followHIM - Doctrine & Covenants 37-40 : follow HIM Favorites

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

Five-minute clip of Hank and John's favorite part of this week's Come, Follow Me lesson.Great to share with your family and friends!Join us on social media!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcast

Hi there, friends. My name is Hank Smith. I am one of the hosts of a podcast called Follow Him. I'm here with my co-host, John, by the way. Hi, John. Hi, Hank. And I am following Hank. Yes, this is a great day. We are doing a little snip called Follow Him Favorites, where we take our favorite parts of the Come Follow Me lesson. So, John, you go first. The lesson this week is on sections, Doctrine and Covenants sections 37 through 40. What's your follow him favorite? Oh, well, there's a couple of things in section 38 that we quote all of the time that I just love, and they both start with if. I mean, the verses don't, but the phrases

do. If ye are not one, ye are not mine. And I love that verse, this idea that we should be one. I think Satan's not going to get us by, you know, protesters at the Hill Cumorah pageant or outside Temple Square or something like that. But he might, if we start to gossip about each other in our ward or have issues with each other in our ward. And so the Lord is asking us to be Zion, be one. One of the things that's happened to me many times at youth conferences is there's such a

wonderful spirit that comes and kids get up in testimony meeting. And I bet you've heard this too, Hank. Kids will get up and there'll be such a good feeling. They'll say, if I've ever offended any of you, I'm sorry. And they really want oneness. And I love that idea. How do we get oneness? Well, you know the word atonement at onement through Christ, through forgiving, through extending mercy like Jesus did for us. The other one, and that's who we're really following. That's what follow him is about. The next one is in verse 30. If ye are prepared, you shall not fear.

And that is a great one. And it's applicable to so many things in life. Probably I learned the Boy Scout model. Remember when we used to do Boy Scouts? Be prepared. I remember it for one thing, a winter camp in which I went and messed around with the other Scouts when I should have been preparing my bed. And that was one of the longest nights of my life. I just shivered all night. And then my sleeping bag was on top of a rock because I didn't spend the daylight preparing. And be prepared got into my head on that camp.

So that's a great one too. But this is talking about being prepared, I think, for spiritual things. So we really are following him, following the savior. Yeah. And whenever I find myself fearing a little bit, which sometimes happens, I know where to go to preparation, right? When I'm fearing, if I'm going, well, I must not be as prepared as I think I better get into more spiritual, physical, financial, whatever it is, well, I must not be as prepared as I think. I better get into more spiritual, physical, financial, whatever it is, preparation, make sure that I'm prepared. And then that fear does seem to dissipate. You can even say to yourselves, okay, I'm prepared. All right. I worked hard. I practiced.

I know what to do. And in those instances, and you feel your fear go down and your confidence come up a little bit. Absolutely. Absolutely. Second, my follow him favorite is sections 39 and 40 are about a man named James Colville. And those listening might say, James Colville, I've never heard of him. There's a reason. There's a reason you haven't heard of him because James Colville is what I call the great could have been. He comes in with a lot of Bible experience as a minister. He comes into the church on January 5th and exits the church on January 6th. And it sounds like the Lord wants

to give James Colville all of these incredible blessings and use him in his restoration, but James Colville makes the choice to not. He chooses to walk away. It reminded me of an old story. If any of you are basketball fans, you know who Michael Jordan is, but you probably don't know who Len Bias is. Len Bias, L-E-N-B-I-A-S. Len Bias, in college, when it comes to basketball stats, he was better than Michael Jordan up and down. In fact, Michael Jordan was taken third in his draft year, but Len Bias was taken second in his draft year. So how come everybody talks about Michael Jordan

and nobody talks about Len Bias? It's because Len Bias never played a professional basketball game in his life because the night he got drafted, he decided to try drugs for the first time, went into cardiac arrest and died at the hospital. And he's the, I call Len Bias the great might have been. It was a choice he made, which is, you know, just a single terrible, tragic choice. And we don't know who he is. We don't know what he could

have become. James Colville, same thing. We don't know what he could have become. And so my message from 39 and 40 is I don't want to be a could have been. I do not want to be someone who says, the Lord says, oh, it could have been so good. It could have been so good if you'd have made different choices. So let's be careful and watch our choices. All right, John, we hope that those listening or watching this video will join us on our podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can find it wherever you get your favorite podcasts from. We'll see you there soon.