view his wife. He should be the protector. He should be the guide. He should be the responsible part party to say, what can I do to help this my, my best friend or what I want to be my best friend, continue with me into the eternal, into the eternal realms. And and that again, that's colored by his preparation that he has made prior to making this covenant or ought to have made if he's gone through the 1st endowment because he has a different understanding perhaps than the regular fellow where he wants to go.

31:49 Absolutely. So we need to, and this is where we need to go back a little bit and talk about just a perhaps a quick review of what individuals should understand before they enter into this order of matrimony. Let's do it. So this, this groom in the first instant as he enters the temple, he goes through the initiatory ordinances and those initiatory ordinances wash him to become not as clean, but to become clean from the blood and sins of this generation. And in preparation of being anointed to become not as I just want to make this distinction, but to become a king and a priest unto the Most High God.

32:49 So in the first instance, this man who is now a groom making this covenant has his eyes on following the footsteps of his heavenly Father. That's where he wants to go. That's what he wants to become, and he's taken steps. I have to separate myself from the sins of this world. I want to become clean from the blood and sins of this generation in which I live. I have to rise above them. And he's symbolically washed to become cleaned, as well as to warn his neighbors to do the same. And that that starts him down that road to become clean from the blood and sins of this generation.

33:32 And he's anointed to become a king and a priest unto the Most High God, to rule and reign in our Father's Kingdom forever. He's not there yet. Right. But he's being prepared for that purpose. That's where he wants to go. That's what he wants to do. And so with that in mind, he's he's been prepared. And the Lord says, here is a is a garment prepared for those who want to go where I am. And this will be a daily reminder of the commitments that you have made and are going to make and the path you want to go. And if you're faithful to the covenants you make, this garment will be a protection from you against the adversary.

34:19 So this is this is the beginning part. So that right there sets you in a different way, a different trajectory than most people. And so you have that in mind. And then you, and then you go from there, you go into and you learn about how this world was created. And you learned that the gods worked very hard to give us this opportunity to create the earth and everything about it, put it in its place so that we would have this opportunity. Not because just because they love fishes and birds and and beautiful forests and mountains and lakes. And we all love those things. But that's not what they went to all that work for. They went to that work to give you and I and all of us an opportunity to follow in their footsteps to get a mortal body and learn what the lessons we need to learn. And we learn the creation and it gives us some degree of respect or, or it ought to, some appreciation for the effort that has gone in to giving us the opportunity that we hungered for in our pre mortal state.

35:28 Absolutely. And then and then we'll walk through the different rooms and go through the different covenants that you have reviewed in your other episodes. But let's go over some of those, the law of obedience, and I think this is something that is so misunderstood amongst so many people. You, the man makes a covenant to obey the law of God, not to obey a man, right? Not even to obey God. He makes a covenant to obey the law of God and that law is eternal. That law is the same law that our Heavenly parents followed or abided in in order to get where they were.

36:17 So it sets the precedence. In the beginning you wanted to follow in our footsteps. In your pre mortal condition. You saw you were different. You saw we were different. This is our Heavenly Parents talking. We have abided certain laws, celestial and their nature that have helped us obtain what we have today. You're going to have to learn how to abide the same laws in order to follow in our footsteps. So that's the first covenant you are learning to or you promise or covenant to obey the law of God and then the wife.

36:58 So here's let's go back to this covenant here, this marriage ceremony covenant. Yes, the wife agrees to be to give yourself to him to be his legal or excuse me, his lawful and wedded wife. Hey, that second it's it's in connection with law of obedience. See Covenants to obey the law of her husband under a condition. Right. That condition is as he obeys the law of God. Hey, can I just say a few things before we move on from that? Point.

37:39 Sure, sure. That is, I think, a very important distinction that you made there first, concerning the man not even to obey God, but to obey God's law. Yes. I'm a guy who tends to believe that the ordinances and the covenants aren't here only for our exaltation and to make us better people and to give us blessings. I think that they're a safety rail right in fun in in Mormonism, we have seen too often where people will ascribe their own bad behavior too. Well, that's what God told me. That's right.

38:21 Right. And I, I think there's, I think it's a subtle nuance in there that the Lord threw in there that we just haven't really been good at catching, right. Well, how do you test that? Well, how does it stack up against the other laws of God that he has revealed? And if it seems to be in direct opposition to that, you better take some pause. Right. Absolutely. The the for the sisters I have seen, I'm going to be very careful here because because I do not want to make this as just a blanket statement. There are some qualifiers to this, but I have seen too often where men will abuse this covenant in relation to their wives. And, and you know, darn it, woman, because that's how I said it is, is kind of how they do it. And she's given this thing of you don't have to stand for that there, you know, you, you only need to be as faithful as your husband is to the laws of God, right? And so there's kind of safety built into those that I think a lot of people do not realize.

39:28 I, I agree completely and I I think that needs to be emphasized. So what is this? What does this do? The only reason I believe this is worded the way it is for different from the man from the woman is that it shows that we're creating a patriarchal family. Right. It's there is no difference in law. It's just showing it's a patriarchal system of government, right? And So what does she get to do? If she's a good faithful wife, what does she get to do? She gets to remind her husband of the law of God. Yes. And say, is this the law of God or is this something else? And that's her job. That's what she should be doing, and that is the safety rail.

40:11 If she's doing her job, she's a counselor and she's saying, look, the law of God says this, aren't we supposed to be doing that? Absolutely. The man is never authorized. He made a covenant to obey the law of God. Right. What happens if he administers any other law? If he administers his own law, what does that say? That's malfeasance and office. Yeah. He. Can't do that. Yeah, he's right. Lord is not standing there saying, well, he's your husband, right? He's not going to be defending that that mad made a covenant, but for God, angels and witnesses that he will obey the law of God that governs him, that is sovereign.

40:55 When he deviates from that, he is in violation of breaking his contract, his covenant with God. And so that is a governing. That law of God is a governing guardrail, if you will, throughout his life going forward. That's the kind of husband he needs to strive to be. What does the law of God? How does that apply to me as a husband? And so the wife is doing the same. She's saying, what is the law of God? She needs to know the law of God in order to help her husband and to know that well that he's not taking him off a Cliff, right? Taking that family off the Cliff. She needs to know the law of God. Yep.

41:37 And So what does that create? That creates strength and unity when they both understand and are striving to understand the law of God. Absolutely. So so we here, here, we've come to this point that this groom and this bride in the 1st place have a trajectory. They want to become like their heavenly parents. They have been washed and anointed towards that end and they've entered into this first covenant. First covenant that they will be obedient to the law of God, where the husband is acknowledged as the head of the family to the patriarchal order. Yet the law of God governs and that's key. The law of God is sovereign in that home, not the man, the law of God.

42:25 Then the second covenant, the law of sacrifice is connected to it and it it ties and we're just going to review it quickly. I know you've already done episodes on this, but. You're good, you're good. The law of sacrifice basically tells us, look, this is how I read it. There's going to be in a, because of this circumstances, there needs to be an atonement. The Savior's going to take care of that work, but you have a work to do. You have promised to obey the law of God. You are in a natural condition, Brother so and so and sister so and so. And you're not always going to want to obey the law of God. OK, Who does?

43:06 Right. You're not not in your natural condition, you're not there yet. So this is going to create a situation where you're going to be up against the wall and have to make a choice at times. And that choice, if you're going to do what's right, is going to require you making a decision to set aside what you want to do in the moment because of your natural condition, and do what is right instead. That is the law of sacrifice. That is, I promise to take whatever stands in the way of me being obedient to the law of God, and I will put it on the altar, so to speak, and it will be gone because I've made this commitment to obey the law of God. The law of sacrifice basically says I won't let anything stand in the way of that.

43:57 I'm willing to give up anything in order to obey the law of God. And that being obedient in that way opens the door for the atonement of the Savior for his sacrifice, because we're willing again to do all that we can do, which opens the door for the Savior to do his part. So repentance, the work of repentance, is nothing more than the application of the law of sacrifice. Yeah. It it's setting aside something that we have wanted to do as a payment against doing the right thing.

44:38 You know, you know, probably the go ahead, Dave. I I'm sorry, Isaac, go ahead. I say Brother Brigham says sacrifice is an overused word. To paraphrase what he says is an over used word. Because all we have is so little to give. We give up a bunch of nonsense and God gives us eternal life and eternal increase that it's not a fair trade for God. No, no, no it's not. That's, that's like getting a Rolls Royce for the price of a, you know, a Toyota, Hyundai. I mean, that's, that's pretty good. It is, it tells us a little bit of the character of our Heavenly Parents, though, what they're interested in doing and, and how, how bad they want to share the joy and the happiness and, and all the work that comes with their existence with us. And they're offering us everything and they're asking us to give up some of our nonsense.

45:36 And if we look at law of sacrifice, as hard as it is when we're in the middle of the emotion of wanting to do something that isn't the best thing we should do, if we stand back from it little ways and look at it with a clear perspective, it's not much of A trade off. No, you know, I want to speak on this just a second. And look, I'm a guy who who came from a background of never being a Mormon, first Mormon on either side of my family as far as I know. And I remember sitting there and someone was saying, well, and, and in these days, it was three hours of church for the LDS church, right? Three hours on Sunday. And then it's 10% of your tithing. And then there's going to be, you know, 10%, excuse me, in tithing.

46:24 And then there's going to be more stuff that goes along with that, callings and that sort of thing. And I'm like, look, especially the time thing on Sunday, right? I love football. I'm like, if your God can't get done in an hour and a half like everybody else's, I don't know what you want me to say. But however, however, I will say this, as I laid some stuff on the altar, what I realized is it was just that it's just stuff, right? And so often I think we get, we get, we have this idea of, oh, look at how much I sacrifice the Lord. You didn't sacrifice anything that wasn't worth giving up anyway. And at the end of it, the blessings not only in the life to come, but in this life are far supreme to anything else that you were going to do of your own accord, period. And, and I think that's something we need to keep in mind here, that this idea that we're just sacrificing. No, there's a purpose behind that. And whatever you're giving up, I promise the blessings coming back your way are tenfold.

47:28 That's right, that's exactly right. And another way to look at sacrifices is when we when we sacrifice something for the right purpose, it is sanctified, is consecrated, is made holy. And I know we don't look at our sins that way, but that's what it's doing to us. When we give up those things that are are beneath our aspirations, that's what is. Again, let's go back to what what we're what our trajectory is. We've been washed and anointed to become something. We're not there yet. We know we're not there yet, but we want to become something. And so there's going to be a process of changing, of improvement in order to get there. That's going to require giving some things up that are beneath the gods.

48:21 It's just beneath them. We just have to recognize that. And so let's take that back to this marriage contract, that law of sacrifice. That's a, that's something we applied to be a good husband and a Good Wife. We have to look what is, what is the best thing for our family? What is the best thing for a family to help go this direction that we're trying to go? And it means being unselfish, right? I mean, setting aside the well, this is how I feel today. I I just want to sit here and watch football and I've been there while the rest of my family is, is working hard, maybe making a nice big meal for me to enjoy. Now that's not very godly, right? I'm supposed to learn be learning how to be a godly husband.

49:14 So I look at that. I recognize it. I'm just using that as an example because I've been there plenty of times and say, what should I do in that moment? What should a godly husband do? And you sacrifice that nice soft chair with your nice drink, watching the entertaining whatever, and you get up and you help your family. That's the application of the law of sacrifice and very simple terms. And you do it on a daily basis. And, and as you do it, you start to change who you are into something better to where that's not hard to do anymore. You step up and do the right thing.

49:55 Absolutely. And so I, I, I tell people this, the law of sacrifice is this simple and so easy to remember. The law of sacrifice is choose the right, whether I feel like it or not. That's all it is. Yep. Just that simple. You know, I, I think you hit on something, they're important too. It's, it's doing what's right when you don't want to. And I've, I've said this for a while now, the we're all striving to be the best disciples of Jesus Christ we can be, right? Well, what's the root root word of disciple discipline, right? That's right. And sometimes you're going to do things you don't want to do. Right.

50:38 But you do them anyway because it's the right thing. That's right. Motivation is fickle. Motivation comes and it goes, right? You can walk out of church on Sunday feeling really motivated to do a good job, but applying discipline is something else, right? It's easy to do what's right when you're motivated. It's something else to do it from being disciplined. And that's something that I think the law of sacrifice teaches us real well, is how to discipline yourself so you can become a good disciple, a better husband and a better father. Exactly right. I agree with that completely. So, so let's let's look again, what is our trajectory? Our trajectory is to follow in the footsteps of our Heavenly parents.

51:25 Now, how would it be when we get on our knees and we're really struggling and we know we're not worth much and we haven't behaved very well, but we get our knees and we're pleading with the Lord for help and guidance and direction and forgiveness and all those things. And he's up there and going, you know, I just, I don't feel like helping him today. Right. Right. You know, I just don't. I just don't. Maybe tomorrow, but not today. You know, you wouldn't even put that kind of condition in in godhood. You just wouldn't do it. So what we're doing and when we understand these covenants, we're in training. We're in training to become like God, and that's a lot of work because we're not naturally inclined to to be as good as they are.

52:11 We're just not. And so the if we look at the law of sacrifice as a training principle, it is helping us achieve our goal of becoming like our heavenly parents, like God, like our heavenly mothers. That's what we're trying to be. Then it after we understand that Brother Brigham says, is it really a sacrifice, giving pebbles for gold? It's not a sacrifice. So, so, but we promise to do that because again, our heavenly parents have been through this earthly probation. They've been through mortality as we have. They know the struggles.

52:53 And so they know you're going to need to make this commitment because it's not going to be easy at times to obey the law of God. You're just not going to feel like it. Right. But you make this, this, this emphasizes this. Just like you're not going to want to be a good husband all the time, you're not going to want to be a Good Wife all the time. You're not going to want to be a good parent all the time. But apply the law of sacrifice that says this is required of me. This is what how God would be in my situation today or other people. This is what would the Lord do in my circumstances today. That is the standard, not how I feel, but how I should be, and that helps us improve.

53:40 Take a step up. Take another step up that ladder to the Prophet Joseph's talking about. Isaac, I can agree. So yeah. So we go from there, we go from the law of sacrifice to the law of the gospel, law of the gospel again. Could you could you really covenant to do more then be obedient to the law of God? It's hard to, but we don't. We only understand the law of God to a small degree. The law of the gospel spells it out in a easy way for us to begin to understand and it says the scriptures are before you.

54:22 Read the scriptures and you'll find my law. Absolutely. And so dig into them. Dig into them you you promise to live the law of the gospel as contained in my scriptures and on top of that just to reinforce it. It's already in the scriptures, but to reinforce it stop talking bad about other people. Don't use my name in vain. And you know you can. I know you've already talked about these things. I'm just trying to get through them. But, but this is it takes away excuses when you start, when you can see why the Lord's laid out these covenants the way he has.

55:06 He really tries to put a fine point on the details as you move along. So it takes away the ambiguity and so it becomes clearer and clearer if you're paying attention. This is the way I need to go. So I need to dig into the scriptures. I need to find out what the Lord has said. I need to find out the commandments that is the law of God as far as the steps I need to take right now, that is the law of God. I promise to live the law of God. I need to do that. I double down on my agreement here and and he spells it out a little finer, but but that's basically what he's saying as as I understand it, the law of God is before you dig it out, agree to live it in detail. Not generally and the general idea, but agree to live it in detail.

56:03 Right. Can can I just say something about this real quick, Isaac? Sure. There's a part in the in the law of the Gospel that talks about no evil. Speaking of the Lord's anointed. Now, my time in the LDS Church, I, I immediately went to, well, you don't speak bad about the president of the church or the quorum of the 12 or your sake president or your Bishop, right? I think it's deeper than that, right? Because as you pointed out in those initiatories, there is an anointing that happens, a preparatory anointing, but an anointing nonetheless. And I want to bring it back to the marriage contract a little bit, right?

56:48 Don't. Your wife has been anointed. You have been anointed. Don't speak bad about one another, right? If you got a beef with your spouse, you go to your spouse. You don't go tell somebody else. You keep that between you and them. Do not speak evil of one another. Nothing I can think of, nothing that will poison a well faster than that. I remember there was a young man that I had hired once when I worked back in Idaho who was a return missionary, got married and, and this is about the time where I was starting to take things a little more seriously, right? I was starting to really trying to peel back the the layers on this.

57:29 And he was kind of complaining about his wife. And I was like, I don't want to hear it at all, ever. If you have a problem with your wife, you go work it out with her, but don't talk bad about her around here. I was like, I'm going to overlook those because I know how dudes are and so, but there's a lot of other guys who aren't. And why would you ever poison that well and speak bad about the person you are supposed to be? Pardon the expression there. Ride or die no matter what, right? You always have their back. Don't don't do that right. And so and so with with some of this, I would say that that promise not speak evil of the Lord's anointed does extend to your spouse. I agree completely.

58:14 I I ask people, I I use that same analogy that you do. How do you know who's been anointed of the Lord? Right. They could be all around you. Yep. But let let's look deeper. What's the Lord trying to accomplish through these covenants? He's trying to point out the kind of character that can be exalted. And I just asked people, who do you think the Lord would authorize you to speak evil of? Right. Right. Who you know, so he says things in a way they go, Oh yeah, you're right, they're anointed of of the Lord. I shouldn't speak evil of them.

58:54 What's he trying to do there? He's trying to develop this discipline that you talked about earlier. Guard against speaking evil of anybody, because you don't know who's anointed of the Lord. Guard against that. There's no virtue in speaking evil of anybody. There's no virtue in that. Right. So guard against that and again, just puts another fine point on how we should behave. And here's another opportunity for the law of sacrifice. Well, you're in the bad habit of speaking evil of others. What comes to your mind all the time, opportunities to speak evil of others. There is the application of the law of sacrifice. You remind yourself, you know, if you're, if you're actively trying to do this, that will come right to your mind before your mouth opens. It's.

59:43 Part of this, the work of the Spirit of the Lord, it'll come right to your mind. You shouldn't do this. And we make a choice and we we either feel guilty about our choice or we're grateful we made the right choice. We either applied the law of sacrifice in that moment or we gave into a weakness. Absolutely. But the law of the Gospel begins to define in a little clearer, finer point, what the law of God is and how to apply it on an everyday basis. And the light slipping my mind. But there's another part of the law of gospel. Oh yes, and this, this applies to marriage.

1:00:24 And I, I think this is important to remember because he does talk in general terms in the law of the gospel in that covenant in the end, that you will avoid all unholy and impure practices of any kind. And so go, OK, would you? I mean, let's look at the Savior and, and his his parents. Our parents are on next level compared to him. And yet he's the example of the standard. Would you consider him doing anything unholy or impure? No, he just wouldn't picture that. No, no, wouldn't picture that. So he's, he's reminding us in that covenant to look at your life, examine it and are you working towards this standard of purity of excellence, if you will, of the, the qualities that you have to abide in that you have to develop if you're going to follow in our footsteps.

1:01:25 So every unholy and impure practice has to get set over on that law of sacrifice. If it's, if it's a coarse language, if it's coarse behavior, whatever the case may be, we have to start to look at that and say, is this abiding in the law of God or is this beneath the law of God? And then we apply the the law of sacrifice to that in our daily lives. Before we move on to the next one, I want, I'm sorry, I I must keep derailing you and I apologize. No. That's fine. Speaking to that point, there every, every unholy and impure practice. Sometimes I think the Lord threw that in there, 'cause he's like, yeah, these guys are going to try to, like, find all sorts of loopholes. Right.

1:02:12 And I'm just going to give a blanket statement here, right? And it reminds me it, it kind of reminds me of a movie once you, you ever been like, it was on one of those nights where I was sick and just couldn't sleep. Have you ever had those more likely poles? And you just can't. And so I, I was like, I'm not going to keep tossing and turning here. Keep keep amber up. So I went ahead and I went and I sat in my recliner and gosh, this was probably the better part of 20 years ago now. But I was flipping through the TV and I just got wrapped up in this old black and white movie. And for the life of me, I don't know what the name of the movie is. I couldn't even tell you who the actors are. They, they weren't that recognizable to me. But it was black and white and it followed the story of a doctor and a lawyer. And they, they became the best of friends, although they were kind of that frenemies kind of a thing, right? Where, where, you know, they would just challenge each other, right.

1:03:02 The, the doctor was a very godly and moral man. And the, the the attorney was one who would tend to do what's right, but only when, when after he'd been beat up a little bit by this doctor verbally to do to do the right thing. And it shows him later in life and the attorneys on the on his deathbed. And he's just shows him reading the Bible as the doctor walks in. He's like, oh, so now that you're getting close to the end, you thought you better take up religion, huh? And he's like, no, I'm just looking for loopholes. And I think so that that part of the covenant there that that talks about, hey, no, no, no, has a phrase.

1:03:43 I'm sorry, I'm blanking now. Every other unholy and impure practice, that's a black blanket statement. There are no loopholes in that, right? And we all know. We know, right? And we all we do. But we all know. OK. Is this written down somewhere? No. But does it feel good? Right. And that should be a pretty big dead giveaway that, hey, you're engaged in one of those practices you need to put on the altar and surrender. That's right. One of the things that that's helpful to for me to remember is when we talk about temple ordinances, this process that we're walking through these these rings of the ladder is the purpose is to refine us.

1:04:26 Right. It, it's a cleaning up, it's a, it's a dusting off it, it is preparing us to be able to carry more. And this word, I don't know how, a better word, but it, it's making us more trustworthy. You know what is being offered to us. And we read Section 76. Those who are exalted in the highest degree of the celestial Kingdom, all power is given unto them. Our, our heavenly parents, the gods, if you will, guard this power and only give it to those who can be trusted with it. And so if we can't be trusted with ourselves, can we be given more power?

1:05:10 No, no, no, we can't. So, so this discipline, this, this refining, this subjecting ourselves to a higher law than our natural inclinations would naturally go is part of the process of following after the law of God. We, we have to recognize that we have a lot of improvement to make. And in that humility we begin to apply these laws and principles and make these changes in our characters. You know, the Savior says to the Nephites, when he was standing in their presence, he says, the Father had given me a commandment and I to tell you that no unclean thing can enter into his Kingdom, can enter into his presence. He says no unclean thing.

1:05:54 And he doesn't say, well, believe on me and I'll clean you up. He says this most important commandment. He says therefore all men everywhere must repent, and that's the key. Sacrifice is repentance. The law of sacrifice is the application of repentance. The law of the gospel is telling us, search it out and find out what you need to repent up. Apply yourself to this standard that's laid out in the Scriptures. Apply yourself to that. Measure yourself in your daily life to that standard, and then you're going to see that you're going to need to apply the law of sacrifice, set some things aside, give them up for something better. And that better is a more godly character, a more godly condition.

1:06:42 You'll be a better husband, you'll be a better wife, you'll be a better parent. And so the law of the gospel. Then where do we go from there? We go to the to the law of chastity. And of course that fits right in with marriage. And you've discussed this already, but it it goes back to that trustworthy if you can't control yourself, can you be trusted? If you're willing to to defile yourself with others, can you be trusted with an eternal existence, can even be trusted with one wife? Brother Brigham says no. Right. So the law of chastity again puts a finer point on our responsibilities.

1:07:28 You have to govern your thoughts, you have to govern your conduct. And when that natural man creeps in there, which it does for everybody, when the natural man creeps in, you recognize it. And you say, I have made covenants, I have obligations, and I will not cross that barrier, and I sacrifice those feelings. And if I do that enough, that will no longer be a temptation. Right. Not again. It's just reinforcing the standard. Absolutely. And because of my time in the LDS church and some callings I had fulfilled, I got a front row seat from time to time on the devastation that that breach trust causes. And the thing that I'm always, always shocked at is the amount of at the very least, ignoring worst case scenario, just not caring of all the other covenants you have to break first to even put yourself into a position to where you'd violate the law of chastity in that way. Because that's not something like when someone says it was just an accident.

1:08:47 And maybe I'm a little harsh on this. I'm like, that's no accident, right? There were many things that had you have happened before you found yourself in this position. And I think there's a reason that one carries so much weight, right? There's a reason I think it's placed in the endowment where it is for a reason. And to violate that one, I think shows, like I said, at least ignoring the rest of the covenant you made-up to that point. I agree. I agree. And, and you know, that's one of the blessings I, I mentioned earlier, the garment that is given to us, the garment of the holy priesthood, it is given to us that if we'll keep our covenants, it will be a protection against the adversary. OK, In order for us to break or in, in order for us to breach this trust and break the law of chastity, we have to disregard that, don't we?

1:09:46 We have to forget the covenants that we've made that are reminded us through the just the wearing of that reminder, if you will, of our commitment to go this direction. Absolutely. I mean, in simple terms, I know it's more complex than that, but in simple terms, the law to break the law of chastity after we have made these covenants that we have made, if we've entered in this way as far as we have so far. It it puts us in a very bad spot because we're not doing this ignorantly at this point and so it is a serious offense. And I.

1:10:36 Don't want to destroy hope for anybody, but let's not get ourselves in that condition because if we have been abiding in these other covenants and working on them, we don't get to that place. Right. We just don't get there. And that I, I think we have to focus on that. OK, so that we mentioned that the law of vengeance, we didn't mention that, but that helps us too. Yeah. Not just in connection with the Lord's justice, but but how do we treat people and are we guilty of of doing anything that is unjust, anything that is reprehensible to the law of justice and we can we can measure ourselves.

1:11:25 We don't. I like the law of vengeance in in this way. If a nation or any nation is willing to condone the hurt or harm to innocence and to and persecution of the prophets in any way, I want to be separate from them in this sense. I do not respect that government. If it's going to do that, it separates me from that. You know, the Savior says my Kingdom is not of this world. And I think that's helpful for us to remember. As much as I appreciate the United States and and the Constitution and our founding and the Lord is behind all that and we wouldn't have the opportunities to live our religion without it, I have to acknowledge that there has when leaders exhibit poor behavior, it affects the country. Yep.

1:12:23 And I don't support the country when the leaders are exhibiting poor behavior. Absolutely. No, I'm not going to turn against the country, but I'm not going to support that bad behavior. Absolutely, absolutely. I remember so I was always kind of a weird kid growing up. I was a bit of a was a bit of a hell raiser. At the same time, I was the kind of hell raiser that would listen to Rush Limbaugh on my radio as I was doing it. And so I was always a little bit right of center, right. Let me say that. And on the abortion issue, I was always right of center on that one too. And then I remember we adopted our twins and I saw them scrap for every breath of life they took and, and how life really is the default setting, if you will, of all creatures. And in that moment, I became very right of center on that issue.

1:13:26 And I remember at one point I was talking to a good friend who was Mormon as well. And I just said, I wish. And this was before I knew about the oath of vengeance, right? And I remember thinking, saying to him out loud as we were talking about this, I wish there was a way I could make a declaration that that's not in my name, right? That I want no part of that. And then, you know, about 5-10 years later, I discovered this oath of vengeance. I'm like, oh, well, there it was. It was there the whole time. I just didn't know about it. But that's a way, quite frankly, I think that's a way where we can shake the blood and sins of this generation from our skirts.

1:14:08 That's right. But also, there's another beautiful thing that happens with that. And that is when we do take that oath and we leave the vengeance part to the Lord, that frees us up to now focus on healing the offended party, right? And look, that can work inside personal relationships just as much as that can work on the on the macro level, the national level, right? If we would just give our our desire for retribution to God and then just focus on healing relationships, we'd be in much better shape as people. Much better.

1:14:50 Shape, I agree. I agree. That's not our job and never has been given us to do. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay, and we have to remember that. But it is important. I think it says it tells us this in the 1880 revelation that Wilford Woodruff received for the Council of the 12, for the quorum of the 12, where he says I require my I've always required my people to importune me for both blessings and justice. It's part of our free agency in the active use of our free agency that authorizes God to do what he needs to do. It's just part of that eternal law program is we have to seek after it, whether it be our blessings or whether it be justice upon the earth.

1:15:36 And that's that's part, that's why the scriptures are full of examples of the innocent blood crying out to God because it it's just part of the deal. It has to be dealt with. It has to be dealt with and we don't want to be partakers of the sins that look in differently towards injustice, right? We don't want to be part of that society. We're trying to be part of the Kingdom of God and we're trying to follow in the footsteps of our heavenly parents. Now you go back to to abortion and think about the efforts that have been made by Heavenly parents to give us the opportunities of mortality.

1:16:21 How disrespectful can we be? Absolutely. Through the efforts that have been made in our behalf to disregard life. We can't go there. We have to separate ourselves from that way of thinking completely. Couldn't agree with you more, Isaac. So there's a lot of vengeance. And again, we look at that throughout our lives. What are what, what are we doing on the micro level, if you will, to encourage justice in our families, to encourage dealing with problems appropriately? Mercy can't rob justice. Justice can't rob mercy. There has to be a working together there. How are we learning how to administer the law of God within our own family as husbands and wives, parents? And so we have to be careful how we do that. Recognizing that God is always just keeps us humble. It keeps us in the place where we recognize we have to always be just.

1:17:25 And I, if I forget, I need to touch on that a little bit later when we talk about the sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise. But that's very important to be just and true. Absolutely. So the the next one is the law of consecration and this one, again, it's laid out in the scriptures. We promised in Law of Gospel to search out the Scriptures and see how we're supposed to live. A lot of consecration. I know this was just covered, but it is emphatic that we understand that this is the condition you and I can live every day. And that is a dedicated, consecrated life to God.

1:18:07 Now you get enough of those people together, you can have a united order and it can be a beautiful thing. But we make that covenant between US and God that we will take all of our resources, everything the Lord has given us, our time, our talents, everything the Lord gives us, and that we will make sure and use it to build up his Kingdom and establish science. That is one of the more refining principles that we're talking about in this in this steps of progression and that affects the family. You know, when we talked about this marriage contract, this beginning of a family that affects the family, how are we going to reuse our resources? Are we, are we only going to be interested in taking care of our family?

1:18:54 Are we interested in building up the Kingdom of God and establishing Zion? How are we going to use the resources that what Lord has blessed us with? We both made a covenant, right, that we would use all our resources to build up His Kingdom. Part of that is taking care of this family. Right. But we are not selfish. We are following in the pathway of our Heavenly Parents. And what are they doing? Why they've dedicated all this time, all this matter, all everything to give us an opportunity to follow in their footsteps. They're exhibiting no degree of selfishness. How do we develop that? By applying the law of consecration in our lives. That's how we do that.

1:19:40 Absolutely. There, there's no longer too many people. It, it's well, I'll give and I'll, I'll give my 10% or I'll give this or that. And lot of tithing has an important aspect. I don't want to speak against that because that is a very important aspect. But the people that are trying to live the law of consecration, they're thinking differently than most people. They're thinking about what can I do? Everything that's been entrusted. Into my care, into my jurisdiction needs to be used for a sacred purpose. Now what is that, Father? Right.

1:20:21 And and that that begins again, going back to trustworthy, you have to develop trustworthiness. And how are you going to do it except learn by give you give. We give our young people something and say now go to and see what you'll do with it. And and so it is with our heavenly parents. They entrust us with the family, for instance, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to do something good, honorable or something else? And and so it is the law of consecration is for me. It's one of the exalting principles that exalting covenants, if you will, As we truly try to apply that principle, it refines us because it refines us on the most basic of levels to really act at our core, to learn how to dedicate our heart and all of our resources to something bigger than us. You know, we, we talked about the law of sacrifice a little bit just a few minutes ago and that talks about, you know, even being willing to give up your lives is necessary, right? And then we go to consecration and I'm like, I remember when I was younger going through the temple a lot going, OK, so what's the difference there?

1:21:49 It took me a good few years to, to, to even come up with an idea. And it took me a couple more just to kind of expound and be able to talk intelligently. But sometimes I think we look at dying for something as the ultimate sacrifice, and I don't want to take away from that. I think that is the ultimate sacrifice. But sometimes living for something can be even harder because you know what? Absolutely. You're going to get up the next day and you're going to do it again and you're going to do it again and you're going to do it again. And sometimes I think consecration is, is way more about the heart than it is anything else, right? And I remember here not too long ago, I watched the documentary. I watched too.

1:22:35 One was about Michael Jordan and one was about Tom Brady. Now this is going somewhere. I'm sorry to bring up something this crude into this conversation, but it's going somewhere. And we all lauded them for their abilities on the court and on the field, right? And we just thought, man, what would it be like to have that much talent? What we didn't see was all the stuff they did in preparation to that, right? All the hours they spent either in the gym or on the field or in the film room or whatever, right? And I'm like, oh, I see, it was a consecrated life now. A consecrated life to maybe something less known, but nonetheless, it was a consecrated life.

1:23:18 Now, how does this apply to us? How bad do we want it? How bad do we really want it, right? And I think that's what the law of consecration is there for is at first it's going to show us probably not as much as we want, but as we move along and hopefully sooner than later, we can get our eyes fixed on the proper goal and want that with everything we got. So not only are we going to consecrate our resources to the Kingdom of God, but we should be willing to consecrate and live a consecrated life for our marriages, for our families, right? How bad do you want to see your family in the Celestial Kingdom with you? For me, it's everything, right?

1:24:02 That's why, that's why I'm here. That's why why I'm talking to you, right, is because it's what motivates me in the end. Now, I have a long ways to go. I am far from perfect at mastering this, because I am still tempted quite frequently to do other things that are far less noble. But nonetheless, I think it's there to reveal First off where our heart really is, and then show us how to get it where it needs to be. And I think that consecrated life is all about how bad do you want it? I agree. I agree. You don't. You don't find out at where your heart is, what your heart is centered on, until you put in a situation to see. Right. To see And so here we go. Lord blesses us with three sources. Are we going to be those resources? Are there ours or are they given to us for a sacred purpose? That sacred purpose might be buying some food for our kids, but then nevertheless, that's what it needs to be used for. It's not used or we don't have our hearts set upon those riches.

1:25:03 We don't have our hearts set upon the things of this world. Everything that we're given and we still have to change this mindset. Everything we we are given as a tool to do something good with. That's how the gods operate. Yep. They're not fighting over stuff up there. You're right. He says there is plenty to build with up there. They're not fighting over it. Right. They're using it for good purposes. And so if we want to follow in their footsteps, we have to learn how to do the same. We have to learn how to to, to mold our heart and our mind into thinking bigger than our selfish, selfish selves that we are inclined to do as natural men. And this So again, this is a refining principle, a refining law.

1:25:55 And Brother Brigham calls these two laws the law of consecration and the law of celestial marriage, as the crowning principles of the gospel. Why? Because they pull the most out of us if we will apply ourselves, they will purify the most if we will apply ourselves to them. And I think that's key is recognizing that all of these covenants that we make to obey these laws is for purpose. And that purpose is to refine us, to mold us, to get us into a better condition that can be trustworthy. Trustworthy to become, well, to a degree, is, as Joseph Smith says there.

1:26:37 We're not going to get it all figured out in this life to become like the gods. That's understandable. But we have to get to a place where we can take this body and go into the next class. Absolutely. And that's pretty important. And we've got to learn how to discipline ourselves. We've got to learn how to refine ourselves. And this is all spelled out in these covenants. And so with that in mind, these are the type of people that made these covenants that now enter into this marriage contract. And so this is what kind of husband they're trying to be, and this is what kind of wife they're trying to be. And these are the kind of parents they're going to strive to be as they have children that are going in this trajectory, applying the law of the law of God as the sovereign in their lives.

1:27:27 As for me and my house, we serve the Lord, right? They're applying the law of sacrifice when it comes in, when their natural tendencies come in conflict with the law of God, their understanding and searching the scriptures and being able to learn that all of the scriptures, the law of the gospel applies to them and how do I apply this? And they're, they're committed to that and they're teaching their family to do the same. The law of chastity, they're guarding from anything of that nature and law of vengeance are trying to be just and true and seeking the Lord to establish his justice upon the earth. And then the law of consecration, everything that comes into this family, this is now a family is this groom and this bride are now a family.

1:28:15 Everything that comes under their jurisdiction, under their control, they're using as God would use it to the best of their understanding. And, and we're, we're talking generally about the covenants of the endowment, but with the, with the rest of the endowment, there's a great deal. You're taught how to pray and you're taught why, because you need more guidance and direction on how to do all this. You need the Lord's help and in doing all this. And so I don't want to leave that out. This, this family that is being created here is a prayerful family. They're seeking the counsel and direction of the Lord because they know they can't figure it out without them. And this is one of the keys that that one of the examples were were taught throughout the endowment ceremony. Why Adam needs more light and knowledge. Well, so do we.

1:29:07 We need more light and knowledge. And that's one of the blessings that were given to this process. And so that that sets a table for this marriage. These people understand the direction they want to go. They understand the laws that they're supposed to abide in and they understand God. They need God to help them accomplish that. Now they so they enter into this covenant and this agreement that they will fulfill this and I want to focus on this word fulfill. We've talked about these covenants, these covenants that they've made. Now these are the laws, rights, and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of matrimony.

1:29:56 They've agreed to fulfill that, and that word fulfill is different. I David was telling me that that word has been changed in some of the versions of this marriage covenant. It's been changed from fulfill to accept and keep. There's not a lot of difference, but I like the word fulfill. And this fulfill is in the marriage ceremony as as printed in 1853. That's the one that is that I'm familiar with is the oldest copy that we have, the oldest version 1853 printed in the Seer by Orson Pratt and reprinted in the Millennial Star the same year.

1:30:36 But this word fulfill, I looked it up and I just like some of the words. So if we take these covenants that we've just talked about, fulfill is to bring to completion a reality carry out is required to develop the full potentialities of to measure up to or to put in effect. Those are all definitions of fulfill. And so every, all these covenants have a purpose to refine us, to bring us up to a condition where God can trust us with greater power, with greater knowledge, with greater responsibility. In this holy order of matrimony, we promise to fulfill all of those covenants.

1:31:26 We don't forget them. We didn't just check them off and say, well I went through that, Now I get to be sealed. Right. We promise to fulfill them. And so it increases our responsibility in regards to it. So now you have a groom, you have a bride that have agreed to this. They've gone through this process, they've agreed to this. Now the bank representative says, yes, you've made, you've signed the contract. Let me tell you what the blessings are and most people focus on this paragraph. Right.

1:32:09 And they forget the contract part. But this is what we're trading all our nonsense for, our humanity, dark flesh, This is what we're trading all that for. And this is what the bank representative says. I know that's not the best analogy, but I think. No, I like it. I really, I really do like it. I I like where you're going here. So here, here's the representative of the bank saying, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the holy priesthood, I pronounce you legally and lawfully, husband and wife, for time and for all eternity, and I seal. And This is why we use the word seal. And I seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection with power, to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed with glory, immortality, and eternal lives.

1:33:04 And I seal upon you the blessings of Thrones and dominions, and principalities and powers and exaltations, together with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I say unto you, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, that you may have joy in rejoicing in your posterity in the day of the Lord Jesus. All these blessings, together with all other blessings pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, and I'll just stop it right there for a SEC. Now look at all of that that is being extended to us. Right. But only under this condition. Yes.

1:33:46 That we will fulfill this. And so most people they go, well, I concealed and I have all these blessings pronounced upon me. Go back to the conditions, go back to the contract. Now, because we know the our Father knows that we're going to forget that we get to this part and we go, oh goody, here come all the goods. Then he adds another caught caveat right at the end. So he says, I seal all these blessings upon you. I mean incredible blessings, the blessings of the gods. Right. All this is a sea I seal upon your heads, and then here it is, here it is.

1:34:29 Don't forget, my children, through your faithfulness unto the end. Right. And without that, without you going back, understanding your agreement, understanding the requirements, understanding that you're obligated to do your part, all that we can do, the Scriptures tell us our part, live up to these laws and these covenants and these rights and these ordinances that we've entered into. Once we do that through your faithfulness unto the end, then these things lie and wait for us. We have a right, a just claim upon them, and this is done by the authority of the holy priesthood in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1:35:21 Now that that is just immense. The blessings that are offered there is just immense. And yet, what kind of character can be trusted with these blessings? Right. It's that's what all of that has been laid out for us. We've agreed to it so that we can develop the kind of character that can be trusted with these kinds of blessings. You know, blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, blessings of Thrones, dominions, principalities and powers and exaltations.

1:36:03 What kind of character do we need to be better than we are? Yeah, yeah, We've seen what happens when a bad man gets some authority. Imagine if a bad man had that authority, right? There's a reason. There is a reason that the contract part is in place, right? And that we built on all of this. It's so that we understand the things which God in his wisdom and in his mercy have allowed mortals to get a taste of here on earth, right? And gosh, I'm trying to be careful here.

1:36:47 That's why I think it is so. And and I don't know a better word for it. Damnable right, Because it will damn your soul to abuse spouse to neglect these colors make because this at the end, this is what it's all about. And if you can't abide these for the you know, I I know that life can seem long sometimes, but now it pushing 50, right, not quite 50, but I can see it from here. It it goes by pretty quick, right. And so if you can't do this, how you expect to do what the gods do?

1:37:30 That's right. So there's there's something that has to change in US in order to embrace life, in order to embrace the struggle. What do our heavenly parents do? Do they have a, a cushy life? They got to deal with us, right? They're dealing with us and that is their joy. That is their satisfaction to give us opportunity to work with us. That tells us something about what kind of work we have to do to develop that kind of love and appreciation for a soul in in order to sacrifice and give for them, even when you're getting kicked in the shin all the time. I mean, shoot, our Heavenly parents have been blamed for everything under the sun and still do everything wrong.

1:38:12 And yet they just sit there and they keep working with us and they keep working with us and they keep working with us. That gives us an idea of, of what this is all about. I have to become as patient as they are. I have to be as loving and kind as they are. I have to become as just as they are. You know, there's a there's an idea that amongst fundamentalists and I pick it up amongst many in the church that if they just they go to the temple and they can get words like this said over them by some authority that they recognize they've got it made. You mentioned it earlier and and I'll go back to to this idea of the sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise to me. It's been way misquoted, it's been overused, it's been abused. And can I just read you the quote from section 76? I have it sitting here somewhere. One of my yes, there it is.

1:39:20 So this is section 76 and this is the preamble or the qualifications of those who become exalted in the celestial Kingdom who received these blessings. And it quotes many of these blessings at the end of this this sealing ceremony. But this is this is verse 51 to 54. Speaking of those, they are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name, and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name. And this according to the commandment which he is given, that by keeping the commandments, they may, they may, might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and received the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands of Him who was ordained and sealed unto this power. Now this language 5152 as it follows along. What Nephi talks about in second Nephi chapter 303132, he talks about the beginning of the way the gate, but this the 53 and so many people forget this part 53.

1:40:37 They have to continue on. They they're working at keeping the commandments, they've been baptized, they've received the the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, but they have to continue on who overcome by faith. That's what we're talking about through these covenants. What are we overcoming? The natural man. That's what we're overcoming. Right. They overcome by faith and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. And this part I really want to emphasize, which the Father, not a man, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.

1:41:21 OK, there's the standard. True to what? Just and true. That's our job, to become just and true, The Father, that this promise in verse 53, the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true. That gives us incredible hope. Yes, it does. No man controls this. No man stands in the way of this. Nope. Our job is to be just and true, and then the covenants of the endowments lay us out a pathway and we be true to those covenants. We start to fit into that category now that the Father desires to to give us this blessing to. Why?

1:42:08 Because we're trustworthy. Absolutely. And that should give us profound hope, right? Look, sometimes Mormonism's been used as a club on other people, and it's done, been done so by bullies, by by tyrants, right? But the scripture itself, where God writes it down through Joseph in this instance, is very clear. He has no respecter of persons. You do what you're supposed to, and good luck to the man that wants to stifle that. And I think that if we truly understood that, we wouldn't give time or place to tyrants, right?

1:42:54 They have to crawl over, as it were, those words, if we understand them correctly, to get to what they want to do. And that should bring us a lot of comfort and a lot of hope. It does me, yeah. I I love that there's been so much emphasis put on follow your file leader, follow the prophet, follow the priesthood council. Whatever the case may be, we covenant to obey law. Yes. Law, and it is eternal in its nature. Our job is to find out what that law is and apply it. And the servants of God, their job is to apply the law of God. Not their own will, not their own ideas, but the law of God.

1:43:37 We're all governed the same. There's no, no one that is rises above the law of God. It is sovereign. Section 88 tells us it's the law that preserves us. It's the law that exalts us. Whatever law we're quickened by that Kingdom we will go into. We're when we talk about temple ordinances, we're talking about the law of the celestial Kingdom because that's the direction we want to go. That is what this is all about. And so we learn those laws and we have to apply those laws and those laws, the application of those laws justify us and they give us the hope, the just claim. So I can expect this bottom paragraph of this seating. I can expect it to be fulfilled because God is always faithful. He does not renege on his part of the bargain ever. If I fulfill my part.

1:44:37 That's the key. And someone says, well, what authority is necessary in all this? And I think we get lost sometimes or we get off into the weeds thinking that authority is the biggest issue. This what I read here relative to the marriage contract is usually administered in less than 5 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now that's not a hard thing to do. You can sign that contract pretty fast. Yep. And and for the Lord to provide a servant to certify that contract, to certify that it was understood and agreed upon, because that's what it is. That's all they can do.

1:45:18 They can put their mark on it. The seal that says, yes, they've done this. They don't control the door. No. The servant that God does, no man does. Nope. Nope. God Himself or our Father Himself controls the sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise, and the Savior Himself, the Holy One of Israel, controls the gate by which we enter into the slesh of Kingdom, and he says he employs no servant there because he's the only one that can't be deceived. Right. All men can be deceived, and so our job is to understand the contract, to understand the conditions, the responsibilities, and the obligations, and the Lord will fulfill his part of the bargain. And if it needs be that he sends a messenger with the proper authority to seal whatever needs to be sealed, he can take care of that.

1:46:13 The hard part is getting the material to seal. Absolutely. That's the hard part, Getting the individuals that will put forth the effort to develop this kind of a character that can be trusted throughout the eternities. That's and that's where the focus needs to lie. Too many people are are scrambling around looking for this authority or that authority. I don't want to diminish legitimate authority 1 little bit, but if you don't focus on the work you're you need to do to qualify for these blessings, it's all in vain. It's all in vain. It doesn't matter what is the authority says words over you. If you don't qualify for it, it it's just not going to happen.

1:46:58 Amen. Amen. And to get there, right, to get to that point, we have to keep all those laws, we have to do all those things. And then likewise and along with that, you got to foster some sort of relationship with your wife, right? Or wives, right. Because let's face it, if you're both miserable through it, who wants to do that, right? And do you want to do that for eternity? Like I, I hear the descriptions of God, right? This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and turn the life of man. I told you here a little while a few minutes ago, I had to take take a really quick roadie up up to North Dakota and back, right? And the whole time I was like, I just want to go home to my family.

1:47:56 I just want to go home. I don't want to be here. I tell my wives this. I don't tell it enough in public. They are absolutely my solace. They are absolutely where I go to collapse when the day is done and I'm through the ringer and they've had a bad day, right? And that's the other thing, right? They they're like trying to bump me up and I'm like, I'm a piece of crud, right? Like I should be way better than what I am. But they're my favorite people in the whole world, right? There's nobody else I want to spend my time with more than those two women.

1:48:42 And I think, I think at some point we got to get to that point, Isaac. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know. You're not. I just don't think that that just being married for a really long time is quite enough, right? Well, I build cabinets, right? And I build a lot of kitchens. Over the years I've sat in a lot of people's houses as we design their kitchen. And I want to tell you there's a lot of old couples that don't like each other. Right. Right. And there's a lot to do, but there's a lot that don't. And they're supposing that at the next life, it's going to be different.

1:49:24 And they'll tell me. They'll tell me we've been sealed in the temple. Things are going to be different over there. And I go, Are they? Yeah. Are they? So let's go back to the law of the gospel. What do the Scriptures tell us? How we should treat each other, Right. You know, I think it's Section 42 that says live together and love in so much that people weep when you're gone. Right. Well, what does that say? It's exactly what you're talking about. Live, live amongst your family and so much that they miss you if you're not there. Yeah, there's no tyrant there that can do that. No. No, that's someone that's that's a husband or a father that's loving his children, loving his family, and they want him around.

1:50:11 And if they don't want him around, something's wrong with what he's doing. Yes, on a fundamental basis. And he can't say, well, I'm keeping living this liar, this higher law. No, you're not. Right. No, you're not. I have it here someplace in my pay. Oh, I mean, it's so fundamental. Most of most of us in Mormonism have it memorized Section 121. Right. But those who do this work, their dominion will be an everlasting dominion, and then will flow unto them without compulsory means, forever and ever. That's a lovable guy. It sure is right? And it is. And the question becomes, how do you get there right? And look, serve, serve your family. Exactly.

1:50:59 Your family. For far too long, I've seen both priesthood and ordinances be used as a badge or as credentials or sometimes even as a club to get for men to get what they want, right? Not the pattern I see from the Savior, right? He washed people's feet, right? That's right. And it wasn't a sanitary time that we live in as we live in now, right? It was often the dirtiest part of the body. And the master of us all, the Savior of us all, got down on his hands and knees, then washed their feet.

1:51:40 Now. That's right. If we want, if we want to endear ourselves to others, it's it's through that. There's a reason the scripture says charity never faileth, and that is because they're when you OfferUp service to somebody else, they can only they can't help but develop some sort of feelings for one another, both the one that serves and the one that receives the service. And I'll say this, if you think that that getting certain priesthood offices entitles a person greater honor and glory to be served, you're missing the point of priesthood altogether.

1:52:25 The. You are there. The farther you climb that priesthood ladder, so to speak, the more is expected of you to serve. Period. That's right. Well, look at look at the example. And we learned this in more detail in the temple, but look at the example of our Heavenly parents, Adam and Eve. And so they had to come down and they had to break a law in order to give us an opportunity to have mortality and go through these experiences. And they were willing to do that. They set things up so that they could do that to give us an opportunity. What greater service is that? And then how long did they live?

1:53:10 Records over 900 years in this condition dealing with being blamed for everything wrong by many of their children. And then I don't know they they are the brat of but of so many jokes, so much disrespect and yet they gave us more than we can imagine. Yep. They sacrificed more and they wanted to do it. They give us this opportunity, you know, and that tells us where we need to be. Yep. And you know, just some speculation here on my part. Book a day, Page 1. So take it with a great big grain of salt. But I do believe at some point, you know, we're told that they did have that veil of forgetfulness placed over their heads, their minds.

1:53:59 But I do think it was removed at some point. And the reason I do is because at some point, Eve recognizes who the adversary is. And I can only imagine as time went along, they became more acutely aware of where it was they came from. And I can't imagine that they just were like, Nope, we get, we got to do this for our kids. We've got to do this for our children. They must have, at some point, I can only imagine realized oh, so much better over there, right? So much better over there. Nonetheless, it's for our kids, and I think we need to figure out how to harness that same sort of selfless attitude towards our wives, towards our children, everything.

1:54:43 That's the point right there. We need to harness that because that is the eternal existence that we're working for. Yep. And and that's why if we're not if, if that doesn't quicken us, the Section 88 says if that doesn't quicken us, that kind of a life of selfless devotion to others doesn't quicken us. We're not going to get there because we won't be happy there and we just need to recognize the Savior says several times you there be to find it. He's just saying not everyone wants this. I get it. Not everyone wants this, but this is where eternal joy and satisfaction comes.

1:55:24 Selfishness does not bring that. This does and that's what they want to share and but we have to train ourselves in two into getting past the struggle side of it, the struggle side of it where that natural tendency, it keeps pulling us. You know, we're pulling 2 directions so much of the time and that's why we were placed under covenant. You know you can't keep a covenant you don't make. Right. You have to make it in order to keep it. And so it it binds us and we do this voluntarily. And I didn't want to miss this, Dave. And I think it's so important relative to the marriage covenant, and this has to do with all of the covenants previous to this.

1:56:07 We do it of our own free will and choice. I wanted to emphasize that I know that has been abused amongst many societies, but whether it's the, the brother here, the groom or the the sister, that's going to be the the bride. They do this of their own free will and choice. And if they're not doing it of their own free will and choice, they shouldn't be engaged in it. And no one should be putting pressure on them to do it, period. And I don't care if it's if it's societal pressure. I've talked to too many people who who went to the temple and in the LDS church because that's what their parents wanted to do. That's not good to make these covenants under those conditions.

1:56:59 Nope. And whether it's family pressure from and fundamentalist groups, whether it's societal pressure to say this is what we do and we, you want to be a part of our society, this is an individual's commitment and obligation. And they need to feel free to do it of their own free will and choice. Otherwise, what good is it? And parents need to get that through their head. What good is it for them if they don't want to do it? Our Heavenly Parents understand this. They deal with everyone on an individual basis. They lay out the way and they say do you want it? If you do. Come down this direction.

1:57:41 If you don't, that's fine. Yep, well, and and you, you asked the question, what good will it do? I turned my my thing is, what damage do you do by forcing someone into this, right? Because to me, you, you force someone into this position. Well, now not only have you caused someone to maybe do something that they weren't inclined to do right, or maybe weren't ready to, sometimes I think it's more about not being ready as opposed to not wanting to. That's right. Well, what have you done? You may have damaged the relationship between God and one of His children. Right. They're going to have some adverse feelings to the ceremonies that are involved, the covenants that are involved, the ordinances that are involved. And ultimately they'll place that at, at the feet of, of, of the father.

1:58:33 And so be very careful in how much pressure you put on a person to take these covenants. Now, I want to be careful here. It is fine to encourage, right? But encouragement and the use of force are two entirely different things. Yeah, that that coercion. Coercion can be subtle, right? But it, it can be pretty overbearing too. But when we use coercion, why are we using it #1? Right. Why are we using it? We need to ask ourselves that question. Does God use it? And as he deals with us, if we don't want to do what he's doing, he doesn't want us to be miserable. Right.

1:59:21 And so he knows where true happiness lies in the long run. But we don't. Right. And we have to learn that through experience. And so he's, he says, he tells us that his patience never runs out, you know, and so we have to be careful as we deal with one another. We willing to say, now this is the best way I know of to go. I believe it's the pathway to get back or go the direction of our heavenly parents. But that's the direction I want to go. Now, what would you like to do? And I will help you do what you would like to do. And I want to see make the best decisions you are willing to make. Yep. And that's how we should treat people. Yep.

2:00:02 And then in time, I like how you said that they may not be ready for it. They might be down the road, right? They might be. But let's not put that stumbling block in the way. Right. By pushing it too early. I agree. Brother Taylor had to deal with this, brother John Taylor in the 1880s. And even at that early stage, the pressure was on if you want to get married, go go this direction. And they, all these parents, they valued it and they were pushing people this direction. Can I read you just a quote from him if I can find it? Please do.

2:00:42 Oh, here it is. So this tells us so a lot of people, again, I don't know, a lot of the people that I have been in society with have said, well, if the brethren said it, if the priesthood sealed it, if the president of the church shielded, if we were sealed in the temple, it's binding. And here's Brother Taylor, and this is in 1883. We are aiming at a high exaltation and to move on an elevated plane. But that very exaltation implies great responsibilities. And while we pride ourselves as being heirs of God and joint inheritors of all things, it is expected of us that we fulfill His law and keep sacredly our covenants, and that God has as much right to demand of us the fulfillment of our covenants as we have to demand of Him that He fulfill His. I think that, I mean, that's just common sense, isn't it? It's just common sense.

2:01:49 And if we expect to derive from the Almighty those great and inestimable blessings, and we read those as part of the marriage ceremony, those great and inestimable blessings, He expects us and demands of us that we yield implicit obedience to Him and to his law in all things. Very well, if we are heirs of God and joined heirs with Jesus Christ and are allowed to partake of ordinances that are sacred, such as the gods have partaken, and that's what we're talking about. Must we after that go to work and join in the follies of the world and take away our own way and take our own way and run recklessly and carelessly along and commit all kinds of follies? We are not prepared to do anything of the kind. We must not do it.

2:02:43 We are placed upon another platform and God will expect us to walk according to the revelations He's given us. Shall we be excused if we having the power in this part? I would like all of us, especially administrators and fathers, to think about this. Shall we be excused if we having the power to bind on earth, and it shall be bound in heaven to seal on earth, and it shall be sealed in heaven to loose on earth, and it shall be loosed in heaven? Shall we be excused under those circumstances, when we go before God, our heavenly Father, and find hundreds and thousands, perhaps, that cannot pass by the angels and the gods, hundreds and thousands, that the guard will not permit to enter into this higher society the heirs of God, and joined heirs with Jesus Christ? How foolish we shall look if we see a train of people standing in that position.

2:03:47 The question will then arise, Who conferred certain blessings upon this Wretch and upon the other? I think we would feel a little ashamed. We should be considered loose, the same as we consider loose here who tamper with the ordinances of the House of God. Now, I feel that there's a very great responsibility resting upon us in regard to all of these matters. And if we are aiming to join in the Church of the first born whose names are written in heaven, and to associate with the gods and participate with them in the exaltations and glories of the celestial Kingdom, are we going to drag a lot of unworthy people in with us?

2:04:27 They cannot go. They will not go Now. Brother Taylor's just recognizing the way things are. Right. And if we're not prepared to live up to these covenants and he goes on, he gave it they actually the First Presidency at this same time wrote an epistle to the leadership in the church across the church encouraging bishops not to force people to get married in the temple until they wanted to until they were ready to. Wow. Because they did not want them to be under these circumstances where the only way for them to get married was to make these solemn covenants. He says it is wrong for us to do that.

2:05:10 He understood that we need to allow people time to prepare themselves to enter into these covenants of our own free will and choice because that's the direction we want to go. Yep. And he's condemning those who administered to these these ordinances to people who are not interested in him. He's condemning him. He's saying at some point they're not going to be able to pass because you don't control the gate, right? At some point they're not going to pass. And how do you think you're going to feel when you have this lineup of people, and I know a lineup of people that say, well, brother, so and so sealed me. I got it made. I was sealed in the temple. I've got it made.

2:05:50 Who are completely unworthy to receive the blessings that they think they are entitled to. Absolutely. And a lot of that is a product of or teaching or understanding. I read you a quote from the Prophet Joseph. Here is 11 sentence. Oh, it's right in front of me. This should sober anyone up. The disappointment of hopes and expectations at the resurrection would be indescribably dreadful.

2:06:32 Oh, that is rough. Yeah, all these people expecting certain blessings based upon what they thought, what they believed, but they didn't fulfill the requirements. Now, isn't it necessary, isn't it important for us to help people understand the requirements, the obligations to give them a chance, to hope, if you will, to fulfill them? Absolutely. We can't. Just too many parents, too many leaders, too many societies treat these ordinances as if it's just so important that they enter in and check it off. Right.

2:07:15 They misunderstand it themselves. These things are to help you obtain exaltation. You have to therefore qualify for it and these things are steps that we take to help qualify for that. I asked this simple question and sometimes it blows people mind minds. Maybe you've heard it before, but I know a lot of people that are expecting their marriage to be eternal. Right. Because of what was said on them, they went through this ordinance that we we've gone over and they expected to be eternal and they're expecting to receive that. And I just asked this simple question for anybody and you expect an eternal marriage if you yourself or to be a part of an eternal marriage if you yourself have not qualified yourself for eternal life? Absolutely you can't.

2:08:10 You can't expect it. Right. And so you bypass, you go. Well, somehow I jumped from the condition I am, which is unworthy of of eternal life as laid out in the Scriptures do now I can expect any an eternal family in the hereafter. We have work to do. We have work to do. The temple ordinances spell out a lot of that work. Absolutely. We need to take it seriously and we need to take ownership of that work and apply it. And that opens the door for a greater blessings beyond what we've talked about. Yep, you know, Joseph said that that no man is saved faster than he can gain knowledge or something to that effect.

2:08:57 I I'm probably butchering that quote, but it's 100% true, right? And so if you are unable to find the wisdom and the knowledge in the covenant because you're not ready to go through and mom and dad just pushed you into it, that's what good does it do right? And, and here's the other thing with, with temple stuff, you have to study that stuff out. You got to put keep participating in the ordinance when you have the opportunity. Otherwise, again, you're, you're banking on this guy, even if he had proper authority, right? If, if you're not putting in the work, it just does not matter. It just doesn't.

2:09:43 Does not matter. So here, so here we let's go back to this idea. This is we're what we're talking about is just the first endowment. Yeah, yeah. This, this is to start down the road, if you will. Now, after you've been tried and proven to some degree or another, there's another endowment to receive and with and and without. Or if you've been, well, can I use just a little bit of temple language here? Oh yeah, no, you're. Just I've heard it repeated and I think it would be all right to do it. OK. At the end of the first endowment, you approach the veil. Yep.

2:10:27 Somebody says something at the veil that's very important that most people forget. Now we've made all these covenants, right? Yep. OK, that servant approaches the veil, and he says so. And so, having been true and faithful in all things, now desires to converse with the Lord to the veil. Yep. OK, that true and faithful in all things is what most people forget about. Yep. 100%. It lays out the conditions, it reinforces them continually. If we're paying attention, and I agree with you completely. We have to continually remind ourselves because it's layers upon layers upon layers and all of the scriptures and the and the temple work, all of it is layers. And these are the mysteries of godliness and they are not to be understood except we pursue a course to understand them. Yep.

2:11:29 I a lot of people may not be familiar with it, depending upon how they received the ordinances, but but Brother Brigham in the lecture before the veil just says something so plain and so simple, and I appreciate it so much where he says, if you will prayerfully, and I'll paraphrase it, if you will prayerfully contemplate what you have received this day, you will begin to better understand how the Father works with the children. Yep. It takes that effort. These things that even what we've been talking about is we get this understanding after much effort has been put into understanding these covenants and how they applied to us. And we're not going to get it all at one time. And, and what we're talking about today, it's just the beginning.

2:12:20 It's just the beginning. Yep, I've, I've often said the temple, the temple language and liturgy is every bit as layered as scripture. It will mean something different to you at certain times in your life as you struggle with certain things, and it will bear those things out. And I'll, I'll be honest, one of the other reasons I wanted to do this series was because I remember when I had my first temple experience, right? And I did a temple prep class. And this isn't to bash anybody. I don't want anyone thinking Dave's beaten up on the LDS church or anyone else because I understand there was a lot of baggage surrounding what can you talk about? What can't you and and most people tried to be very reverent and I appreciate that.

2:13:11 However, the fact remains is that was I really prepared to go to the temple. Not really, right. And there, this will kind of illustrate it. And maybe I'll edit this part out later if I think it's too, too revealing. But there's certain ceremonial clothing you wear and that often comes in a packet. And I was so unprepared that when I got my packet, I honestly thought it was a pillow. I was like, oh, cool, You know that it really is a place of meditation and relaxation, right? But what we have seen is the out in the outgrowth of that is that so many people go to the temple and then they walk out and their minds are just blown, right?

2:13:59 And your mind's going to be blown even if you are prepared. There's just two. That's right. It's like drinking from a fire hose, right? So even. If it's too much. Prepared your your, your, your mind's still going to be blown. But what I was seeing is, is that it was so foreign to so many people that it was spooking people and they weren't going back, right? And they were having horrible experiences. And, you know, my hopes in doing all these was, is that we could avoid some of that, right? That maybe we could learn from the past a little bit and say, no, there's actually quite a bit here we can talk about and maybe be better prepared to have that experience because if you don't go back, if you don't study these things, you're never going to get its full effect. That's right.

2:14:48 You'll be operating to, to, to use your words, you will operate inside of a contract that you don't even know the terms. And not only do you not know the terms of when payments are due and that sort of thing, you won't know what your blessings are, right? You won't know, Oh, you mean I could take this car that's not quite mine yet across state lines for a trip? I'll be darned right? Sometimes I think not only do we miss the contract in terms of what's required of us, but also what blessings are available to us, not just in the hereafter, but the now. And I think, you know, someone not being able to walk up to their blessings because they just didn't know or expect it.

2:15:31 That's a sad thing. It's like buying I. Agree. It's like buying a car that, you know, you, you never take it, you know, a really nice American muscle car. You never get to take out on that one open stretch of road and just open it up, right? Be a sad thing to miss out on. Now, put that into terms of what we've been talking about today with happiness and joy and, and family. Yeah, we need to know what the terms are and we need to know what blessings come our way. Yeah, and we're we're looking for. I can read you one more quote. Yeah, let's just let's just consider I, I sell this to people, I love it if at somebody's funeral somebody could read this and say this applied to this individual. But usually at people's funeral.

2:16:27 Yeah, we don't care this. But this is from Lectures on Faith. And I just want to lay out this standard because we're talking about the highest of standards here. We're talking about exaltations. Not just exaltations, but the power of eternal increase, the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ability to have an eternal increase, to have posterity is as numberless as the stars in the heavens, the sands of the seashore. I mean, it's just incredible what's being offered to us. But this basic idea is just one small paragraph here, and this is from lecture 7, verse 16. These teachings of the Savior most clearly showing to us the nature of salvation and what he proposed unto the human family when He proposed to save them.

2:17:17 In other words, in the pre existence or in our pre mortal existence, this was the plan that was laid out to us that he proposed to make them like unto himself. And he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings. And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved. That's the standard. And to be unlike them is to be destroyed. And on this, on this hinge turns the door of salvation. So it's a pretty high bar that we're shooting for. It's a pretty hard bar, high bar. Now it's possible, possible.

2:18:08 And then talking about this high bar, I don't want to discourage this going, well, I'll never get there. You don't get there except you keep walking, you keep climbing that ladder. You don't, you don't get there. If you get discouraged and sit off to the side and say, well, I'll never make it right. No, there's hope. That's why we came here, because there's hope that you and I can do it, that all of us can do it. And so we need to understand it, the parameters, we need to understand the conditions, and then we need to go to work. And when we go to work, the Lord blesses us with encouragement. Yep. That we're on the path and he gives us plants in our hearts of hope that we can make it. Absolutely.

2:18:51 And when we get discouraged, it's usually because we stop moving. Yep, Yep, and. And I want to say this too, right? And this took me a, a good little while to understand. There is joy in the, in that work, right? That is not drudgery, right? It may feel like it at first, right? And I think so often it feels that way to us at first because we're not used to it. Yes. Right. I remember when we were adopting our twins, they even though we had four kids, I had to go sit in a class on how to be a foster parent 1st and I was miserable, right?

2:19:33 I was listening to some lady who's never had kids telling me how to raise my kids, right? And I'm like, I'll play the game, but I'm not happy. And she could tell I wasn't happy I participated, but obviously my the facial expressions were giving it away. And so one night she was, she had to, to go get a child out of some really horrible conditions. And it was always required that she had two people, that there were two people there during the extraction, all the way through until the child was dropped off into foster care. And she said, would you be willing to go with me?

2:20:14 And I was like, no. And she's like, what if I just give you a pass on this class? And I'm like, now you're talking my language lady. And so I said, I'll go with you. And something struck me now I walked into this house and Isaac, this was the worst house I have ever seen. I mean, youth can any amount of disgusting thing you can think of was in this house and then coupled with not a lot of food and it was it was horrific. And even though this lady was just the epitome of loving to that child, the child still kicked and screamed to stay where they were right.

2:21:07 And sometimes as we start this work, it won't be quite to that level, but we're going to feel like, you know, it's outside of what I know I don't want to do it, right? And we're going to clam up, but just get into the work, right? Go, as you were saying, go to work there. There is joy in that work, right? There it is. We have. We have to condition ourselves for that. Yeah, and. And The thing is, don't try and do it all at once. No one can no but but just trying to apply what you understand. Yep, and if you work at that more, you'll get stronger.

2:21:49 Yep. You'll get more accustomed to the work, and I don't know how how to put it, but you'll get that satisfaction that comes no other way. Yeah. It just it doesn't come any other way, by sitting on the couch and doing nothing. Yeah. There's not a lot of payment in that. Nope, Nope. Let's face it, at some point we're going to talk to our posterity, either in this life or the next, and it's going to be pretty boring if the best story we can come up with is. I once saw this really cool movie while I was sitting on the couch. Oh my goodness. Right. Yes. That doesn't make for great, great, great stories or great analogies, right? I don't think there was ever a scripture story written about the guy who just hung out in Egypt and just went ahead and like, now you guys go ahead.

2:22:37 I, I'm OK here, right? No, no, the, the gospels are participation sport. You've got to get up and you've got to do stuff. It's always been that way. And it, it, it requires something of us. And that is good, because not only will it make us better, not only will it make our family relationships better and richer and fuller, there's joy in the work, absolute joy when you see another person grow and develop. I can't think of something better. No, especially when you've had just a small hand in helping that be accomplished. Yeah, yeah. And that that's where you go. OK, now I get why they do what they do up there. Right, right, right. Yeah, Yeah.

2:23:20 No, I I agree with you totally man. Well, I, I know we've covered a whole lot of ground here and I, I wanted to just remind us of this, of the savior in his work. And this, this gives me hope. And it's a quote from the Prophet Joseph and he's talking about the other comforter, the second comforter. And and we know that the Savior I love this from second Nephi and this isn't again, this is not to to disregard the servants of God that are here legal administrators here. Right.

2:24:08 It's not this, but ultimately the Savior and I, I, we need to underline this. He is the author and the finisher of our work. We have to remember that. And let's go back to this quote. I'm going to read this paragraph from Nephi, Second Nephi, This goes way back. This is Book of Mormon. O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him. And the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel, and he employeth no servant there, and there is none other way save it be by that gate, for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is His name.

2:25:02 So we have that advocate, we have that way laid out before us. And that is the goal. That is the goal to be qualified. And those that have been through the temple ordinances understand that is the goal of the first endowment to come into His presence. And you have to be proven true and faithful in all things in order to enter into His presence. And He keeps that gate because no man can fool all of us. Get fooled. Yep. All of us can be deceived in 1�� or another, and ordinances can be administered perhaps to people that aren't ready for and perhaps a new people unworthy of them. But this gate he alone man's and no one enters into that gate except those that are worthy.

2:25:57 But this is this is now that that's pretty cut and dried the way he says that. But this is comforting the second comforter when we put it this way and this is the Prophet Joseph. And for those one look it up. It's Teachings of the Prophet, page 150 the other comforter spoken of is of as a subject of great interest and perhaps understood by few of this generation. After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins and is baptized for the remission of his sins, and receives the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, which is the first comforter.

2:26:42 I love the word Comforter. I do too. Because it it's to help us is to help us know that we're on the right path, is to help us show us the path. Right. OK, say we've got to this point. Then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God. And the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that man is determined to serve him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling in the election made sure. And what does that mean?

2:27:29 Then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which is the Lord, which the Lord hath promised to the Saints. Now this Comforter, it is no more or less the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And, and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter, that when any man obtains this last comforter, he will have the persons of Jesus Christ to attend him. And in another place, you know, and we're in a family business here, Jesus Christ is our elder brother. In another place he says, and he will introduce the Father unto him and they will take up their abode with them.

2:28:17 Now that's what we're working for and to and, and to re be reunited with our Heavenly Parents and to be able to stand in their presence and continue on. You know, they're not just asking us to come back into their presence. They're wanting us to come back into their presence cold with glory, immortality and eternal life, absolutely to be able to continue on and work with them doing what they're doing, the family business. Absolutely. Working for the salvation of the human family. That's the family business. And, and they're calling out to those that are interested in following after their family business, the family business.

2:29:03 And it's the work of the gods and talk about joy. And there's never a dull moment. It's not all fun, but there's never a dull moment. There's challenge forever, there's growth forever. And what an opportunity. Yeah. You know, I love that, you know, the Book of Mormon Section 20 tells us that, that the Book of Mormon is translated by the, the gift and power of God and it's, and it's, the translation is true and correct. And it says, I, I made sure I'm paraphrasing here. I made sure that this record was preserved and restored to this generation, that they might know that I am the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Right.

2:29:48 Now that's hope. Now Nephi, who I just quoted him talking about the Holy One of Israel here and I would encourage people the goal and read sect are his chapters and 2nd Ephite 3132 and 33. They're short. They read them because he bears testimony of the same way that the Prophet Joseph just talked about, the same way that Section 76 talks about. But he says these way, this way will lead you to the Savior. And what I love about his record and Moroni's record later on in the book, as he's as he's bearing testimony of his conversations with the Savior's, Nephi is bearing testimony of his conversations with the Savior face to face. He says, and I heard the voice of the Father testify that what my son has said is true.

2:30:48 Now you know what's so neat about that? Nephi recognized the voice of the Father. Yep. They had taken up their abode with him. They were walking this journey together. That's what is being offered to us. That's what they want to do. Yep. And so we talked about all of these covenants. Sometimes they can just feel so restrictive. They can feel like, oh, they're just designed to control me. Well, to a degree they are, but for a good purpose. Right. And that is so that they can take up their abode with us and we can stand shoulder to shoulder with them eventually in accomplishing these great purposes.

2:31:29 That's what's being the offer that's being extended to us. And to me, that's a beautiful thing. It is a very beautiful thing. Someone once asked me. This was, This was probably a year after I started the podcast and I was talking to another podcaster and we were talking about Joseph Smith. And he said, what, what do you think Joseph's ultimate mission was if you were to boil it down into 5 minutes? And I sat there and I thought, and I thought, and I said, can I get back with you? Because that's a big question and I'm just not that sharp. And he said, sure, that's, that'll be fine. And I thought about it and I thought about it and I looked at Joseph's teachings thoroughly and I went back to him.

2:32:12 I said, I think I got it. He's like, what is it? And I was like, to me, I think what Joseph's whole mission was, as he was telling you, he encountered the divine, and he's trying to get everyone else to have the same experience. And I think that these temple ordinances at some point should serve that purpose, to encounter the divine and this life or the next. That's what this is about. And I think you summed it up very eloquently when you talked about Nephi recognizing the voice of the Father. And that's what we're here to do, is to walk shoulder to shoulder with him and try to do his will and his works. Yeah, and and and get ourselves qualified work to getting ourselves qualified to follow in the family business.

2:32:57 Absolutely, absolutely. Well, man, that's good stuff. Is there anything we didn't go over you want to go over? I think we've about spent the time we have to spend you and I both tired, I think. Oh. Yeah, so I got to tell you a story. I once worked with a guy from the South, and this guy was a workhorse, I mean, an absolute workhorse. And one day he came walking in and he looked tired. And I said, you OK? He's like, why? Why would you ask me that? I said, well, you just looked tired. He says, oh, Dave, I'm sleepy, never tired. I I try to remember Steve Turner for once in a while when I start feeling that way.

2:33:44 So. But. I I get tired, yeah, I get sleep deprived and I get tired. I hear you. I hear you. Me too. So, Isaac, hang out for 5 minutes and I just want to talk to you for a few minutes. All right? Thanks you. This was so good. I cannot tell you how good this was. I really do appreciate it. And thank you, Dave, is my privilege. All right, well, stick around for just 5 minutes here. Bye everybody. You're listening to the Mormon Renegade podcast.