followHIM - Doctrine & Covenants 121-123 followHIM Favorites with Dr. Alex Baugh

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Hank, John, and Dr. Baugh share their favorite lesson from this week's podcast.​Shownotes: https://followhim.co/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannel"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.​

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with my friend, John. By the way, we are the hosts of a podcast called Follow Him. And every week we do a little snippet called Follow Him Favorites, where we get to choose one thing out of this week's lesson to focus on. We're here with the incredible Dr. Alex Baugh this week. Welcome, Alex. Thank you very much. Yeah, so let's take a look at the lesson. It's sections 121, 122, and 123. John, you get to go first.

What's your follow him favorite? Well, again, it's always hard to pick something, but I love at the very close of 123, this little metaphor, which I think Joseph Smith uses. There's maybe got it from the book of James, the footnotes there. But he said, you know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm. Now, you know, Hank, I love to talk about my dad.

He was on an aircraft carrier in World War II. And that is a very large ship, but it has a rudder. We are living in a time of storms and winds and waves, and listen to how this verse finishes. A large ship has benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves. And when you have a helm, you have a rudder, it implies you've got a course, a destination, a purpose, you know where you're going. And it's funny when I have a canoe in my garage, and that's usually what it does. It just hangs in my garage. But the safest thing to do if you encounter a big wave in a canoe the safest thing to do you probably know this is to

go right at it if you try to go sideways it'll it'll tip you over but if you have a course a destination a purpose you are kept workways with the wind and the waves without that you're nothing but driftwood and if you want a fun homework assignment go find a talk of president thomas s monson He gave about the German battleship, the Bismarck, and how they finally sunk the Bismarck, and guess what they hit? The rudder. And as soon as they hit the rudder, it couldn't steer. And they were able to pound it until they sunk it. But I love this idea. We're in a time of storm and wind and waves, but we have a purpose, a course,

a destination, which the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us, and we can be kept work ways with the wind and the waves. So that's my favorite thought right there. That's great, John. The adversary is going to go after the rudder, the purpose, right? And try to attack that. The purpose, the destiny. Get rid of that. Yeah. My following favorite is kind of the entire thing. So I'm going to look at the very first

verse. Read all of it for us, Hank. Yeah, we'll just start at the beginning. The very first verse to the very last verse. If you look at section 121, verse 1, it starts out with Joseph pleading with God, where are you? Where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? Meaning, where are you going to step in? Are you going to help us? And it finishes, this entire lesson finishes with section 123, verse 17, same Joseph Smith, who sounds really different. He says in verse 17, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power. And I know a lot of us feel like we're in section 121 verse 1, God, where are you? And we want to feel like section 123 verse 17. Let's cheerfully do

everything that we can, that we have control over. So I think the homework, John, we're given a lot of homework this week, but the homework here would be what's in between those two verses. Study everything that's between section 121 verse 1 and section 123 verse 17, and see if you don't make that same change, have that same go from that feeling of God, you're not helping, where are you, to I can do this. I know I can do this. In fact, I can do it cheerfully. All right, Dr. Baugh, what would be your follow him favorite? Well, you've picked 121 and 123, you two, so I'll go 122. And that's the first two verses. And, you know, to kind of think that a president of the church is in jail is not a good thought. I can't imagine President Nelson being put in jail for his beliefs and for what he has done. And Joseph Smith, of course, is even worried about that. One time in one of his letters from Liberty Jail, he wrote his wife and said, I hope you'll still accept me.

I'm basically what he's saying is I'm a convict and convicts don't have very good reputations. But I think what's so significant is that the Lord knows who Joseph Smith is and that he's a good man and that he's a prophet. And he reminds us of that in section 122, where he reminded Joseph that you're still a prophet no matter the accusations made against you when he said, the ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name and fools shall have the indirision and hell shall rage against thee while the pure in heart and the wise and the noble and the virtuous The righteous know Joseph Smith was a righteous and good prophet. The wicked will despise him and basically say he's not a true prophet and he's not a good man.

And the Lord acknowledges Joseph is his prophet and is the Lord his anointed and always will be. That rest of the section talks about how God would remain with him and that he would hold his priesthood and his influence for the eternities. So I'm grateful that even though Joseph Smith might be labeled a convict, I think he's a pretty good prophet. In fact, the prophet of prophets of this dispensation. And the Lord acknowledges that in section 122. That's awesome, Dr. Bob. You can either be in category of verse one, you can be a fool that holds him in derision, or you can be pure in heart and wise and noble and virtuous and seek blessings under his hand. We still do it today, don't we? We still seek for Joseph today. Well, we hope you'll

listen to the full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, but if not, please join us next week for another Follow Him Favorites. follow him favorites.