#24 They taught with Power and Authority of God

#24 “They taught with Power and Authority of God”
Alma 17-22
On the Chalkboard write Serving gives us? (All underlined phrases write on board underneath this phrase)

“There is a missionary spirit-a spirit which urges us to live outside ourselves and to be concerned for the welfare of others. And anyone who has ever served an honorable mission, assisted in the conversion of a friend, supported a son or daughter in the mission field, or enjoyed close associations with missionaries will testify of it’s reality” Ensign Nov. 1976

I would add, that the spirit of missionary work is done through service. Service is the key to conversion, whether it is your own conversion, that of a family member, or neighbor, co-worker, etc. Through service the door to missionary work is open. Now I know that when the topic of missionary work is mentioned, eyes glaze over and roll to the backs of your heads, so I thought I would make this a lesson about being selfish! We never ask ourselves what do I get out of it. We always just say what can I do for others? (blah blah) Well we are going to be selfish. We are going to look at Ammon’s missionary experience and see exactly what he got out of it as he served. That will be a great lesson to all of us. In other words, what does service give me?

Alma 17:3 This scripture tells us that before we start any service we need to pray and fast. But we won’t focus on that-what’s in it for us? The Spirit of prophecy, and revelation, and power to teach others.

Mormon puts a disclaimer to service in here for us though. 17:11 There will be sufferings, but for the most part it’ll all work out.
*And if you just thought, ‘well, that’s enough, I have enough suffering in my life, stay with me, the rewards will outweigh the sufferings.

You may be thinking it’s too hard to serve others they are prideful, arrogant, mean, well, so were the people ammon taught. 17:14-15 says the people he was going to teach were wild, hard-hearted, ferocious, delight in murder, robbing, plundering, lazy, idol worshipping people; But even though this is so, Ammon had been taught, probably by his mamma, that service is the key.

17:25 I will be servant- Why is this way effective? What does him just saying to the King that he wants to serve him do? Establishes Trust

17:29 Just at the mere beginnings of his service he has that famous experience with the sheep, As his partners are weeping at the loss of the sheep he “swells with joy” why is this? Well 2 reasons, 1- he sees a great opportunity to serve a bit better than just watering the sheep, 2- his serving has given to him a clear mind to know when an opportunity from the Lord has come.

17:31 He is given the plan of what to do and how.
*Take note that the servants must have respected Ammon enough to do as he suggested, either that or they were desperate to try anything.

17:35 &38 In these scriptures, that through willingness to serve and relying on the Lord, Ammon developed strength in the Lord

As Chapter 18 comes Ammon is still serving. He didn’t stop to discuss the glory of what happened or to have a brag session. He continues to serve the King. The King, we know thinks he is the Great spirit.

I’m not sure about any of you but all the people I’ve ever served all see me as a goddess. J/K! Have you ever served so valiantly and diligently that the people you serve are in awe of you? Yah-me neither but that is not the point! (respect of others) (because we are trying to find what we get out of service, we will write respect) Ammon didn’t need the glory-why do you think he was in the stable? He was trying to stay humble while the other servants are talking him up.

18:3 They testify to the king they “know that through those acts of service he is a friend to the king”
*How many of you would say you have too many friends? Is there such a thing as “too many friends” I would rather have more friends than enemies.

18:8-9 Where is man? King asks, and is answered, feeding horses.
18:10 King is astonished because of faithfulness-this bring even more trust and respect
18:13 Because of service they call him Rabbanah (powerful king) So they are calling him good names and saying nice things about him. (behind his back)
18:16 He was filled with the spirit of God – this so he could perceive thoughts
18:21& 22 He could’ve gotten away with a lot of worldly things here-(house on the east benches of the kingdom, money, food, women) instead he asks just to talk to him. How the admiration would grow even more! He didn’t ask for anything but to be able to tell the king how serving through the gospel gives him power to defeat destroyers! (or disarm them) (ha ha)

*My moms ward just had a crazy thing happen. In R.S the Bishop came in and told the women that just because you are kind enough to do something nice for someone doesn’t mean that you have to return the favor. Apparently there is a belief out there that if you do something nice for someone that you should have the favor returned.
Thank goodness we all have Ammons attitude of just doing nice things in hopes to share love of the gospel principles not because he was after gain. **Oh except for our little selfish list we are building. But we’ll just keep that in perspective.

*Because that mutual respect was founded at the very beginning, King Lamoni was willing to listen to what made him such a service oriented person.

18:35 Ammon testifies to us that Gospel service gives him the spirit, which gives him knowledge and power according to his faith and desires

Chap. 19 We know this is where he (the king) lay prostrate and everyone says he stinketh. Ammon could’ve said back up everyone, I’m going to use my priesthood power of God here and bring him back with all the drama he could muster- instead he lays low waiting for the request to help from the queen. He never forces his services on anyone. Always asking, ‘if he can help.’
19:2-3 the queen requests his help. Because he waits for the request it opens up the door to him being able to teach her as well. We know the king wakes and testifies to everyone.
Ammon is rewarded again 19:14 overpowered with joy! When others come to gospel-we are rewarded! And so the process continues.

In chapt. 20 Ammon still gets rewarded further. Ammon goes to get Brothers in the gospel out of prison. Even though the king acknowledges Lord can do anything, he offers to help ammon get them out because he’s friends’ with the other king. (20:4) He was able to get them out easier and without all the drama.

They run into King Lamoni’s Father. He’s disrespectful and rude to his son after hearing the story of why he never came to his feast. He commands his son to slay Ammon. (20:14)

Ammon serves his friend again by having the courage to stand up to his father (20:17-19) ammon withstands blows. But because of all this service (asking for King Lamoni to keep his kingdom and rule how he wants) to king Lamoni his father comes around
20:26 His father sees great love Ammon has for his son
20:27 Ammon’s service and love to King Lamoni cycles around and ends up getting the opportunity to teach him after he gets his friends’ out of prison. The father invites him to come to his kingdom and talk to him anytime.
So, service brings out a death threat one minute and then an invitation to teach the gospel in the next. (take that as you like, but I won’t add death threats to the list, unless you like an adventure)

Chap. 21 is about Aaron, Omner and Himni’s experience, which isn’t so good, that is where they are thrown into prison.
Chap 22 They are out of prison, hearing of Ammons experience and how it all starts off with service they go to King Lamoni’s father and ask if they can serve him. (22:3)
He says you can’t serve me but you can administer to me. Because of Ammon’s service to one king his brethren have an easier time of getting into King Lamoni’s fathers heart. So for us, we learn, that because we serve, our family members gain an automatic respect from others just because the reputation of us is a good one.

Because of the service of Ammon, many Lamanites lands were taught by these men.
So in a nut shell, all of this gospel teaching comes from one act of service after another. Never asking for anything in return, all the while building bridges of friendships all throughout that time.

We’ve finished out list out of these few chapters, there are many more things we could add to our list. But I believe this is a great representation of the fact that we get way more out the service than do the people who are getting the service. So I end by saying, we should be selfish, we should continue to serve with out ceasing! Don’t just drop off that casserole and be done with it. Think of this list, want more blessings, want more of the Lords spiritual gifts, Our Savior wants to give us more and we are selfish enough we know we want them. I hope we can all be selfish enough to look around and ask what can I do for myself today? (by serving others) in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.