Shownotes
2023 WEEK 11 [MATTHEW 11-12; LUKE 11]
“I Will Give You Rest”
March 13 – March 19
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Transcripts
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Welcome back to you guys. This is week 11 of Creative. Come Follow me for the New Testament. And this week we're only in two books, so we'll be in Matthew and Luke. We're gonna cover Matthew 11 and 12, and then Luke 11. And I think the common theme between them is about finding rest, but interestingly, most of the people he tries to teach it to Don.
except the invitation . They, most of the people he will teach this week are scribes and Pharisees, and I think it's really interesting to see how he's continually inviting them to set down these burdens of discipleship. I think he can see the weight on their shoulders that they have self-imposed, and he's trying to.
give them peace. It's amazing to me because the scribes and the Pharisees continually reject the savior. They make his life harder that some of them even like conspire to destroy him. None of them, for the most part, are friendly to the savior, but he wants to heal them the same way. He wants to heal someone who is, you know, stuck with leprosy or dealing with an issue of blood.
He sees the weight and the burden on them, and he wants to relieve it. And what I particularly love, These messages for me is I feel like it's an invitation to look at my discipleship and see where it feels heavy, and then find ways to turn to him in order to find rest. A lot of what he's gonna teach them is about turning back to him and taking his yoke upon them and pulling in his way, and if they'll go in his way, there is peace and there is rest, but that means they're gonna have to set down a lot of tradition and a lot of history.
What's tricky about that? It's pretty deeply ingrained. It reminded me of when I was a volleyball coach for my girls, even though I coached at like a fifth and sixth grade level where no one knew what they were doing. Inevitably, inevitably there was somebody on the team, like one, maybe two girls who'd played volleyball just enough in order to feel like they were.
capable and confident. And as a coach, I would take 20 girls who knew nothing about volleyball over one or two who think they know about volleyball. Cuz it's so much harder to get people to set aside what they think they know in order to see differently. And that's what the savior's gonna try to do over and over again.
He sees their burdens, he sees the strain it's causing on them, and he sees the ramifications in the people who are following their guidance. And he's saying, set it down. , it's time to find real rest, and I think it's an invitation that applies to all of us. Don't grab your scriptures, grab your notes. You guys, there is so much goodness in this week's study.
Let's get started.
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In Matthew 11, you're gonna see that John the Baptist, who is in prison in Mackay, sends two of his disciples to go see the works of the Savior. So you can see in verse two, he's heard about the works of Christ and he sends his disciples to go see it for themselves. I should warn you when you go study scholarship on this, there's sort of a debate about why he sends these disciples out.
Some believe that he sends them because there is some sort of crisis of faith happening in John and he's worried that the savior, because he has not been released from prison, isn't moving fast enough. It just doesn't track with the Joan that we've studied so far. So I'm a little bit more in the other camp of that maybe he sent these disciples out so they could get their own witness.
It's possible though, that it's also another reason. , do you remember when we were studying about the temptations of Satan with the savior and after the temptations passed, there's this verse about how he, the angels were sent to minister unto the savior and to boy him up. And when you read the Joseph Mist translation, it said that he actually sent those on to John , like this, almost redirecting them, saying, take care of John first in prison.
And I, when I read these verses about his disciples relaying a message back and forth to John, that's how I take it. I think for whatever reason. John needs to stay in prison, which must be incredibly hard for John because there's a lot of scriptural precedent about prison walls opening or crumbling, or people being pulled out of prison in remarkable circumstances.
There's a lot of reasons. He might have hope that his, his time in prison is gonna be cut short and he can be out and for whatever reason, those prison walls don't crumble. And I wonder, These disciples. Being able to go back and tell John why it's worth it is some kind of a balm of Gilead for him. I mean, think of the stories they say.
So it says when they go, Jesus tells them in verse four, Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again. These things which you do hear and see. Where other people experience the miracles of Savior and are told not to tell anyone, these are told to like, go and tell him every , you know, I think the savior knows how hard John's life is in prison and he knows he can't pull him out for whatever reason.
And so he chooses to bless him in a whole bunch of other ways, and a big one will be to help him hear the stories firsthand from people. Seen them. I mean, can you imagine what a lift that would be to John in prison? And I just think the way he speaks about John. Tells me of his love for him and his respect for his faith.
So if you look in the verses, he says he was more than a prophet in nine and in 11 fairly I stand to you among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist, wherever he is, if he's struggling and having a liberty jail type moment and worrying about where art though God, or if he is sending disciples on to get their own witness of the Savior.
Or if the savior's just trying to give him comfort. What I love about this is even though the body of John the Baptist, for whatever reason, can't leave that jail, his testimony bursts out and it, he didn't need a miracle for that to happen. He sends disciples out already believing and having faith. His testimony that has impacted all the people that Jesus is helping and healing, a lot of them were converts under John the Baptist.
So, Power and his testimony is pushing out of those prison walls even though his body can't be contained and or his body is contained. And sometimes I think that's why he lets us stay in adversity. I think it's a way to. to test your metal, you know, to see will you still testify when you are confined to this prison of sorts, whether it be a physical ailment you deal with, or a mental one, or a social struggle, whatever it is.
Sometimes I think he lets us stay in those walls to see if our testimony will still reverberate out. And in John the Baptist case does, his powerful witness still stands strong and he is still called. No one greater. You know, he, he is, there is no one greater than John the Baptist. That's a pretty high praise coming from the Savior.
Um, I also love what you see in 15. Basically, he invites all who have ears to hear. Let them hear. The reason I like this is there were a bunch of quotes in the notes. I put a few in the notes, but I, there is something about hearing a witness that is a kickstart of faith and testimony different than seeing something miraculous.
Hearing others say it is something. can open up. Channels of Revelation. I think you see this a lot in the Book of Mormon. So you see people like Enis and Alma, the younger who heard the witness of their fathers, and in a moment when they needed it, those words came back to them. That hearing seems to have power.
What I love is, as a parent, it didn't seem to matter if they were eagerly listening to it at the time, it was . You know, I don't think Elma senior. . I don't think Alma, the younger, was on the front row when his dad was preaching the gospel about the atonement. I th I could picture him like on the back row, rolling his eyes, like annoyed that he's even there.
But what's powerful to me is in the moment when he needs it, his father's words are brought back to him and he remembers. Sometimes I wonder if the reason Jesus encourages us to hear first is because something about that experience. and when it is needed, the spirit can call of act. I remember it. So I really love that he starts with those who have ears to hear.
When you go a little bit further, he's gonna talk about cities that he's gonna visit. These are cities that have seen some pretty epic miracles, so you can see 'em in 21, 22, and 23. He talks about Corine and Besta and caper. They've seen some pretty remarkable miracles and they are choosing not to rep.
Overall in the city. And what he basically says is, if some wicked cities of the past had experienced what you guys have experienced, they would've been in Zack cloth and ashes by now. What is wrong? Why can't you see what is right in front of you? And I think to me, the biggest reminder was that I need to watch for miracles and.
well maybe even understand that I'm gonna be held accountable for them, whether I choose to witness them or see them or tell others about them. At some point, I'm accountable for the miracles that God put into my life. So it made me have this desire to open my eyes to them to seek out miracles and watch for them cuz I think.
I'm accountable for them, whether I acknowledge they're there or not, and that's kinda what I learned from these cities. When you flip the page, you'll see some guidance about the whys and the prudence. So I think the savior in these chapters is repeatedly talking about. The goodness of the gospel and that people are rejecting it, and he says basically to his father in heaven that he's grateful that the goodness of the gospel is going to the humble.
He calls them babes, and not necessarily to the whys and the prudent . It's just that there's some quotes in the notes if you go and you can learn about secular wisdom and spiritual wisdom. One of my favorites, I think it was from President Kimball, he talked about how both are important. Secular understanding and spiritual understanding are both important, but that secular understanding that we gain in this life.
Designed to help us in the next one. And we can't actually utilize that knowledge unless we have the spiritual witness first. Unless my testimony and my devotion to God is in line, then all that secular knowledge I've built up actually won't help me in any way. But if I'm a disciple of Christ, if I get on this covenant path and I, I get to that next place, then all of a sudden I can use all that secular knowledge to do pretty incredible things.
So I love the the order of things. When you go a little bit further in the. You hear this witness? So basically in 27, well, I'll just read it to you. It says, all things are delivered unto me of my father and no man knoweth the son, but the father neither knoweth any man. The father saved the son and he to whomever the son will reveal him.
It almost sounds like a riddle, like you have to slow, slow down to read it. But I think why it's really important is because of the verses that come next. This is when he's gonna invite the scribes and the Pharisees, and honestly anyone who will hear. To come onto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden because what he's taught us in the verse before in verse 27 is, In order to understand God the Father, in order to feel a kinship and a relationship with your Heavenly Father, it has to come through Jesus Christ.
The only way that happens is through covenants. So when he talks about, come unto me, that labor and our heavy laden, I don't think it's just about coming and laying your burdens before him. It's coming and making. Covenant connection. When you choose to make a covenant connection, there's a relationship and that's how you can gain access to knowing God the father, we could talk for hours about 28 and 29, but I really love breaking them down and reading them separately, especially going the notes.
You can see some beautiful talks from conference about these verses, but I loved reading it with a covenant lens because I think what he's trying to say, Sometimes, this is how I picture it when I picture that phrase, come on to me. I'll eat that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I picture almost like I'm gonna take all the burdens that I've got, all the struggles that I'm dealing with, and if I just come and yolk in with the savior, he will help me pull them.
And what I've learned about covenants, especially studying this year, is that when you come to the Lord to get in his yolk, something has to happen first. There is a time when you have to give place the visual that kept coming to mind. Jason and cleaning out our kids' backpacks. So Jason has this thing where randomly he will, when he sees the kids carrying backpacks that are ridiculously heavy, like you can see Jack sometimes when he was in high school, he would have a backpack that would extend like a foot and a half off of his back.
And so Jason would help him maybe once a quarter or so and he would go through it and he'd pull out the 57 markers that Jack packed and the 14 chargers that he had and all this stuff. And he. Help him purge all the stuff that he didn't need and reorient the things that he did need so that he could carry that weight better.
That's what I think of when I think about this idea of covenantal connection By coming to him, it means if I'm making covenants with him, some of the things he's gonna see me carrying, he's gonna say, Maria, set those down. , like, I want to help you. I want to lift your burdens. I want to pull with you.
You're pulling things that you don't need to pull. So set some things down. It's what he shows Peter, when he asks him to set down his nets and shift focus to something else, it's the same invitation he gets to us when we make covenants with the Lord. It is not just taking his strength and you know using it.
What he will do in that covenant moment is say, here's some things you need to sacrifice, and now here's what you can do to Consecrate. It's. , there's more to that. It's a allowing him to purge my giant cart so that I can pull with him better. And then when you go into 29, you can see it a little deeper. It says, take my yolk upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.
What I love about that phrase is I just, there's something. promising about the Savior's yolk that, you know, I loved, I, I think it was a BYU devotional I heard years ago they talked about him being the son of a carpenter, and then if he was gonna make a yolk, it would be, Custom fit to my shoulders, and that's how I read this.
First, he says, take my yo upon, make covenants with me. Take the burdens that I'm gonna give you through these covenants, and you'll see how they make everything easier. What I love about that is that's exactly what President Nelson just taught us in conference, that actually your life gets easier as you make covenants with the Lord.
not because your burdens are necessarily lighter, but because it blesses you with power. Those covenants endow you with power, which is what allows you to pull with more strength and and endure it well. So that's what he's offering. Take my learn of me for I am meek and lowly at heart. I think both those things are important.
When we take on this yo of the Savior, we have to have the humility to learn to walk as he did, to pack our backpack the way he packs it, so that our burdens actually become lighter in this, in this epic pole. And when we do, we find rest. So the. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light. His yolk is those, the words of his gospel, the promise of his gospel.
It is easy and it is light if we pull it in his way. If I start to get off track and I try to pull in my way, it becomes burdensome and heavy. But when I pull in his way, it feels light, and there's a great promise in that verse. Go in the notes. You can learn a whole bunch.
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I think one of the ways the Savior tries to make our burdens feel light, especially when it comes to the Pharisees in his day, is he tries to help them. Understand and utilize the Sabbath day that it was intended to be a day of rest arrest from their laborers and a chance to take on his. Because what Prophet taught us is as we take on the Savior's laborers, our burdens actually feel lighter.
We're stronger in the process. So you can see him trying to teach that to the Pharisees with this experience in the field of green. So his disciples are going through this field. We've read it a couple of different places now, where they consume some of the grain as they walk on the Sabbath and the phar.
Get all over them and say that they're breaking the laws. And what the savior seems to reprimand them for is not so much about their fixation on the law, as in what they're missing in the process. So you can see it in seven, but if he had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrificed. You would not have condemned the guiltless.
I think what he's trying to say is you're wasting your energy. Like you're so worried about these boundaries and these rules, these oral traditions that you've set up, that you're missing a chance to connect. What they're sacrificing on this altar that they think is so pious is a connection with other people.
They're so worried about perfection and they're so worried about keeping these rules and making sure others keep them. that they've missed the mark. The reason that sunk in a little deep for me is I think I get into this mindset sometimes where I am so focused as a parent on the rules of Sunday and what the boundaries are in our house on Sunday, that sometimes I forget to put the focus on.
Why we have boundaries in the first place. That the reason we change the way our house sounds and feels. And you know, the reason we change the experience on the Sabbath is so that we can make place for good things. It can't just be about what we give up, it has to be about what we give for the reason we give up.
Some kinds of music and some kinds of TV and other things is so that we have energy and time and space to do good. And then I think it's the same thing with Savior's trying to teach them. He's like, because you're so. Fizzy. You have so many weights in your bag about following the rules and making sure others follow them.
You're missing chances to really feel the burdens lighter. One of the ways I think the savior demonstrates that burdens can feel lighter is by taking an opportunity to heal and to lift and to take care of the withered hand of a man. We've seen it in a few different places, but one of the things that Matthew adds in this particular account is he talks about the comparison with sheep.
So if you look in the verses around 11, he says, and what man shall there be among you that say you'll have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? They're asking if it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath. And he's like, , you already have a compassionate heart.
You have compassion on animals. You need to take that same compassion that you feel for animals and apply it to your fellow men. That's how you can honor this Sabbath, and if you do that, you'll find rest. I mean, think about the energy that you waste in fixating on the rules. If you instead you can help redirect attention to what good we can do, there's rest in that.
And so he shows them, he demonstrate. He takes the man who has the withered hand and doesn't even touch him, and he is healed. His hand is restored whole. . Interestingly though, the reaction of the Pharisees is not a warm one. In fact, it angers them to the point that they form a council against him. You can see that in 14.
What I think is really instructive is what the Savior does about that. He knows that there's a council forming. He knows that they have an intent to destroy him, and what he does in 15 is he withdraws. , he withdraws from them. He's given them an invitation. He's tried to teach. They rejected it, so he withdraws it seems like the same thing he taught us last week with that village in Samaria.
Remember the one that the sons of Thunder wanted to burn with fire and he basically said like, let's go to the next village . I think that's kind of what he does here, because no matter where he goes, he does the same thing. You can see in 15. He multitudes follow him and he heals them all. That's the Savior's character.
That's what he does on the Sabbath, and he will continue to do it. There are many miracles that happen on the Sabbath because this is a day for mercy, not just a day for sacrifice. What I really like about that teaching is it helps me not get bitter sometimes when I'm focused on what I'm giving up for the gospel, not just on the Sabbath day, but any day if I start to fixate on what I'm giving up.
bitterness sorts starts to kind of like, well, up in my heart if instead I can force myself to think about what I'm, who I'm giving it to and why, then those burdens feel lighter, the same callings, the same difficulties, the same weights feel lighter when I focus on who that sacrifice is for and why it's worth it.
So I think he's trying to teach that same thing to the Pharisees. They just didn't quite. One of the phrases I love from President Nelson's talk is when he says, it's actually more exhausting to try and find happiness in a place where you can never accomplish it. I think it's the same thing the Savior's trying to teach the Pharisees.
In this second half of Matthew 12, he's basically saying, pick a team there. There's a healing that occurs revealing 22. He heals someone who is blind and dumb, and then that person speaks and sees and everyone witnesses it and they're amazed. And then the Pharisees, I. Seeing the miracle and trusting in it.
They pivot and they start to accuse him of using evil sources to fuel his powers, which is an interesting strategy. They're gonna come up with a few different tactics. What's sad about it is I think he's actually trying to give them rest. I, I think remember in the Old Testament when we studied about halting between two opinions, and it was this idea of like a bird bouncing from one branch to the other, using its energy, but accomplishing nothing.
I think that's what he's trying to teach them. He's. . If I am who I say I am, and I must be cuz a house can't divide itself. I can't cast out a devil. If I'm of the devil, then come and trust and learn. So what he says in 28, but if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Meaning you are the children of the promise. If I am who I say I am, come and worship. Let's go. And they just don't get there. And he takes it the next level by talking about gathering and gather. So in 30, he says He that is not with me is against me, and he that gather, if not with me, scattereth abroad. I thought this was an interesting phrasing because I've often thought about the great gathering and how all of us are invited to be a part of this, the greatest work that's on the earth today.
I never had really. Process the idea that if I am choosing to abstain from the gathering, I am by default scattering. Cuz when we came to this earth, when we came to this mortal life, we left neutral ground. When I took, when I, you know, participated in covenant, even at baptism, I left neutral ground. I am now either working.
Towards God or I'm working against him, and that's what he is teaching. The Pharisees. He's like, you could get rest if you would stop trying to bounce between these branches of pleasing men and pleasing God. And the same thing applies to me. It is exhausting to try to be. Appealing to the world's opinions and try and be diligent to God, it's, you can't find joy there.
The only way you can seek joy is to turn to God's doctrine first, and then let that dictate how you interact with the world. So I think he's trying to help them set down that burden and take his yoke, which is this clear, focused, they just don't accept. When you go a little bit further, you're gonna see his warnings about idle words.
I really liked that turn of phrase because I think it's the same message he was just teaching them earlier. He's basically saying, you know, if you think about a car that idles a car that's idling is using energy, using fuel, but not getting anywhere, and I think that's what idle words are. It's that. You are wasting time here.
You're not even if you feel like you're neutral and you're not involved, you know, like let's say you see a post on social media and it's derogatory to the church in some way. I am, I'm not neutral. If I don't comment, sometimes I get that impression of my mind that I can just abstain and be neutral. And what he's saying is, you're idling, you're, you're choosing to use your.
And you're not getting anywhere. So pick a team, pick the team and come, cuz we already know how this game ends. We already know who the victor is. Come and let your, let your words before something because the warning in the verses is that your words will condemn you. So if you look in 36, but I say it to you that every idle word that men speak, that they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Everything we say, whether it be towards God or against. we're accountable for. And then 37 for, by thy words, shall that be justified? And by thy words, shall that be condemned. I think it's a clear warning to use our time here on Earth to prepare to meet God. You know, I've always read that as a phrase that's like, try to get your life in order.
But I also think it's an invitation to appreciate what that meeting is gonna be like and the things that we're gonna go over in that meeting and prepare to meet him. Changing course if I'm off, if my words are idle, if I'm in this neutral space, cuz I can't decide how I can please both. His invitation is to get on the right track, go on the right team, and trust and, and it will clarify a lot of things down the road.
And then they start to seek for a sign, which is really interesting cuz they've seen amazing signs already. I mean, people have been raised from the dead hands have been healed in front of them without even touching them. People have been healed at a distance. They've seen plenty of signs, but they don't see them.
And so he talks about how they are evil and adulterous. , which I thought was a really interesting word choice. That's in verse 39. So I started to study that a little bit to try and understand why he uses the word adulterous, to talk about sign seeking. And there was this really good talk from Neely Maxwell.
It's in the notes, but he talked about how adulterous, spiritually adulterous people seek physical proof of things that they need to touch and hear and see things firsthand for themselves. It's almost the opposite of what we saw with John the Baptist in prison where. Will rest on the testimonies of others, but he doesn't need to see it with his own eyes.
He can trust that it's real. When you're adulterous spiritually, it means you're so focused on that. What is tangible that you missed? The mark? I think we see this a little bit with Thomas. You know, when the resurrected savior comes back and Thomas didn't get a chance to touch him or see him when the other apostles did, and so he.
Doubts. And then, you know, eight days later when the savior comes again, he gets an experience and he gets to handle the savior. And what the savior teaches him in that moment is, you know, blessed are they that have not seen and have yet believed there is something deeper and more lasting if we don't seek signs, if we trust.
the way John did in prison, that we don't have to see it with our own eyes to know that it's true, and I just think there's power in that promise that your witness comes from the Holy Ghost, not from what you see in the outside world. Then he talks about the sign that they are gonna get is this sign of Jonah, which basically is a.
An analogy of sorts, a metaphor that he's saying. What you will see, what will be evidence to you is that I will go in a tomb for three days. Like Jonah went in the whale for three days and I will come out of it just like Jonah did. But the only problem they'll have is that, that by the time they see that sign, it will be too late.
In fact, in Elder Hollands, it's everlastingly too late cuz they've missed their chance to come onto him and to follow him. By that point, he's gone and. , they've missed it. So I, you almost hear him pleading with them to come. And so then when you go a little bit further, you see that guidance that we talked about last time about how his mother and his brother and our nearby, and people say, you know, like your mom and your brothers are out there.
Do you wanna bring him in? And he says, my mother and my brothers are here. Anyone who. Comes unto Christ and does what I've asked is part of my family. What I really liked about this is when you connect it with what you're reading, Ephesians. So in Ephesians two 19, this is the part where it says, you know, there'll be no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
When you make covenants with God, when you come unto him in that way, you are of his household. You are just the same as his actual family. And I think there's power and promise in that.
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Another key way the Savior seeks to give his disciples and anyone who will listen rest is by teaching them how to pray. It's the same thing. He teaches us that as we come to understand how to communicate with God the father. We find rest unto, unto our souls, so he demonstrates it for them. This is where you're gonna see a snippet of the Lord's Prayer that we've studied before, but I actually love what happens before the Lord's Prayer.
So if you look in verse one, it says, one of the disciples comes to him and says, Lord, teach us to pray to me. This is, Childlike humility. You know, he's been teaching them that this is what the kingdom of God is. It's like having the view like a child does of saying, I wanna start from scratch. I'm, I'm coming to this practice with you coach, and I wanna just start with a clean slate.
Teach me how to pray. I think it's the same thing. He's gonna teach them how to share. He's gonna teach them how to play nice. You know, like all those childlike characteristics he's going to demonstrate for them. And does that with the Lord's Prayer, I do particularly. The beginning of the Lord's Prayer where it says Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be the name.
The distinction that your father in heaven is apart from you, but that you can have instant communication with him is really weighty to me. There's a quote in the notes from Sister Dalton, I think she was quoting Neely Maxwell, but she talked about how he knows your name. This master of the universe is, knows your name and is aware of your needs, and I think there's a bit of a reminder in that when you think.
How he is in heaven as the way the Savior phrases it. Then he teaches about thy will be done. This understanding that the Savior is using his agency to honor God. The father's will, the same way He invites us to do the same thing, to use our agency and put it on the altar. He demonstrates that for us in his prayer.
In particular, I really love three Give us this day our daily bread. We talked about this last time, but in the live after last time. I added something that I thought maybe needed some time here, but I have really loved this idea of daily bread being an invitation to pray small for me. This is. , the way I keep a, a relationship with the Lord is to pray small throughout Jason's illness.
It's been really tempting to pray big, to pray for big miracles. In fact, most people pray for Jason for big miracles. What gets tricky about those big miracle prayers is sometimes they can add weight. to Jason's shoulders cuz he almost feels apologetic that he hasn't been healed. I mean, I, and he has total faith in the Lord's plan and knows that what is supposed to happen will happen, but it is hard sometimes when we only pray for those big things.
What I love about this concept of Daily Bread, I think he's trying to invite us to, Pray small. So one of the ways I've found this works for me is instead of praying for healing all the time, I've started to pray for smaller things like what does he need today? You know, like when we were in the infusion lab, I would pray about what does he need tonight?
What will he need? Who? Which doctor should I talk to? Which nurse could I stop to find out what he needs today? What could I do today to lift his burdens when I started to pray Small. Daily bread, prayers, I got answers more readily and then I could feast on that relationship. When I only prayed big, I didn't get opportunities to, you know, that miracle hasn't happened for us, so I didn't get a chance to have a.
A comforting relationship with the Lord. When I started to pray small, I actually saw answers to those prayers come quickly, and sometimes multiple in a day where I felt like he answered my prayer in this small way, and so I could feel rest, I could feel assured, and it didn't put any weight on Jason cuz he knew.
That those little prayers could be answered, even if the healing miracle that so many others are praying for doesn't get answered knowing that God is watching over us because these little prayers are answered, made a world of difference. So I think Daily Bread is about praying small. I. He also invites you to forgive our sins for, we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.
I was listening, went to a steak release study activity recently, and there was a woman who spoke about her brother who has an addiction problem with drugs and she. The way she spoke about him. I wish, I wish you could've heard it, cuz the way she talked, it was like she had forgiven him even though he hasn't changed yet.
She spoke of him with a sadness, like a, she wishes he could have the happiness he deserves, but there is this obstacle in the way and she spoke of him with such love and such. Heart that you could tell that she had already forgiven him for offenses he hasn't even committed yet. She's intending always to have a forgiving heart when it comes to her brother, and that changed the way I read that.
I think it's this invitation to not wait until resolutions happen, but to choose to have a forgiving heart no matter what the circumstances are. So I think that might be part of what he means by forgive us our sins for, we also forgive everyone that is indebted to. , and then when you go a little bit further, you see this interesting parable about friends.
Okay, this one I had to take some time on. If you go on the Joseph Smith translation, you can see that this parable, well he says right before it as this, this is a parable about asking and praying to God that you can get answers and get the help you need. . The reason I think that's interesting is the way the parable plays out.
So this is a parable about three friends, basically. The first friend has another friend who comes in the middle of the night unexpectedly and is hungry. And so the person who is the host of the house, Doesn't have any food for him available in his house. So he goes to the third friend's house and knocks on the door at midnight and says, I have a friend who unexpectedly came over.
Can you give us some bread? And the first reaction of the person who has the bread is it's really late and the doors are already locked and the children are in bed. and the, the friend who is knocking on his door is persistent, like the word he uses is he, ipro tunes him. He, it's this persistent knocking and because of their friendship and because of the persistent knocking, the man who has the bread, you know, opens up his house and gives him everything he needs.
And then that bread, of course goes to the original traveler who needed. What I love about this parable, I'd never studied it before, and I think it's teaching us about how God wants to answer our prayers. That the Savior is that middle man that we often come to the savior seeking bread at midnight.
We're an unexpected visitor. We come outta nowhere and he, when he sees that we need so. immediately rushes out, even though it's midnight, he immediately rushes to be our advocate with the father, and he goes and he knocks on the father's door and he keeps knocking until those doors open and we get the bread that we need.
I don't know that this is the right interpretation of this parable, but what I loved about it for me was I felt like the spirit was trying to tell me that the reason you can trust that when you ask and seek and knock, that all doors will be opened. In fact, that's what the verses say. If you go nine and.
And I saying to you, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that ask gets receiveth, he that seeketh Findeth and to him that knock it, it shall be opened. The reason I think I can trust that those promises are real is because it maybe he isn't me knocking , you know, I the Savior is the one promising that he will go and he will knock on the doors of our father in heaven.
and get us the bread that we need because our father in heaven wants to give it to us. He is our advocate with the father and the promise. , he trusts that that door will always open, so we should trust. There was just something about the visual of, instead of me blooding, my knuckles on the door of heaven, this understanding that the savior does it for us, that he is our advocate and he will make sure that we get what we need because he knows the character of God, the father, and he knows that bread is coming.
And I just, there was something about that parable that I just loved studying this week. So go slow through those verse. But I think the invitation is to ask and seek and knock, be a seeker like he's invited us to do. And then he talks about good gifts. So remember how we talked about stones and bread that comes right after these invitations to ask and seek and knock.
This is when he tells him, if your father, if you on earth give good gifts, your heavenly Father knows how to give you good gifts, trust that there is ample bread. Trust that I will help you find it. Just ask begin. And that's his invitation to find. When we choose to trust in that process and trust that no matter how late the hour when we turn to the savior and ask for his help, he will get it for us.
He will find it. There's something in that promise that will give us rest. Recently, president Nelson invited us to take charge of our testimonies, and I think the main motivation for that is so that when we encounter the commotion of the world, or even questions about gospel understandings that we don't.
Carried away on wins of doctrine. That's sort of what you see happen with the people in the middle of chapter 11. You see them wonder, so a miracle occurs. So you can see in verse 14 that he was casting out a devil out of a man who was already dumb, and the devil goes out and they start to wonder. The phrase they wondered kind of jumped out at me.
Cause I think what happens is now they're at a position where their interest is peaked and they have two choices. , they can either ask and seek and knock and go through that process of coming to know for themselves about the nature of this miracle, or they can stay wondering. And then what tends to happen is you get carried by the popular opinion around you.
And in this case, it's the Pharisees teaching about the source of this miracle. . I think it's why we need to be so centered in what we know is true, so that when we're in these kind of circumstances, even if there are, you know, modern day Pharisees teaching us false doctrines, we can feel assured, we can know where we can turn for truth.
And so I think there's a guidance in there for all of us. When you go a little bit further, you see an additional guidance that's in Luke that you don't see in Matthew, and it's. Not worshiping people. So when you look in 28 and 27, basically a woman comes to the savior and praises Mary for bringing him into the world.
And what he comes back at her with is not that Mary isn't worthy of, you know, admiration, but that that is not what they, she should be focused on. So he says in 28, but he said, ye rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. I don't think the savior ever wants us to. people or places or things.
Our worship is supposed to be devoted to God and his gospel. So even though he loves his mother and he honors his mother, he's trying to make sure that our worship and our focus is never about the people. Same way. We don't worship prophets and we don't worship or follow the missionaries that converted us.
We worship Jesus Christ. We worship God the father, and. . That's the line I think he's trying to delineate. Then you see them seeking signs again, and you get a lot of the same guidance we saw before. But one of the additions that you have in Luke that you didn't get in Matthew, is this understanding about a candle and a bushel.
So if you look in 33, no man, when he had lighted a candle, put it at the, in a secret place, neither under a bushel, put on a candlestick that they, which come in, they see the light. The phrasing is a little bit different in this Luke account, but I kind of love it. I love that it says they that come in because I think it's implying that it's, we have to come to him.
There has to be, we have to come to where he is in order to have access to this abundant light. I was actually in the temple when I was studying this verse this week, and I was thinking about the Celestia room and the, that when I was there, it was going from dusk to dark, and you could see that all the windows around me were dark, but in the celestia room, there was this fright.
Glorious light. And I thought about that's the, essentially the idea of covenants, right? When we, he has this doctrine that is freely available to all who will come in, but that process of coming in. , it requires something of us. We have to make covenants. We have to keep those covenants, and when we do, we have access to this abundant light, abundant light that fills us if we keep our eyes single.
So you'll see that in 34 and 35, and then 36, this promise of a fullness of light. You can get even more on that doctrine when you go in the doctrine and covenants and see how it extends that verse. So go in the notes and you can learn a. Another big way we find rest is by shedding the weight of hypocrisy.
We all know what that's like. It's like if you live with an Instagram filter all the time and then you worry about trying to be that person all the time. There is an exhaustion that comes when you're trying to be something you are not, and I feel like that's what he is trying to teach. This Pharisee comes to dinner.
So what Pari comes and he basically accuses the savior of not going through all the rituals of cleansing that. That are expected of him, even though it sounds like he's actually coming to where the savior lives to come have dinner with him. He's accusing the savior of not going through these steps, and the savior basically says you're worried about the wrong things, and he compares it to doing dishes.
He's like, basically you're trying to make the outside of your dishes spotlessly clean, and the inside of your dishes is full of, how does he say it? He says that your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. . You know, like I've had this discussion with my kids lots of times when it comes to dishes, like if you had to pick an area to really focus.
Don't focus on the outside of the bowl, focus on the place where the food goes. And I feel like that's basically what he's trying to teach to the Pharisee. He's like, if you had to pick, pick what is within your father in heaven made both what is outside and what is inside. So focus on both. What I love is what he teaches about how to cleanse the inner part because the Pharisees are pretty good about focusing on how to clean what the world can see, what their fellow men can see.
What they might be struggling is with is how to clean what's on the. So that's when the J s T comes in really handy. If you look in 41, he talks about observing to do the commandments is what actually cleanses you. There is this built in wash cycle that the savior has given us in the process of repentance.
And as we keep his commandments and we honor our covenants, we become clean on the inside and then by default we can clean the outside even better. So I feel like it's this promise of if you focus on the right step, , everything else will fall into place. I'm not sure the Pharisee got, it doesn't sound like he did, but I, the Savior teaches him anyway.
Whether he thinks the savior or whether he thinks Pharisee will accept it or not, he just teaches and then he shifts on and he teaches lawyers. So what's interesting about these lawyers, similar to lawyers that we read about in the Book of Mormon, is they seem to be distorting doctrine and. Grievous burdens on the people.
So if you're looking in 46, he says, whoa unto you. Also, ye lawyers free laid men with burdens, grievous to be born and de yourselves touch, nod the burdens with one of your fingers. To me, this is almost like the opposite of. Take my Yoko P and you'll find rest where the savior offered to strap in with us and carry the weight of our burdens with us.
These lawyers are saying, not only am I gonna add to your burdens and make them heavier, but I'm not gonna touch them. There is a, a disconnect that that is created in that relationship until he is trying to help them find rest by fixing. And he warns about what caused their problem. He basically tells them that they are building sers to prophets that they didn't honor.
There's a phrase in 49 that I think is interesting. He says, I will send some of them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and prosecute or persecute. I think it's interesting cuz in the history of the Old Testament, there are a few prophets who. We're listened to, right? Prophets like Isaiah, there's even prophets like Jeremiah who are persecuted.
There's some that are mentioned in these verses that are slain, like Abel and Zacharias. There's, there's some heaviness here, and he's accusing them of slaying the prophets. But what I think he's inviting them to do is to listen to the current ones. When he says that they slay some of them, that means some of them they chose to listen to.
What I think tends to happen with us sometimes is that. Look back on previous profits with a Glossier vantage point than we do. The current profit President Kim said that many are prone to garnish the sker of yesterday's profits that we tend to. Look longingly on those that aren't here and can't correct our current problems and sometimes cast off the guidance of our current prophets and apostles.
So I think this is just a re a reminder to me to, like I am, what I will be accountable to God for is, did I listen to my prophet, the prophet he sent to my day and my time? How did I treat his words? Not that I'm. not paying attention to the ones of the past, but I can never let the ones of the past supersede my current profit, my current guidance for my current leaders.
So I think there's an invitation to keep those things in check. I have to say, I wish this chapter ended on a happier note , but maybe there's something to that. Maybe the reason this feels heavy is cuz this entire week of study is all about finding ways to turn those burdens over to the Lord, following his commandment so that there can.
Lift and you just feel weight when you read about the reactions of these lawyers. So you can see in 52, whoa unto you, lawyers free. You have taken away the key of knowledge you entered not into yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered meaning. You're missing the mark, you're not gonna make it into salvation.
And those you are leading and guiding are also going astray. It's the same thing that we saw that happened with Ezra, where he distorted the doctor and he started teaching it in his own way, and it actually caused everybody to fall off that path. So I think he's warning about that. And then he talks about how this goes.
After all these efforts and all the miracles and all the attempts to help the Pharisees and the scribes understand they still turn against him. So if you look in the verses as N 53, and as you said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak many things laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him.
This is a. Specific generation that they have a, a big blinder on and they miss it. But what I love about what we're learning in this week's study, even though there is. Heaviness to it is that we can learn from their example. I can learn to treasure my living prophet. I can learn to show compassion instead of focus and judge others.
I can learn to appreciate what the Sabbath day is supposed to feel like and be like because of what I read in these Weeks's chapters. So my hope with all of this is that as you study and as you see where these. if this generation maybe went wrong. Hopefully we can choose a different path. I think it's why it's in the scriptures.
It's why the Savior's trying to get us to study it and read it so that we can, in these situations where we have similar frustrations, choose a different road. We can choose to ask and seek and knock and come to our own understanding of who the savior is and why his message matters. So,
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Welcome back you guys. This is the creative side of week 11. For those of you who are watching on YouTube or listening in the podcast, let me give you a quick rundown of the three object lessons and then for those of you in the full course, just stick around and I'll help you understand how you can pull them off in your classes or in your families.
I promise you're gonna love this week. Okay. First and foremost, I wanted to teach the story of the Man with a withered Hand. We've read it in a few different weeks, but this week in particular, I liked taking some time to talk about how the man with a withered hand and that miracle helps us understand the purpose of the Sabbath Day.
So to do this, we have this. Epic printable for you. This is so that you can show and demonstrate what a withered hand would look like, and then talk about the process that happens so that it can become healed. So for this one, you just need the printable. You can print on card stock, and then you need some drinking straws and some string.
Other than that, you should have everything on hand. The second one is about understanding that beautiful verse about My yolk is easy and my burden is light. And one of my favorite ways to teach this is to use a stack of books or other awkward, heavy objects that you'll have your kids carry across the room.
So you wanna get a big stack of books like this, maybe. 5, 10, 20, depending on how old the kid is that you're gonna demonstrate this with. And then you need something with wheels. So if you're in a home, it could be something like an office chair. If you're at church, in a seminary class, you could use something even like the big piano that's in the room that has wheels underneath.
So big stack of books and something with wheels. The third one since it's Food Week, is focused on helping our kids understand hypocrisy and the value of not worrying so much about what the world sees and focusing in. And to do this, you're going to make what I'm calling hypocrisy Pops . Basically, they are.
Two versions of a treat that look identical on the outside, but are very different on the inside. So we're going to take radishes and brownies, dip them in chocolate, and then talk about how even though they appear the same, they are very different within. So get all those supplies on hand and you'll be good to go.
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thanks for being here, you guys, whether you're watching this on YouTube or listening to the podcast or you're actually in the full course, I'm grateful that you're studying. I hope you really enjoy this week. I learned a lot about how I could find rest, both from the incredible good examples of the Savior and even some of the negative ones of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Instagram, you can pop on at: come join me on Instagram at:Through the help of the spirit to find rest. We all need it, so hopefully you'll seek it out this week and find it in the scriptures. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy your week, you guys, and I will see you on Monday.
