2.210 Sanctified By The Spirit

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, it's great to have you with me.

Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. My goodness, what do we say about Doctrine and Covenants section 84? It is a lifetime study, and there is no way we're going to do justice with it in one week here inside of our Savory Salt episodes, but we will do the best that we can.

I am so grateful that the Alma chapters that we're reading, Alma chapter 39 through 42 and Doctrine and Covenants 84, have come in alignment with our reading. It's happened several times throughout this season of Savory Salt, but it's so interesting to see the connections between the two scriptures as you're reading them side by side. Here you have Alma over in the Book of Mormon giving direction to his son, talking to him about some of his priesthood duties and some of the things that he fell short on when it came to his priesthood duties and some of the things that he.

And then we have Doctrine and Covenants section 84, which is basically—what do we call it?—the handbook on the priesthood, and what it is, what its authority. What does that even mean? What does the power of the priesthood even mean?

Doctrine and Covenants 84 is the place to go and study that, and there is so much inside of here. To kind of cap the beginning, I would strongly, strongly encourage you to take time to read through as the section starts off. Read through that descriptive piece where it breaks down verse by verse what's inside of here.

It will really help your study and also help you know that we're going to be skipping through several different places. One of them is one I wanted to do: 19 through 22. Spend some time there as you find out about the priesthood itself, holding the keys to the mysteries of the kingdom and the knowledge of God, right?

This is power like we've never truly understood, and I don't think the pioneers did either in terms of the early Saints of the Church. The Lord is going to say, "Look, this is what it is," and "here is why you want to be able to use it worthily." Our verse for today is going to be Doctrine and Covenants section 84, verse 33. And while I say verse 33, I actually am encouraging you to go 33 through 44.

We have what's commonly referred to here as the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. This is basically the arrangement between man and God in terms of the proper holding and use of the priesthood power. So 33 is only the beginning of it, but it says this: "For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies." Now, there's already an arrangement here.

There's already a give and take inside of this covenant. Just in verse 33, you notice inside of there that the obtaining of the priesthoods, right? The magnifying of the calling is already an expected side of that.

And then we have a blessing side as well, and that's the sanctification and renewing of their bodies. Inside of these verses, we're going to see that we covenant to be faithful, to obtain it, to magnify, to be diligent and diligently heed, and to receiveth. Okay, these are all key phrases that I kind of—key words that I saw throughout these verses.

And then the Lord promises this sanctification as we receive here. And ultimately, in these verses, all that the Father has. And that is quite astounding.

My friends, I am grateful for the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. I'm especially grateful that my Father made sure that when I was coming of age, that I understood the responsibilities that were being placed upon me and that I was accepting as I chose to be ordained to the office of a deacon at first when I was 12 years old. These are experiences I remember: specific times in my youth with Young Men leaders, with bishopric members, with my dad sitting down and going through Doctrine and Covenants section 84 to learn of what it was I was committing to.

We are going to be talking about the blessings associated with it. It is absolutely worth our time and attention. And this week, though we're only going to snag a few verses here and there, we are definitely not going to do justice to the 120 verses.

In this podcast, I'm going to share with you some of the most important things that I've learned from this podcast. What I've learned is that there are many reasons that there are inside of this. But take some time this week, you and your family, and discuss what the priesthood means for you, for each member of the family.

And I'm not talking about each young man of the family. Making and keeping covenants with the Lord. I am grateful for the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood.

I am grateful to my Heavenly Father that offers us these incredible blessings for the work that we can do to continue to build His kingdom here on the earth. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.