Day 45 Generational Consequences of Keeping Commandments

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me. And know that I'm cheering for your every success.

Welcome to day 45. We are rolling along these final words of Lehi, and we're going to come to the death of Lehi. And Nephi is going to move into some incredibly deep thoughts that I think he's reflecting on after the death of his dad.

Although this record was written probably a few decades later, but it brings in some of the most powerful scriptural language I think exists in all of scripture. Today you're going to read 2 Nephi 3:19. You're going to finish 2 Nephi 3.

And then you're going to read 2 Nephi 4, verse 1. I have to tell you that 2 Nephi 4 holds a very special place in my heart. When I was in college, I had a professor visiting from Stanford at BYU.

He was a former Jewish professor that had found the church and done a lot of research and had joined the church and wanted us to pick a chapter in the Book of Mormon and do a full analysis of the chapter verse by verse using both inside church resources and outside church resources. I picked 2 Nephi chapter 4. I have read and researched that chapter and it has become literally rooted in my life.

I love this chapter for a lot of different reasons and today and tomorrow we're going to look specifically at two verses that mean a lot to me. Let's get into the verse today. It comes in verse 4, so we're going to read 2 Nephi 4:4.

And you might read it and go, "Again, Allen, are we going to go here again?" Yes, we are. Just stick with me and we'll share a little thought on the back side of it. Verse 4: For the Lord God hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.

Now, this is the promise of the Book of Mormon. This is the promised land. This is the promise of the Book of Mormon.

This is the message. This verse is shared over and over and over again. And we get it especially on the front end with Lehi and Nephi as they are the ones that discovered the promised land.

But, folks, here's the message I want to give you today as I'm thinking of it in this moment. The consequences of this verse are not just for your life alone. The consequences of this verse are generational.

And that's both sides of this promise. As you seek to keep the commandments of the Lord, you are blessed, your family is blessed, and generations after you are blessed for your choices. And on the other side of things, we learn in chapter four here, as Lehi is blessing his sons and grandchildren, we learn the effects of generational decision-making and the decisions to keep the commandments or to choose not to keep the commandments are generational in their consequences.

I watched as an incredible seven-year-old girl told a story at the pulpit at church about her great choosing to listen to missionaries in the state of Kentucky. And it was amazing for her to stand at seven years old and say, "I'm so glad that my great It." I'll be here tomorrow. I hope you are too.