Temple Bound
God's children are searching in greater numbers for answers and hoping for miracles as they look to Jesus Christ for relief. On 'Temple Bound,' hosted by Will Humphreys, explore how temples offer not just solace but also powerful tools for navigating these turbulent times through faith in Jesus Christ.
Tune in every Monday to hear Will Humphreys engage with guests who bring inspiring stories, profound teachings, and insights into accessing divine guidance through temple service.
Each episode promises to enrich your understanding and strengthen your connection to the Savior in unique and transformative ways.
Whether you're seeking answers, yearning for peace, or in need of a miracle, 'Temple Bound' is your weekly spiritual refuge, helping you anchor your soul to the Savior. Join us on this sacred journey to deepen your faith and discover the blessings of temple worship.
Temple Bound
Breaking Misconceptions and Embracing Truth with Rob Scoresby
What if priesthood power was more accessible than you ever imagined? In this powerful episode, Rob Scoresby breaks down common misconceptions and reveals how both men and women can call upon God's power to lead, protect, and bless their lives.
Join us as Rob Scoresby sheds light on the true nature of priesthood power, leadership, and temple covenants. In this episode, we explore:
- How priesthood authority, keys, and power differ and how everyone, not just those ordained, can access divine strength through faith and covenants.
- Profound insights on spiritual leadership,
- The role of repentance
- The blessings of the temple, using real-life examples and scriptural wisdom.
Discover how to fully embrace your spiritual privileges, call upon ministering angels, and lead with love in your home and community.
Hello and welcome to Temple Bound. My name is Will Humphreys and in today's episode, our guest is Rob Scoresby. He is a recently released bishop who is going to spend some time talking to us about the power of leadership and priesthood as it pertains to the temple. As a father to a daughter, he has a very big passion for helping them understand the relationship that priesthood has as it pertains to marriage and how those relationships work. We're going to cover some very big topics today, so buckle up as we learn about how the priesthood and leadership tie into temple service and worship. Enjoy the show. Well, rob, welcome to Temple Bound. I would love for you to introduce the talk that you selected for us to discuss today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was interesting. You had a guest on your show who's a friend of mine and, as he kind of told me that he had recorded the show and he was feeling a little self-conscious about it, I listened to it, thought it was awesome.
Speaker 1:It was amazing You're talking about Brad Farr. Brad Farr, yeah.
Speaker 2:We worked together, and so I texted him afterward and just said, like that was awesome, I don't know what you're talking about. You sounded incredible like such a spiritual giant guru and uh, and he thanked me for that and kind of said something about maybe mentioning my name to you and and I kind of blew it off like whatever. I was like he's really good at editing really horrible things out. That'd be great. But as as soon as that happened, though, just these wheels started turning like in my mind and reviewing this topic that I love.
Speaker 1:And really so. You were already before I, even we got in touch, you were thinking about this topic.
Speaker 2:And I don't know if you remember when you, when we talked, we texted first, then we, we, we spoke on the phone and you said something like I'll send you this list of, or talk potential talks, and I was just like I've already kind of got an idea in mind and, um, and I was specifically thinking of Emily Bell Freeman's talk from this last conference talk in October, which was an awesome talk about the priesthood, but then you sent me these BYU speeches uh, Lincoln, and there's one by Barbara Morgan Gardner, who has a book that I love about priesthood and I've learned so much from the book.
Speaker 1:It's one of your favorite books. Could you, could you could you just highlight that book for people who are listening?
Speaker 2:It's called the priesthood power of women, and, uh, it's not just for women, I mean, I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2:My wife and daughter, I gave it to them, and just I learned so much about the priesthood, though, and I love teaching this topic to people in my ward and in the callings that I've had and things, but it's probably my second favorite topic second to repentance, you know but so this talk just about how we access priesthood power, what it is and how we access it, and then it's not just in, uh, in holders of priesthood offices and in the brethren, it's, it's for everyone, it's blessing all of god's children to do god's work, so I'm happy to talk about that, yeah, it's exciting because before we hit record, you were talking about how one of the key things you wanted to hit upon is how the priesthood ties to temples and family history work, and so for a lot of people they might be listening to this going yeah, those are obvious connections, but what you have found in your journey is that not all those connections are so obvious for many people.
Speaker 1:As you've been a bishop and you've done other things in your world, that priesthood topic was something you wanted to make sure we talked about the beginning.
Speaker 2:To clarify any misconceptions around that. I think it's. It's interesting, like, uh, some people might hear this, uh, this message and teaching, and be like yeah, like that seems pretty straightforward, but I found in, uh, talking to many people, there's a lot of misunderstandings and we have an imperfect language. We're we're having trying to describe something with an imperfect language and we use these words like keys and authority and power, and sometimes we interchange those words and sometimes that's fine and sometimes it's not.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it kind of confuses where who has the power, the power and how do we get it? We just need to have a good framework and understanding. So it's a good place to start, just to make sure we're starting from the right place understanding and then we can, as we move forward, and talk about anything temple or any operation of God's power in our lives to bring about His purposes. I think it just falls in place a little better and, as you hear, like people in your ward speaking and they maybe say it in a way that you're like if you have the right framework, you're a little bit like I know what they meant or you don't have to be affronted with that and wonder what are they talking about or why are they talking about that. It makes more sense to us because we start from the right place.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a powerful concept to start with, and this is such a great talk for those of you what was the name of the talk?
Speaker 1:Again, endowed with his power, you are ready to lead this.
Speaker 1:This talk was, is a is a masterclass on leadership, like through the framework of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is so interesting because, as a business owner myself, I read all these books to help me be a better business owner, and what I find is that men and women find these different topics that are gospel topics at their essence, and then they build around that concept so that they can understand it and then they teach it to others.
Speaker 1:But so many times I'll be reading those books and I'll be like, oh yeah, this pertains to this concept of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or that it's like I've learned that these leadership concepts is like gravity, in that they just exist, yeah, and through the truth, it's just truth, and so, as the truth just falls around us, as we observe it, we learn it, we adapt it, we benefit from wielding it like gravity. We learn it, we adapt it, we benefit from wielding it like gravity. So, yeah, the priesthood is a great place to start, because we talk about the blessings of the temple being power, power to overcome temptation, power to become better people, to become more like our savior. But that power is priesthood power and that's why maybe it's a good place to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think with any gospel topic, but especially ones that are kind of confusing, if you just zoom out and you start with the character of God, what do we know about the character of God? And if you start from that correct starting point, then the rest of the gospel makes a lot more sense. And so we know from Moses 1, verse, verse 39, like what's God's work, what is he doing, what's he all about?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's to bring to pass the immortality yeah, immortality, eternal life of man, and we know from other scriptures that like, this is his path or straight, and he's the same yesterday and today and forever he's. This is what he's doing, it's what he's all about. He's about bringing about the immortality and eternal life of man and if you just start from that concept and the power by which he does, that is termed priesthood power, and we want to be careful not to like dissociate this from the Savior at all. I mean, this is not some amorphous thing that happens. This is all through Jesus Christ. But the power by which he brings about our immortality and eternal life is termed priesthood and another way we phrase this. In the church, a lot is salvation and exaltation and if you look at like the handbook, I mean that's the purpose of every organization in the church, from primary to first presidency. I don't have their handbook, but it's probably. It's probably in there. We can assume safely.
Speaker 2:But, um, so do. The work of salvation and exaltation is the purpose of every organization, the church, which makes sense. That's God's purpose and the power by which he does it is priesthood, and he's given us some of it. Not all of it, like resurrection, for example, like pretty important part of this whole plan. But even the president of the church, who holds uh and is the only person authorized to exercise all priesthood keys, is not, he doesn't have the ability to bring about the resurrection right, right. So we don't have all of god's power, we have some of it, but any. All the authority and power and keys that we need to do his work are here with us. And so, just kind of a background story for this, please.
Speaker 2:I'd been bishop for like less than six months and my wonderful, our wonderful primary president called me and said we have this priesthood and temple preview class coming up for the 11 year old primary kids, from moving on to young men's, young women's. Would you come and teach about priesthood? And I said something like I'd be happy to. I don't know what I'll say for sure, but I'll come up with something. And as soon as I hung up the phone, this idea just like thunked into my brain just a cute little object lesson and I texted her back like 10 seconds later after I said I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm like I got it. I know what I'm going to do and so I use this in every priest in temple preview class from there on, taught at the youth a couple of times and even had adults sometimes come up and just like that. That was so simple and easy. I've never seen it like that before, so I hope it's helpful. But I would pull out my keys and I'd say like well, first actually we start with what we just did right there, like what's God's work, what's his purpose, the character of God type stuff so that they can understand who he is and how he operates.
Speaker 2:And this is the power by which he does it. Yeah, and then I pull out my keys and I just say these are the keys to the bishop's office. I call him one of the young girls there and say I want you to take my keys, I want you to go down the hallway, unlock the door and get what you find on the desk there, close the door behind you and come back to the classroom. And we'd usually send a parent with them just in case they ran into some trouble. Sure, but they did this, you know real well and came back and it was a bowl of candy and I'd ask, like this young woman and maybe another young woman, to help pass out the candy. And right there you can kind of see how God operates.
Speaker 2:We use these words keys, authority and power. Somebody has priesthood keys to make sure that the work is organized and done appropriately and properly. They authorize somebody to do a specific job or function. But who got the candy? Everybody got the candy, and that's priesthood power. Oh, wow, the power by which god is affecting change in our lives to bring about our salvation, exaltation. So when you see like deacons and priests blessing and passing the sacrament, they're authorized to perform a specific function or duty, but who's receiving the power in their lives? Everybody who participates in that ordinance. And so, um, kind of to close the lesson, I would often go to a mother in the group, and I think it just so happened every time, if not most times.
Speaker 2:Um, we had a divorced single mother in the group and I'd say, do I have keys to your house? And she'd be like no.
Speaker 1:I hope not. Yeah, no, definitely not.
Speaker 2:And so in your home who's the one who has rights, authority and power to lead your children, to guide them and to bless your children in bringing about this work of God?
Speaker 2:You do, and if I came in your home as bishop who presides there, you do.
Speaker 2:And we have different structures of the priesthood.
Speaker 2:There's the church structure, the hierarchical structure, and there's this family order that's established through the temple, covenants and and we overlap a lot like a child or is taught by their parents, but when it comes time for them to make that covenant, they're brought to a priesthood key holder to make sure that they're ready and prepared for that ordinance and make sure it's done appropriately by someone who's authorized. A bishopric member will be at the baptism, for example, to make sure the prayer is said appropriately and it's all done the way that it should and recorded properly. But just in that little example I think you can see like there's directing of the work, there's people authorized to perform specific functions, but the priesthood power is accessible to all of us and it's to do God's work to bring about His eternal purposes of our salvation and our exaltation. So I think, as we go forward in the conversation, just kind of having that idea in mind. If we use language, that's maybe a little bit confusing. You can kind of see where it falls in that pattern and plan.
Speaker 1:No, like so beautiful how you described that too, because that little analogy you gave, that metaphor with the bowl of candy and then talking to a single mother in the ward, I think for a lot of people who are listening, they're going. Yeah, I've never thought of it that way. I hope so. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I think especially, we look at how things are structured and organized. We're in a temporal world, so we see things where you see the bishopric on the stand and so it just looks. It kind of mirrors a lot of authoritative structures that we see in other group environments. But it's just. It's so different when we're talking about the savior and his church, because it's not about that. You can plug and play just about anyone in those roles. Yeah, his power is through the priesthood and that priesthood power is expressed to all children. It's not a matter of of who is who has the actual keys, it's about who gets the candy. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And, uh, I mean I, like you mentioned, I served as Bishop and and I just tell you, like there's no sense or feeling of like the, the worldly sense of power and authority it's not like I'm in charge over you, it's like you don't sit up in the front to be seen.
Speaker 2:You're trying to oversee, you know, and you you're we have the presiding member take the sacrament first, and it's not like a nod to a deference to their authority, it's. I felt like there's many reasons, but I felt like I need this so much. I need the spirit to be with me. Wow, I need this and and there's no level in the church like even the president of the church, like he's not above needing the savior just as much as any of us and needed to to repent and and, uh, partake of that ordinance and be be cleansed through that renewal of covenant.
Speaker 1:I think the main thing here is is the concept of of how the priesthood and the blessings that it pertains to apply to these covenants that we make in the temples, and how people don't understand that relationship. So, given everything that you've just described now, and describing the difference between keys, authority and power, how now would you like explain this to your kids, or what would you want people to know about that power and how's it, how it represents in the temple covenants we make?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's good to kind of maybe just distinguish too, like there's different administrations of this power. Right, and you can see it, we have men who are authorized priesthood holders and I wish we were really specific in our language about this and the church is doing better with this. But President Oaks made that great talk about the men are not the priesthood and even priesthood holders I think is a fine shorthand, but I almost wish we could be real specific. They're holders of priesthood offices, they perform a specific function. But I just finished the Book of Mormon recently and I was reading through Roni 10, the last chapter, and after the promise he gives, this great discourse on spiritual gifts and using this definition of priesthood that we're talking about, about this is the power by which god does his work. He's he started to get this sense of like. All these topics are like the same topic. This is god doing his work. He's giving us, uh, he enables us through spiritual gifts. That's you could turn that, you know priesthood power.
Speaker 2:But it was really interesting just reading through this recently and thinking about this in this way. But in moroni, chapter 10, verse 7, it says um he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men. Um, the same, today and tomorrow and forever. Um, he says, deny not the gifts of god. There are different ways that these gifts are administered, but it's the same god who worketh all in all. And I think, if you think about in that context, there's different ways in which the gifts are administered. Some are through holders or priesthood offices, right, and some are through different administration of the spirit. Just a little example of this in my home we have four kids, one daughter and three boys, and the two youngest boys were in elementary school together. They rode their bikes to and from school every day and they're a little more competitive than they are caring and careful for each other.
Speaker 2:So they would race home, and they've been doing this for years.
Speaker 2:So they would race home and like they I mean, they've been doing this for years and we weren't, although we were a little concerned, it was kind of standard operating procedure that they weren't the safest on their bikes.
Speaker 2:But one day my wife just got this like sudden um concern that they weren't going to be safe today and she got on her knees and she specifically called upon the ministry of angels that was hers because she, you know, had participated in these ordinances and she had that right through um, the ordinance of baptism and and particularly the sacrament, the ministry of angels, and she specifically asked for angels to attend our children and keep them safe. And shortly thereafter, like they came home pretty shaken up and there's this wonky like intersection they have to navigate that doesn't line up exactly and a driver came flying by and and they both said they were crossing and felt something stopped them, like something felt like it physically stopped them and it was really close call um, but they were, they were okay and I'm I'm sensitive to share that story because I know that there's people who are wondering like why didn't I receive that prompting or my children weren't protected, and sure and our lives are not tragedy free.
Speaker 2:We've had had plenty of that and and, uh, I don't know why sometimes these things operate in that way and sometimes, um, not.
Speaker 2:I know it's all for our gain and we can come closer to god through it all.
Speaker 2:But in that instance it was she called upon a different administration of priesthood authority as a righteous mother and and called upon blessings to be with her children.
Speaker 2:I wasn't there, I couldn't go give a laying on of hands blessing, you know right, and in this kind of regard I don't really know for sure, like what is it in our home with our children? Specifically, I don't know that, like at laying out of hands, blessing through the father has any more efficacy or power than her prayers or righteous mother, wow and um, and we are kind of sensitive to that when we give, like father's blessing me in the school year, for example, like she gives a prayer and she calls upon blessings for each of these kids, and then I give a father's blessing by the laying on of hands, and these are just different administrations of the same priest power and priesthood that we hold as as parents, um, who are endowed and sealed in the temple, and our children are part of that covenant. Um, and it's um, I don't want to there's, I don't know that one would be more powerful than another, and it doesn't matter, it's like it's all God's power.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a matter of how you access it. It's still the candy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you would never say only give blessings, Don't say prayers. And so you know, if you're a single mother, you pray over your children and you call upon ministering brothers or a loving a neighbor or family member who holds the Melchizedek priesthood to come bless your children. And why not, Like all the administrations of the spirit.
Speaker 1:Well, it's like that verse says in seven. You know the authority. Could you read it one more time? Yeah, cause I think that's talking about. Now that you've said what you've said, it makes me really want to hear that. Differently from this place of like, yeah, he operates in different ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he's saying deny not the gifts of God, for there are many and they come from the same God and there are different ways that these gifts are administered, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. And then he goes on to describe each of the spiritual gifts, and there's many in there, but you're reading them and you can think of many of these. We think of, by laying on of hands, the blessings of um healing. You know having a blessing of healing, but that can come through different administrations of the spirit.
Speaker 1:You've really opened my eyes. I think I love it when I get to see something I think I've known forever, with a different angle, and it's so fun when the spirit's there, because it's always more loving it's degrees of loving that I didn't have before. So this idea, like you're talking about being more specific in our language around how we use um, like they have the priesthood, it's like no, they're, they're holders of the priesthood, because women who are praying over their children have access to the power and the priesthood. What power are they?
Speaker 1:calling on Like yeah, you know like he says in seven the Lord. These, these blessings are ministered in different ways, but it's still God nonetheless. Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, that's a powerful concept and we've been trying to, we've tried to get a sense of this in our home. Just um, this is kind of just a personal thing.
Speaker 2:If you do it differently in your home, don't stress about this but like, but like it always kind of um, struck me as a little bit off when a visitor from the church, like missionaries or ministering brothers or leader from the church would come and they'd, you know, give their message and then they'd say, usually gesturing to me, you know, who would you like to have say the prayer? Would you like to have say the prayer? This is your home and it just kind of felt like I'm no more in charge here than her, you know, and I'm a holder, like as a priesthood. But we are, we were both endowed in the temple and we're both um, sealed together and we'll talk about that more here as well.
Speaker 2:Sure, um, but we've just decided in our home that she's the one that calls our prayers and it's probably for our kids like I just don't want them to ever get the idea home that she's the one that calls our prayers and it's probably for our kids. I just don't want them to ever get the idea that dad's the one who's more spiritual or more in charge, plus just callings. That I've had where in the church setting I'm in a little more prominent role, right, but in our home, in fact, I gave a lesson once to our youth talking about this stuff that we're talking about, and I said something like I'm a Melchizedek priesthood holder, I'm ordained as a high priest. Currently I'm ordained as Bishop and I hold the priesthood keys to preside over this ward and all the people in this ward boundary. In my home, though, who's like who's the most in charge?
Speaker 2:And my own son raised his hand and I was like please please don't mess this up for all of us and he said, uh, neither of you're both you're, it's the same, you're both in charge and um and and elder harry perry, I think, has a quote about that there's no president or vice president in the church and um it. You know it might be good to discuss this that that the you mentioned this just a minute ago but, like the proclamation on the family talks about the fathers presiding the home and in our human or worldly understanding, that word sounds like In charge, you're in charge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're the most in charge, and a mother's primary role is to nurture, right, right, and it kind of sounds a little bit like one down from the presiding person. But this is just different administrations of the same power and authority. And if you think about um, like you mentioned, like when James and John came to Christ and said we want to be on your right hand, your left, like what did he tell him? He was, like, that's not how this works. Like like whoever is the most the greatest servant is the greatest in my kingdom. Yeah, and it's not about who's the most in charge, it's about um blessing and serving, and and a father, um, you know, should be the most um loving and and serving. And we know from section 121, like, these powers are administered by the principles of righteousness. It's not through dominion, it's not through coercion, it's not through vanity, it's not through ambition.
Speaker 2:In fact, if you operate with that like your priesthood's gone, Amen to the priesthood or authority of that In that moment right, you're not operating with God's authority or power, but if we operate with gentleness and meekness and with love, now we have god's power to be with us and they still have their agency. They can choose, but it's the most likely scenario in which the power can take effect and and cause that change to bring about our salvation exaltation. So, um, yeah, so in our home, like as a mother and father, this presiding and nurturing kind of sense, we just need to have the right idea of like what does it mean to preside in God's kingdom, in God's sense of presiding, and it's not to be over or power over it's power in and power to power to become yeah and there's no.
Speaker 2:we don't really have an answer exactly why the church is organized this way. I think Elder Ballard had a quote about this that said, we don't know why the church is organized in the way that it is, with men being holders of the priesthood. And President Oaks gave a great comment too.
Speaker 1:I can't remember where this is from, but something about um, we need to be careful not to give like reasons to revelation when a revelation hasn't been revealed, like right, because you and I can have a whole series of discussions as to why we think things are this the way that they are and I think sometimes members do do that back and forth, or they have discussions on things and there's a lot of obvious topics we could get into, but to your point, we don't know I love thinking about those things and and wondering why is it a commandment or a policy in the church the way that it is?
Speaker 2:but but yeah, we can get into trouble, and the church and church members have in the past by trying to guess or understand why policy is the way that it is. Um, and they've clearly given us instruction that we don't really know why this is. We need to be careful about why that is. But I think it's. I think through the scriptures and through the temple, you can see, um, it's safe to say, like we do this together. Yeah, it's, it's not one over the other, it's not. Come along with me.
Speaker 2:I have the priest said um, eve doesn't, adam doesn't progress beyond the garden without Eve. They go together and for whatever reason, right now, on this arc of the one eternal round, like this is the way it's organized. But when we go to the temple we enter into the family order of the priesthood. There's no family order without each other, there's no next generation without each other. When we are sealed in the sealing covenant, which the Doctrine and Covenants says is the highest order of the Melchizedek priesthood, it's not that a woman can come along with me because I'm a holder of the priesthood. I can't enter into that without her, she can't enter into it without me. We do this together and in the home we are united. We're together in leading our family. And with what authority and with what power? His power, priesthood power. And for what purpose? To bring to pass immortality, to bring our children, hopefully, to him for their immortality eternal life.
Speaker 1:It's interesting when you draw that parallel, how, like the priesthood is the great equalizer. It's God's power, and we read in Luke how God is love. So when we think about what priesthood could be expressed as it's the power of love in its most pure and unfiltered form. And so when we think about another quote I heard from a leader outside of our faith once, told me he goes you know well, the biggest leader in any room is the person who loves the most, and I've said that a few times on this podcast Um and so, when you think about love being an expression of the priesthood power, right, and this, and, and the official there's, there's an official nature of that piece and an actual authority, extension of keys and so forth, but at its core it's just love and it's most beautiful and equal sense men and women together needing each other to be complete.
Speaker 1:To complete each other, yeah, and so that they can progress and bring children to this life. And then, like you said, if god's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men, how great, great is that that we get to get access to that power in the temple for our kids to experience that right, yeah, like, and that's the whole link of this whole thing is the priesthood. The priesthood and the love of God through the priesthood is the link that connects all these generations together. It's the actual bonding that seals our heart to our Savior.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and for whatever reason I mean, I know the reason, but he's involving us in this work and we're he wants us to do the things that he does, and so he's instructing us as he gives us this power, authority, and he's he's allowing us to to develop these, like um, passions and attributes that he has, so that we can become like him. What are we going to be doing for the rest of eternity Like this?
Speaker 2:we're going to be bringing about the immortality, eternal life of our children. And so you know, he doesn't give us his power and authority for any other reason other than he's involving us in his work, not to assist, but also to teach and train us, like he wants us to be part of the family business. Yeah, we're gonna have the same desires and appetites and passions. We pass on and we need to develop this, this love and desire. Like I want to bring souls to him and and to and as easy as our children, like this is what we want the most. But, but we this is what we're, our work and our purpose, and he's involving us in it and we're we're learning his ways to become and to, to bring him, souls to him.
Speaker 1:But yeah, as Michelle Bentley says, we're learning heaven right, like we're learning that in real time, as we have children and all of our hearts go to them and want them to progress and we worry for them. But I think the thing that I want to just hit one more time is that story of your wife praying for your boys and how she drew upon the priesthood power through prayer and, as we read in Moroni 7, that, like there's different ways to draw upon his power and God is God, regardless whether it's a hands-on blessing or a prayer from a righteous mother. I think that oftentimes what I'm learning in this podcast over time, rob, is that there's that picture of Jesus behind the door without a handle and how much he is right there and what does it look like to actually grab that door and open it. We think of it as like the simple things, which is true prayer, scripture study and so on, but there's like a real faith component to this. That's like intentional, that like when your wife, for example, had that intuition to pray. She prayed and what did she do? She called upon what she was promised in the temple for the administration of angels and they came because she believed that they would.
Speaker 1:And so it makes me wonder what are the things that I could be calling upon in my life that I'm not calling upon, you know, because I go to these things and I just sometimes we think it's like osmosis, I'm going to go and things are just going to improve, which, by the way, is totally true.
Speaker 1:I think spiritual osmosis is a total thing, but there's this thing called faith in action, when I am really clear on the knowledge of the power that I can have as someone who's imperfect in every way, but trying that I have the ability to call upon those, those, that priesthood power through my covenants, to do many things. We learned in the temple how to thwart the adversary, that something gets repeatedly shown to us and something we need to just really be mindful of is that sometimes, when there's a lot of negativity in our world or in our thoughts, there's another person at play here that we need to thwart and we have the access to that priesthood power through our covenants to push that away. Or it might be protection, maybe it's just power to be more like the savior, even if things aren't rocky, which in today's world I doubt is happening for many but that idea that we can, with faith, actually draw upon the priesthood power and call upon these things is our right. Yeah, that was given to us.
Speaker 2:President Nelson. I mean, does he use the phrase like we're living below our privilege? We don't understand, like all that we could access and that we could have, um, my wife and I were just talking a couple of days ago. We've got, um, almost all teenagers now, one 12, but and they're all great. I don't I don't want to share this story with any other idea that our kids are great, but they're teenagers, you know, and we were just kind of laughing about like we kind of want to tell them sometimes like you guys got a pretty good thing going here.
Speaker 2:We want to give you an offer, you quite a bit, but we kind of need you to operate within certain bounds and principles to be able to access those. Yeah, it's like we have a car that we'd like you to drive, but you know it's here for you. But if you're not going to show us that you can be responsible and handle it like you do not get those, those privileges. Or you know, we want to help you launch into the world. We're hoping to be able to help help pay for education and training and stuff for education and training and stuff, um, but if you're, we're not just going to hand over a bunch of like funds.
Speaker 2:it's for a purpose, and so you, you gotta be heading in a certain direction, doing certain things, showing you've got certain responsibilities. Like every blessing is predicated upon obedience to that principle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not that God's wanting. He's not being transactional and wanting to, he's not grumpily up there withholding blessings. I think he's really trying to teach us like this is a law. Like you mentioned gravity, like you step off this table, you can fall to the ground. But he's trying to teach us like, if you operate in these godly manners, this is where the power of godliness is manifest. Like these things will be a part of your life.
Speaker 2:It's just it's just law and it is a blessing he is enabling us to receive it. But it's also just that. It's like, uh, we understand this really well in Arizona, but like there's air conditioning inside but you need to, like bring yourself into that environment. And when we make covenants, especially covenants that are performed with his authority and sealed with that authority, and we try to abide by those covenants, then we start to feel all these things we call blessings, but it's just like he's trying to teach us like, live in a godly manner and you're going to receive all these things and he's got so much more for us than we could possibly imagine.
Speaker 2:And we don't. We're just little kids and teenagers. We kind of don't get it. We're like, yeah, but this feels like restrictive, I don't want to do this. And and uh, when? Really, he's just like I'm trying to tell you, if you just do this, he can't give us all of his power unless we can show that we'll follow, show that we will keep our desires, appetites and passions in the balance that he set and all those things.
Speaker 2:So it's a we're learning, we're coming along. Well, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I think this is a great time now to kind of bridge that connection between priesthood, power and leadership as it pertains to this talk in the temple, because as you were talking, I was thinking of Joan of Arc. Yeah Right, so Joan of Arc is a big part of this, this story here. Why don't you talk a little bit about that? Because I think there's a parallel between what we were talking about regarding your wife and us being able to call upon the power versus her story and what that looked like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, barbara Morgan Gardner shares a great um you know, know history and example of jonah bark and just her calling and her desire to. I mean, she had a a visionary, revelatory experience of being called from god to serve him and she dedicated everything to his service and um she, as far as she was, she abided by all the commandment and law that she was aware of and knew and was enabled by God and given God's power to kind of bring about some great purposes, and for that she was convicted of heresy. And that a woman could receive revelation and direction from God.
Speaker 1:Because she said she would say, yeah, I pray and I, I hear and feel what it is that I'm supposed to do. She was calling upon revelation and receiving it. Yeah, and how dare this woman, young woman, 19. Yeah, how dare. And she's you know.
Speaker 2:She led thousands of men into multiple successful battles in one and the thing that got her killed wasn't that, it was the fact that she believed that God was inspiring and talking to her, and she couldn't deny it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was convicted of heresy just for this, you know, desire to receive revelation from God. And we know probably most people know from the history that she was burned at the stake. But even even facing those circumstances and odds, she, she, declared like one. This is her, her words One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. And then it's gone. But to surrender what you are and live without that belief, that's more terrible than dying, more terrible than dying young. And so she was willing to even take that, you know, service and conviction to her death. And she has asked for a cross to be held, held overhead, and priests to yell prayers loud enough that could be heard over the flames and just uh, but that was her conviction. She was, she was all in on on serving God and in the way that she knew how and the way that she'd been directed.
Speaker 1:It was amazing to me in that story too, that that she starts off with a Joe in the arc how she was young, really trying to do best. Here's what's interesting she didn't have the fullness of the gospel, she just had what truth she had, but she was doing her best and believed and she called upon those powers, even without, like, officially going through temple covenants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's a good I mean mean it's a good point just to make the priesthood, god's power to do his work like um was in operation from even after the apostles, um, from christ's time were during the apostasy. Yeah, during the apostasy like and we see that clearly in the restoration I mean, joseph smith received visions he had the power to translate way before the ironic because he preached it restored way before temple covenants were restored.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so you're seeing in Jonah Mark's example he's operating, he's blessing and he's trying to bring people to knowledge of the Savior and to correct those understandings of God's character and stuff, which is one of the most beautiful parts about the Restoration, that God's character restored as a loving father. But you can see his, his, his power and operation to do what like the same work to bring about our maternal eternal life.
Speaker 1:It's always and I just what I like about it in particular, that we're talking about this is the context that it can change up, and it's always the same story about bringing God is the same today, yesterday and forever.
Speaker 1:And Joan of Arc this 17-year-old girl that left and became this massive leader for the French army, is highlighted by this quote by President Joseph F Smith, as she's quoting in her talk is that it's not for you to be led by the men and women of the world, it is for you to lead the world, and to lead especially in everything that is uplifting and that is purifying to the children of men.
Speaker 1:It's a different kind of leadership. You know, we're in a political structure right now where leadership looks something very like authoritative, very powerful in a defining power as a uh, a control, a dominion, right, yeah, but what the Lord's leadership is is about setting example of love, tenderness, meekness, love unfeigned, you know, being there, and I don't think that's weakness. I think there's definitely a stronger side, as we saw the savior and the cleansing of the temple, like there is an element that's there that definitely is powerful in more of a traditional sense. But, yeah, when we talk about leadership, the Lord has sons and daughters of his kingdom, like we, are literally called to lead, and not in the way the world would see it, but as the Lord has defined it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Brad Wilcox's talk from last conference really explained that well that, like we are chosen, we are given more blessings, inheritance, but it's for a purpose, it's not to be above or special, it's to we're crew on the ship.
Speaker 2:You know we're right, we're here to serve and to bless others and and to bring them to him, and that's why we receive this endowment of power. It is to, it does bless us, it does bless our children. But we also make covenants to share and bless the world. We're supposed to be light, leaven and salt. You know we're a small amount of things that have a great impact in the world that we're in and we can bring light, we can uplift, we can preserve so much around us by living in a godly manner and having the power of God with us to to bless others and our own families as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that talk too, by the way, because when I heard that talk, it was a beautiful description of how I've experienced my life, like I'm working in on a cruise ship, that I feel like others are enjoying a lot more, you know, because, like, look, you know, being members of the church, we have more kids, we have extra callings and all these things that we do.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, he did say that there's something very sacred that we get, which is this thing called payment. And I don't think that's to say that people who aren't members of our faith don't struggle and they don't call to God and they don't get payment of their own. But there is something about these standards that we're living, that we are receiving something, and I think that you know when you think of payment. He didn't describe that, but for me that's knowledge, it's light, it's love, it's an expansion of love and light and knowledge, it's glory, in the sense that I'm able to see things differently, especially when it comes to raising my kids, man, that's where it matters most to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it doesn't make any sense, except that it's true. It's just the way God's kingdom operates. Except that it's true, it's just the way God's kingdom operates. We're making a covenant in the temple to obey, to sacrifice, to live a higher law, to keep all of our desires, appetites and passions in His bounds and to consecrate everything to make our lives holy. We give up energy and effort and we preoccupy our thoughts with serving others. And it doesn't diminish, it doesn't take away, it, it adds to.
Speaker 2:I remember, just as I mean there was a lot of tiring days as bishop, you know, but like, but there's many, many times when before a long week or many, I had many appointments for many meetings or a long day. I would be kind of like this is going to be a long day. I would be kind of like this is going to be a long day and I would come home like filled, like I'd come home just like walk in my house, like all that beat and my wife's like how was it? Like, you know, it was great and there was a lot of maybe uncomfortable, hard things in there. But you know, I was sacrificing, I was trying to consecrate my life and it, but I was sacrificing. I was trying to consecrate my life and it wasn't for me yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's a good principle of the priesthood. By the way, it was just like you cannot use the priesthood in any other capacity other than to bless others.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:If I want a blessing, I call upon someone else to come give me a blessing. And if you try to use the priesthood in a way that sets yourself up to gratify a vain ambition or pride and then you lose it. And so when we use it to serve others, we receive power and enlightenment and all these things in our lives. And you explain this to the world like, wait, you do what you serve. How many hours I don't know, and there's some times when it's like that was tiring, but and but it also fills us with, like you mentioned, like enlightenment and love and light, and this is God's, this is how he's trying to operate.
Speaker 2:And it's true. It doesn't make any sense, other than I can testify that it's it's true, it happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you talked about that mantle being released as a Bishop and you were sharing how difficult that is. I mean it's interesting because on the onset no one would ever want a calling that's going to take that much time and energy. But yet any most people well everyone I've ever talked to who gets released goes through a mourning period because of the expansive payment that you receive spiritually as a result of serving in that capacity.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I just I shared this with you before but just um, yeah, when we went to clean out my office the night before I was released and, um, my wife suggested we, you know, have a prayer and sit, and I just like wept like down my face, wetting my shirt. I'm not usually like that, but but it wasn't all sadness, it was just um, it was a beautiful and special time that changed me and, like um, I wish everybody could have the ability to feel like how I felt. I feel like a bishop has a unique opportunity to have the priesthood keys of repentance and I got just like the smallest like glimpse into how Christ feels about us when we are trying to come to him and and repent and turn, and um, it's not in any way like disappointment.
Speaker 2:No, it's it's so, uh, merciful. And I I I struggled to express this in a good way, but, like when someone would come and want to, um, repent, I just it was good to confess it, cause that that's a prodigal son moment of like coming to yourself, getting that point of confessing it is coming to yourself and, um, but just like that parable, the Lord, the father, like saw the son of far off and just came running to him and he didn't like say where have you been? What have you been doing?
Speaker 1:Or where now you're back, aren't you come to my house and be?
Speaker 2:obedient for a while and then we'll see what happens. He was just like ready to receive and there's a lot of symbolism in this of putting his you know, his clothing him and then putting his ring on the finger and celebrating and it's just the way I try to express it to people is like I kind of, I kind of couldn't care less what they were confessing. It was just like let's get it out. So you know we can go. But where are we going from here? Like who, who cares? Like who cares about that? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do now? And that that's. I think the Lord's already forgiven us. He's just ready for us to kind of move on.
Speaker 1:But when you said that. That was really powerful to me. The Lord has already forgiven us. We just he's waiting for us to take those steps so that we can move on. And it's so powerful because you mentioned how, like you were thinking before you were called to that role, that that would be the hardest thing, but it became your favorite thing because it was an opportunity to feel how Christ sees other people and you couldn't get enough of that I thought it was just the best.
Speaker 2:They come in feeling quite guilty or ashamed and I just thought it was the coolest thing. When someone wanted to repent, it's exactly what a disciple of Jesus Christ would be doing. Yeah, and I thought that that would be a burden and you can't tell anybody I can't tell my wife, because of course I want to keep that that would be a burden and you can't tell anybody. I can't tell my wife and um, because of course want to keep that private and confidential. I thought that'd be hard because my wife and I talk about everything, but not at all. I was like never felt that, I just thought it was. So I mean, we use the word awesome a lot in our nowadays, but I was in awe.
Speaker 2:I really was in awe and I just thought it was so great and and I praise people so much for that like this is incredible what you're doing. I wish everybody had the chance to be, to be a bishop, and I learned so much too, and just like um, how god operates in in our lives and in our home, and and um, um, this this example happened when I was Bishop, but it's a great piece to me. Like um, we the Lord, lord honors and and uh, entrusts us with his authority and power. And when you hear this story, think about as a parent you know, but, um, we are totally imperfect.
Speaker 2:We are the weak and simple things. We're doing our best and we're not going to get it right all the time. But this is how covenants work, like if we make a covenant with God, we have his, we have access to his power and ability and we're not going to get it right all the time, but he will make it enough. And I just experienced this as a bishop where someone um came and they they were an endowed member and married and they had a um transgression to share and, um, they really wanted to continue going to temple and they had a current active rec member. They hadn't gone in a while.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And they asked if that would be okay and we had talked about things for a while and and I just kind of in the moment, um kind of said you know, I think that'd be okay, given what you've shared with me. And and right as soon as the appointment ended, I just started having like this uncomfortable feeling. I got chastised by the spirit whoa pretty harshly for a week.
Speaker 2:That that was not what should have happened and I should have a little bit of a different standard for the attending the temple than for particular the sacrament, and I don't think it required anything like major, like resounding, the recommend, but it was about learning. It was about learning that like lesson, even if I had just told this person, like just wait a little while, let's meet a couple of times or something, and just see how things are going before you go back to the temple.
Speaker 2:Well, I was feeling very chastised by the spirit and I made a follow-up appointment the next Sunday and I was like, how do I like walk this back and say right now and I was like, how do I like walk this back and say, right now, don't go, Cause I've already told you to go?
Speaker 2:But, um, this person came and they'd gone to the temple like three times that week and I was I was a little bit concerned that I had just really misstepped and it turned out it was incredible for them, it was super healing and empowering to them and, um, and it was great for their relationship. And so what's what's happening here? Like I got taught by the spirit that, like, when this happens again in the future, handle it differently.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is. This is how you handle it, but I was doing my best that you could. I was operating with these principles of righteousness that we're trying to describe in section one 21 of like um. I was trying to be loving and gentle and meek and I was trying to do the Lord's work. I was trying to help this person and I I didn't do it quite right and he made it Okay.
Speaker 1:He made it to work to his advantage where the spirit was able to manifest, because he wasn't going to punish the person. For you needing to learn a lesson.
Speaker 2:Totally, because he wasn't going to punish the person for you needing to learn a lesson, totally. And it's a love, loaves and fishes kind of example of just like we bring our real megal meager offerings and he just makes it enough more than enough and it's super comforting to me as a parent.
Speaker 2:I'm not always the best parent operating by these principles all the time. Sometimes we lose our patience and stuff, but it was really comforting to know that, like if I try to do things with real intent and with gentleness and meekness and love and I don't say the right thing or handle something just right, like this is god's work and we're not the only parent working and his works will not be frustrated like um, we just read in section 3 not too long ago with our Come Follow Me study of Joseph Smith messing up and allowing the manuscript to be lost, but the Lord said my works will not be frustrated.
Speaker 2:This is going to happen, it's going to go forward and I know that if we operate those principles and we're trying to operate with real intent, with a sincere heart, that God's with us and his works will not be frustrated, we don't need to worry too much about screwing up the work. There's that old phrase of if the church wasn't true, the missionaries would have messed it up a long time ago. It's just totally true and true for us as parents too, and I mean we shouldn't go about trying to trying to frustrate the work of God. We should operate within these correct and good principles.
Speaker 2:But if we are trying our best yeah, then he will augment our efforts and his power will be with us to make make it okay.
Speaker 1:I think that's part of the temple. You know, power we get is that understanding the most powerful knowledge is power, right? So as we go to the temple and we hear and we feel these things, that's part of what takes the angst away from us as parents, these mistakes that we make, because at the end of the day, it's not a mistake that our kids are ours. Heavenly Father gave us who we're going to be with intentionally, knowing we were going to make the mistakes we were going to make. And, yeah, parents can influence their kids and every parent, every imperfect parent, which is all of us, negatively impacts their kid.
Speaker 1:But I don't know about you, but some of my best qualities have come from my parents' mistakes. It's he yields the atonement, makes everything for our good in the Lord's timing. And so, as you're talking about these different elements of of just you know, understanding the priesthood and the temple and the blessings and and the mantle and the and this way that all this works, I think I just I feel so inspired about the idea that I have the capability again to draw upon this power to learn and grow and to realize that the eternal timeline is that everything's going to work out and again, no matter how horrible things are in the moment, that things are going to be okay. And that's the faith. That's the faith part of like yeah, he's going to come in and he's going to make up the difference for what I'm missing, as a parent, in each relationship of my life, as long as I keep repenting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, I think you hit upon like a really important aspect that might be good to mention. That, I find I find causes some confusion. I hope this is okay to talk about this.
Speaker 2:There are two aspects of the atonement that are very related but slightly different. One is justification, that's being pardoned from our sin, being cleansed and innocent. Then there's sanctification, which is becoming more holy, Becoming like our heavenly parents, and we conflate these two a lot in the church. I think it's because we have a unique doctrine in our church that we can become like Heavenly Father, and so we talk a lot about obedience and that's absolutely necessary as we practice and try to follow God's ways. But we inevitably fail. Fail and we got to return to the justification part and be forgiven. But I hear all the time in the church um members will say stuff like I know that if I am obedient and I'm worthy.
Speaker 2:I can be forgiven and I'm a little bit like close't get the wrong idea here. Yeah, and it's interesting that there's a verse in 2 Nephi that man we love. As a church we say all the time about I'm paraphrasing, but we talk of Christ, we teach of Christ, because we know that it's by Christ that we're saved yeah. After all, we can do.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And people zero in on that, like you got to do all this and then christ will take over, and like it's so fascinating because there's tons of examples where that is not the case he comes in even if we haven't repented like he comes in and he thinks he's there to support us, no matter what's happening yeah, a few verses before that in the same chapter it says there is no other name in heaven whereby a man can be saved other than jesus christ.
Speaker 2:It's not through your name, it's not through your merits, only through the merits of jesus christ and the greatest example we have. Many but my favorite my kids will make fun of me a little bit because I talk about emily younger all the time, but like he had this experience right where he, he was not a good person. He was trying to destroy the church, trying to get people to waken this, and the angel came and told them to cut it out. He describes this really beautifully to his son later. But there's lots to learn from this chapter. I think this is the closest example we have of what spirit prison may be like. But he's experiencing what it feels like to be unclean in the presence of a perfect, glorified being and it's uncomfortable like right, he feels harrowed up by the memory of his sin.
Speaker 1:There's not a being like punishment, punishing him he's no, by the memory there's pain that's self self-created from a place of compare, of a recognition of the difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's any. The thought of coming to the presence of this being fills him with inexpressible horror and he wants to be extinct. And then he remembers his father taught about Jesus Christ. He cries out for mercy and it's all flipped Like. He feels joy. That was just exquisite, was his pain, and he sees a vision of God and his soul did long to be there, like where in there was his time to be obedient and prove his worthiness.
Speaker 2:It was a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It was crying out for mercy. We don't deserve it. It's not that we're worthy, it's mercy Like, and from there he takes that and lives a life serving God and through that time he's being sanctified. And I think so many times we kind of get that a little bit mixed up and it really causes problems so many times we kind of get that a little bit mixed up and it really causes problems, Right.
Speaker 2:If I can share one funny story. But we did this youth conference with our youth and I got this object lesson example from a book that's great called Perfect in Christ. It's written by a young man with the help of his father, but it's great. I adapted it to an example in there to to dodgeball, and so with the youth we played three games of dodgeball. The first game was just normal rules and, um, everybody knows dodgeball. Right, you get hit, you're out if they catch your ball you're out you're out.
Speaker 2:Well, play normal rules. First, the second game, I said okay, guys, um, if you do anything other than perfect dodgeball, you're out. So if you throw a ball at an opponent and you miss, you're out.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And if you get hit, of course you're out and there's no getting back in. And what I thought was going to happen was it would be the fastest of the three games. It was going to be, because everybody's going to get out immediately.
Speaker 1:Right, there's no way they could be perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, immediately right.
Speaker 1:there's no way they could be perfect yeah and um, what actually happened was I had to stop the game after like 10 minutes because nobody guess what happened.
Speaker 2:I didn't see this coming. No one threw the ball. Everybody stopped trying. It was like the most beautiful example of human nature. They didn't want to mess up and so they just stopped trying and, um, wow, and I was like I didn't see that happening. This is so great, it's like perfect for the lesson.
Speaker 2:In the third game I put a white shirt on one of the young men. I was like, hey, his name is Josh. He's on a mission right now in South America. But I just kind of said, if you want to be on Josh's team, you can anytime choose to be on Josh's team, even if you're on the other team. You can change and anybody on josh's team can keep playing dodgeball. Um, every time you get hit, just go connect with josh and put your hand on his shoulder or something and and then continue to play. But if you're on the other team, the second game rules apply. Anytime you mess up, you're out. It was. It was really funny, again, human behavior, just because some of the young men there were just like but we can't win. I'm like that's right, remember, you can be on Josh's team anytime you want.
Speaker 1:I was like it's not fair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can be on Josh's team anytime you want and they still continue like, no, we're going to be on the other team. We're going to try.
Speaker 1:They really like it was kind of competitive nature.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the point there is like we're trying to become like our heavenly parents and we continue this process of returning and repenting and being cleansed from our sin. But being free from sin doesn't mean that we're sanctified and holy. A newborn baby doesn't have all the attributes of God, even though they're without sin, and this is a process that goes on premortally, here and beyond. The reason I think that's important is because, as we talk about the temple, we're talking about the ordinances of Melchizedek Priesthood.
Speaker 2:The Doctrine and Covenants talks about the ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood, or the preparatory gospel, and this is baptism, repentance, remission of sins and the carnal commandments. But this preparatory gospel and this is baptism, repentance, remission of sins and the carnal commandments, but this preparatory for what? It's preparatory for us to go to the temple and to enter into further covenants where we are covenanting to be obedient, to sacrifice everything in our lives that is not godly, to live the higher law of the gospel, to keep all the desires, appetites and passions within the bounds the Lord has set, and to covenant our lives to be consecrated, to be holy, and that's entering into a more godly kind of walk and talk and that's where obedience and living the law is sanctifying us and we inevitably need to return and repent.
Speaker 2:And then we keep trying, we keep playing the game to perfect our game of dodgeball but, to perfect our game of being like God, but it's a problem when people conflate them and we, we feel like, well, we talk about obedience all the time and I'm never going to measure up, I can't do it. It's like you're, you're a misunderstanding, a little bit of principle there, and this is where, um, there's two things going on Justification from our sins and then sanctification becoming holy.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting concept. I really appreciate you sharing that because, at the end of the day, there's knowledge, is power again. So understanding these concepts can free our minds from the adversary. I think that a lot of these confusions is where the adversary steps in and starts to influence things again. But you know, perfect light can expel all darkness. And as we learn these concepts together it's my favorite thing about what we do on this the show is as we're talking through these things, there's new angles I've never considered, and this has been such a great episode.
Speaker 1:Rob, thank you so much for taking some time to be with me. You know these talks that we go through. Sometimes we go right through and only stick to the talk. Sometimes we just reference a talk once, and this has been a beautiful blend of both. So for everyone who's listening, please like check out this talk. It's phenomenal. Yes, it's a great talk and we might have you back to keep talking about it, Cause I think we really technically got through three of the 20 pages or something like that. Like it was, we didn't get to a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I was trying to like preface some stuff Cause.
Speaker 1:I don't know Like like you mentioned.
Speaker 2:It's like light and, uh, I kind of envision. I think if you have these ideas correct in your mind as you read the scriptures, you read these talks and hear things from the general authorities like you hear it, same words, same scriptures of the verse of scripture that I've read a hundred times, but now you see it a little bit different.
Speaker 2:You're like it was the same words. Why am I seeing this different now? And I I hope that this was, um, you know, empowering and enlightening for people to feel that god's power can be with you, um, as you, as you, yes, turn and repent, but also as you, covenant with sincere heart, that what you truly desire, yeah, is to follow him and you're willing to do what you're able to do, and I think that's that's what being worthy is is, if your real desire is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and you're willing to do what you're able to do, then now you're operating with a sincere heart and with real intent and he floods us with power and enlightenment and and as we, then we turn and repent and we continue to be sanctified. Like you can, kind of your capacity, what you're able to do and what you're willing to do in a year from now, or 10 years from now, hopefully, is greater and more powerful, but he's just waiting for us to like, be ready to change.
Speaker 2:And he wants to give us all that he has. He's really good about giving away his, his power, and he's trying to teach us how. And it's through these covenants and through following him and being willing to sacrifice things that are not like him and desiring to be like him, and that's really like know. The culmination of the endowment session is we. We desire to enter his presence. That's that's what we want. That's what our nature has changed through these covenants to, that's what we want. We want to be in the celestial kingdom, be with him.
Speaker 1:Rob, thank you so much for being on the show. This was fantastic. I sure appreciate you spending some time with me.
Speaker 2:Thank you, happy to be here, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's episode of Temple Bound. If you enjoyed today's content, please leave a review and share the episode with others so that people who are looking for this information can find it. Thank you again for listening. Until next time. Thank you.
