Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture.

I'm so glad that you are here with me today, and today's guest is Smith.

Smith is 11 years old.

He loves Roblox, and apparently he's really good at doing pull-ups.

How are you today, Smith?

Good.

Are you ready to read some scriptures?

Yeah,

let's do it.

All right guys, we follow "come follow me" and I make free worksheets every week.

They look like this.

Go on the website to find them.

So Smith, this worksheet is in Doctrine and Covenant section 28 verses two through four and six through seven.

The church had just started and Joseph Smith is getting revelations.

And so then somebody else says, "Hey, I'm getting revelations too." So this clarifies who can receive revelation.

Smith, do you know what a pattern is?

The thing that repeats?

Yes, it repeats.

We learn about patterns like in kindergarten, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So like what's a kindergarten pattern that they might learn?

Uh, apple, banana, apple.

Right.

What about scripture patterns?

Have you heard of scripture patterns before?

No.

Okay.

So this is super exciting.

There are patterns in the scriptures that the Lord gives us and he shows

somebody else did it like this, and so you can do it like that, too.

For instance, Lehi went and said a prayer and was pondering and trying to draw near to the Lord, and then the Lord gave him inspiration and revelation.

That's a pattern.

It's something that we can follow.

There's a pattern in these verses that is all about how the Lord gives revelation to the church.

So let's look at it.

Can you read verse two for me?

This is in Doctrine Covenant section 28.

It says, "but behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Junior, for he receiveth them even as Moses."

Very good.

"Even as" is a really important phrase.

"As" is one of those words that helps us know that there's a comparison, right?

We could even circle "even as" to help us know that that is where the comparison is happening.

Who is before even as and who is after even as?

Joseph Smith is before even as, and Moses is after.

Right.

So Joseph Smith will receive revelation even as Moses did.

I think the whole world knows that Moses was a prophet.

And here the Lord is telling us Joseph Smith is the same.

He's a prophet the same way Moses was.

That is a pattern.

Did the children of Israel all receive Revelation?

They turned to Moses to get it for them.

That's right.

cause he's the one with revelation.

That was his calling, and so he got the revelation.

So now the Lord is showing us this pattern.

If you look over on the side where it says Search for patterns, there are some bubbles to fill in that are colored.

Can you find those?

"How Revelation and Commandments are Given," they first of all come from the Lord and that is filled in.

And then verse two tells us that the Lord gives revelation to who?

Um, prophets?

Yes.

They're both prophets.

So we can write in right here from the Lord to the prophet.

That is a pattern that we know the Lord is going to follow.

He gives revelation to the prophet, especially when we're talking about for the whole church, right to the prophet.

Okay.

Let's read verse three.

Do you wanna read it or should I.

Uh, you.

Okay.

Verse three says, "And thou shalt be obedient unto the things which I shall give unto him" - unto Joseph Smith,"even as Aaron, to declare faithfully the commandments in the revelations with power and authority unto the church." So let's, find a colored pencil and mark this so that we can remember what it is.

And you can mark it in your scriptures or directly on the worksheet.

Either way.

So what is Oliver Cowdery being told to do?

Be obedient to the prophet.

That's right.

Be obedient to the prophet.

Who was Aaron?

I think I've heard the name before, but it doesn't ring a bell.

Okay, so back when Moses was leading the children of Israel, he went to the Lord and he said, Heavenly Father, it's hard for me to talk, and people even laugh at me because I speak funny.

And so the Lord gave him Aaron as a helper.

And when Moses would receive Revelation, he would tell Aaron and then Aaron would tell the people.

And so there was this line that it went from the Lord.

To the prophet, to the other leaders, and then out to the people.

Okay, so in the Bible we see that pattern.

Are we seeing that same pattern in modern times?

Is that here in these verses, too?

Yes.

Okay.

How?

It's going from..

The Lord...

to...

the Prophet...

And in this case it was Joseph Smith.

And then from Joseph Smith, it would go to...

Oliver Cowdery.

Yes.

And then the people.

And then the people.

Together, the prophet and other leaders will teach "the church," or "the people." Exactly.

Very good.

Finding a pattern of what they did then is great, but it's not helpful unless we see how it helps us.

How is this relevant to you?

There's a song in Primary.

The last verse, it said, today we live in a world where people are confused.

Yes.

That's Follow the Prophet.

I love that song.

Yeah.

That's why we need to teach the people so they're not confused.

They're doing the wrong thing.

Yes.

So who's the prophet today?

Uh, President Nelson.

That's right.

I love President Nelson.

He's so awesome.

Okay, so who are the other leaders who are like Aaron?

The apostles?

I know one and it's Elder Oaks.

Yes.

Oh wait.

And Elder Uchtdorf.

Uchtdorf is fun.

He always gives us those stories about airplanes.

That's awesome.

That's it.

That's okay.

So the prophet and the apostles, how do they have the authority to teach us?

Did some guy just randomly say it, well, I want to be an apostle, or I want to be a prophet.

Oh, they were chosen.

Yes,

they were chosen by God.

That's right.

Let's look at verse seven and find the pattern that the Lord uses for giving the authority.

Can you read verse seven to us?

Yeah.

Awesome.

"For, I have given him the keys of the mysteries and the revelations, which are sealed until I shall appoint unto them another and his stead."

Okay, there are the words, but what does it mean?

You have to find what it means in order

Yeah

to have it mean anything, right?

Let's go one phrase at a time.

What's it say at the beginning?

"For I have given him the keys of mysteries."

Okay.

Oh, wait, my mom talked about this.

Joseph Smith, the prophet, has all the keys.

Yes.

priesthood keys.

And I think he can like, give them to some people.

Yeah.

Do you remember John the Baptist came and conferred priesthood keys on Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery?

Okay.

So they have priesthood keys that were given to them by somebody else who had priesthood keys.

And then Peter, James and John were given priesthood keys when they lived on the earth with Jesus, and they came and gave those keys to Joseph Smith.

So now Joseph Smith has all of the keys and then he, through the priesthood, could confer them on other people.

Just because you have the priesthood doesn't mean that you have keys of the priesthood.

You have priesthood authority.

Authority and keys are different, but they work together.

Okay, so I'm gonna circle keys.

That's really important.

Okay.

Those keys give power and authority.

Do you know who has priesthood keys today?

The apostles, our bishop,

yeah,

the prophet.

That's right.

A few other callings have priesthood keys as well.

But the most important thing to know is that it is always done through the authority and it is conferred.

It is an unbroken line.

That is how they have that authority.

So, cool.

So how do we use this pattern in our lives today?

It means a lot, but I can't like say it.

You have that feeling where you're like, I need to say this, but I don't know how to say it?

I definitely know that feeling.

The way that this affects me, the way I think about it is that it builds my testimony that the Lord works the same way today as he did then, and it shows me how I can find truth.

I'm not just gonna go find a random guy standing on the corner and ask him to give me revelation.

I'm not gonna ask him what I need to do.

I can go to the person who has the authority.

And the Lord did it with Moses and the Lord did it with Joseph Smith, and he's still doing it today with Russell M.

Nelson.

So when you find a pattern in the scriptures, then you can learn how the Lord works.

And knowing how the Lord works is how you build your testimony of the Lord and His gospel.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

You have any thoughts about that?

Uh, this is sort of a fun fact, but the only place that women have the priesthood is the temple.

That's right.

Women can perform priesthood ordinances in the temple.

Women assist women to receive the endowment and men assist men to receive the endowment, and that's where the women will exercise that priesthood authority.

Although did you know that anytime you, fill a calling in the church, you are also exercising priesthood authority?

You're not performing ordinances.

But I have a calling and so I am using priesthood authority and I can do that because I'm under the authority of the Bishop's Keys.

It's a nice little pattern there.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

When you study the scriptures, always watch for patterns.

So good!

Smith, thank you for being here with me today.

You are so welcome.

All right, friends, please go read your scriptures, look for those patterns.

"To be most effective, your experiences with the scriptures [have to] be your own." So go read your scriptures and I'll see you next time.

Bye, Smith!

Bye!

Thanks for tuning into primarily Scripture with Cindy Young.

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