#43 "How could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord?"

Mormon 1-6 & 9

So the title of this lesson is a question that Mormon has for us. How could we depart from the ways of the Lord? Well, the Nephites of his day departed the Lord’s ways and we see how they went away little by little. We want to fix this problem before it gets too big to fix, however with all the struggles we face it’s not easy to always put our troubles on the back burner and put our whole trust in the Lord, we are going to learn how to trust the Lord so we don’t depart from the Lord’s ways.
In Mormon 1:2 It states that Mormon starts living his mission on earth at age 10. He started to really study the scriptures and prophets.
1:4 Tells us that is when he was given a charge; at age 24 he is to go to a hill where the record is hidden, pull it out and record everything that happened to the Nephites from the age he is now-10 to 24.
Then in 1:15 it says that at age 15 he started to really have enough spiritual experiences that he had tasted goodness and visited with the Lord and at 15 wanted to preach to the people, but it was forbid.
*The hardest thing for me, if I were Mormon would be 1:13 The Lord took away the 3 Nephites to another place because it was so wicked there, but yet Mormon a 15 year old righteous kid was asked to stay behind and live in that filth, he couldn’t preach, or do anything gospel centered, at least out loud, but just live amongst it and observe enough to record. That would really stink.

In ch 2 he is coerced to be a part of all this mess.
2:1-2 @ 16 he was asked to lead the army. Again I thought @ 16 Holy Cow!!! My son will be 16 in a year and I can’t even picture him driving the family car, let alone leading an army! And Think about leading that army for a minute. If you were Mormon and had just been reading about Moroni who led the stripling warriors and Teancum leading his men, that’s exciting stuff, especially since they won and not even 1 stripling warrior was killed, that is awesome right, well do you think he was thrilled to be leading an army of men who refuse to repent, or even fight(2:3-8), would you really want to be in the front of an army like that, not to mention the poor kid is only 16.
2:15 His sorrow did return—He was sorrowful and yet he continued to lead a wicked people and watch them 2:14 curse God, wish to die and struggle. Are we any different than these people during our struggles? Do we get grumpy and ask why me? Why again? Do we wish to die? I hope not but maybe there are some of us who feel or have felt so desperate in their circumstances that they wish to die.

*This brought me to this thought these people had burdens, not much different than ours, why do people turn to robbery and murder?
Because they are desperate for things-perhaps they couldn’t make ends meet.
So what are some of the burdens we as a people carry today?

*Have everyone name some and as they do write them on a strip of paper, taped to the binding of a book (such as an encyclopedia) Have someone standing there holding the books (burdens) as you label them.
*Ask are these getting heavy yet? We are asked to make our burdens light. How do we do that? Like this? (take the burdens one by one and hand them to several different people in the room signifying that by going around the room sharing the stories of our burdens) Is that how we make them light?

*This brought me back to Mormon, as a young kid had huge burdens, way too heavy for a 10, 15, 16 year old. So how did Mormon handle his burdens? How did he get through his lifelong battle of struggles and heartache? He didn’t have church to go to every week to get uplifted, or if he did we know it was full of false an empty ordinances.

*This is the question that was on my mind as I continued to read the lesson.
2:12 He held onto the hope that the people would repent and come back he did but, it was a hope that was never fulfilled for Mormon-President Uchtdorf just gave us counsel about hope and what it is and I believe this describes how Mormon used hope here- P 22 Ensign Nov. 2008, “Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s Laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient persevererance.” “There may be times when we must make a courageous decision to hope even when everything around us contradicts this hope”

2:18 He carried on the work he was foreordained to do-that of writing the record (That is like us doing what our purpose is)
2:19 “I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day” When I first read this my sarcasm came out, and I thought well this is a little cocky isn’t it? But no! It is called righteous confidence. Confidence that says, “I know where I’m going, I’m going there because my choices are pointing me that way”
3:1Mormon also kept them busy building fortifications-What does this mean in our language today? Are we not supposed to be building our fortifications, testimonies, etc.
3:11 when the people got a little confidence after winning a battle, they decided they could get vengeance and continue to go to war, and not just continue, but start the wars. Through this scripture I got that Mormon held onto his convictions He stepped down from being their leader because he knew they were wrong.
3:12 He tells us the only reason he led them to begin with was because of Love, the love of God, He prayed to have his heart filled with Christ’s love. What can love do for a burden such as a family argument? Or a uncompromising boss? We may not always have the kind of love it takes to get over these burdens, but I know that if we ask the Lord to put His love in our hearts for others He can and will. I have asked to have this love with at least one of my relatives and it has come in the unexpected way, I actually had some of their positive qualities enter my mind, just as I want to throw daggers at them with my eyes. Even though it would’ve felt nice to throw those daggers, I know that by keeping that attitude satan wins. Doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s doable.

3:16Mormon also practiced listening to the spirit and doing as the spirit directs. Can the spirit direct us as to how to feed our families? Where to find food? How to make the beans we’ve prepared taste like steak? I believe that is where praying specifically over our food comes in.

Reading ch. 4 heading. Still war and carnage continue in fact it gets worse and worse, and yet, Mormon stays faithful and strong.

5:1-2 He agrees to help them again, but only because he loved them, not because he thought they’d win. He knew they would lose.

So how does he keep doing it?
5:17 He remembers the good times, he read back on the good times of how life was when Christ was with them.

Elder Andersen in our last conference (Ensign, nov. 2008 p. 13) Gave us this same advice, “We each have moments of spiritual power, moments of inspiration and revelation. We must sink them deep into the chambers of our souls. As we do, we prepare our spiritual home storage for moments of personal difficulty.”

In Ch 6 the Nephites move into their final battle. Mormon says he’s getting up there in age 6:6 and he watches this battle. He sees his army of 230,000 (6:11-16) strong all die off in battle, 24 people are left. It was truly a huge blood bath.
So what does this tough army commander war veteran do to get through this?
6:16 &18 He cries and mourns- despite what you guys believe, it really is okay to cry sometimes, it is difficult to watch all the people you love die, all because they refused to repent and come to their Lord who was just with them just 300 or so years ago.

6:21-22 He looks at this mourning through an eternal perspective. That they will be judged for their choices, just as we will be, but he leaves it all in the Lord’s hands.

In ch 9 he speaks to our day. He begs us to see what path his people took and not take the same one. He tells us more of how he got through his struggles.
9:8 He knoweth the Gospel. He said his people knew not the gospel, therefore they fell-He knows the gospel so he is still strong.

9:21 &27 He doubts nothing-he knows the Lord is in charge and can see his hand in all things from beginning of this book to the end. We have been through this book- I too can see the Lord’s hand and how it all came together for them can we doubt not that the Lord’s hand is in our lives? Be believing- come to Christ?
9:28 Be wise-get rid of anything that may hinder your progress of coming unto Christ
Mormon was wise he always was aware of the wickedness around him and never fell victim to it.
9:29 take the sacrament worthily and endure to the end-stay faithful to what you know-meaning do what we need to do, do what Mormon did to survive all the wickedness and evil around him.
Use the same tools he did, I challenge each of you to pick one of these today to help you get through the struggle to lighten all these (books) burdens. If we will do this we will find that Mormon-like strength to get through any of them. Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.