2.136 Who You Choose to Be With Matters

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. My friends, as I say that, who are your friends?

Who's your group? Who do you hang with? It matters.

And we are going to see that inside of our verse for today. We've been reading Doctrine and Covenants sections 46, 47, and 48. And now we're going to shift gears into our book of Mosiah. 17 is the end of Abinadi, and I don't just mean his teachings.

It is where Abinadi is sealing his testimony with his own blood. And there's a moment inside of this. I can remember almost sharing this last year on Savory Salt in the first season, but I didn't.

And as I came back around, I thought, 'Oh, did I share that last season?' And I went back in the notes, and because I didn't, you get it this season. So, let's take a look at Mosiah chapter 17 here. There's a moment where Abinadi is talking directly to the king, and he's saying, 'If you kill me, you are killing an innocent man, and you know you're killing an innocent man.' And that takes us to our verse for today, and then what happens afterwards is quite telling.

Mosiah 17, verse 11, says this: "And now King Noah was about to release him, for he feared his word; for he feared that the judgments of God would come upon him." My friends, have you ever noticed that King Noah was doubting his decisions? He was going to save Abinadi's life. So what happened?

Well, verse 12 happened. Now I've got to let you read that because in Savory Salt we only do one verse a day. But spoiler alert, I'm going to tell you what they did.

The priests talked... let's step back... and stir up King Noah's anger against Abinadi. They pour into him. King Noah is doubting his decision.

He is. He is actually hearing what Abinadi is saying. And what do the priests do?

They shut it down, and they convince him to go forward. And they end up killing Abinadi, which ultimately later down the story, right? A couple chapters later, King Noah gets his own life the same way: sacrificed.

He is burnt at the stake and dies as well. What can we learn from this? My friends, you probably heard the different ways of phrases of, you know, "the five people you hang out with most is who you really are" and these types of ideas.

But here we see real evidence that who you spend your time with matters. This was a group of people that had influence with each other, and it didn't turn out to be positive influence. And I can look at specific times in my life where I had a lot of influence.

I have been around the group of positive influencers, and I have been around the group of negative influencers, and it absolutely changed who I was and how I acted. So let's talk about what it looks like to build those positive influencers around you. My friends, do your friends talk about the gospel regularly?

Can you comfortably share your testimony with the people that you hang out with? Or if you were to tell them that you were reading a scripture verse today and just had some thoughts about it, would they openly listen to you? Because if those are things that you automatically shrink inside and wonder if it's okay to share, then find the group where you can do those things.

This is a lesson for all of us to realize that King Noah was probably influenced by the Spirit here. If not just the fear that Abinadi was saying, 'You are killing an innocent man,' and yet the people around him convinced him otherwise. We could sit and make a list all day of the number of ways that groups are influencing our lives today.

That can be political groups, religious groups, friend groups, book study groups; that could be, like, you name it—masterminds at work, personal masterminds, all the ways. We meet as a group of people all the time. I want you to consider today who you're meeting with.

When you're meeting, how are you spending? We're here with King Noah. It's an opportunity for us to realize that there are others that are seeking the will of God.

There are those that are seeking to live the commandments of Jesus Christ, and it's an opportunity for us to surround ourselves with those people. You and I, we're those people trying to find more of 'you and I's' out there. So let's find each other and let's support each other.

And through that, let's together become a greater light for the Savior Jesus Christ on the earth today. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.