I Will Remember my Covenant

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I Will Remember my Covenant

• 3 Nephi 16, 20-22

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• Update on Church Program Bloopers
• Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a
  chance to get rid ofthose things not worth
  keeping around the house. Don't forget your
  husbands.
• The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has
  been canceled due to a conflict.
• Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church
  help.
• For those of you who have children and don't know
  it, we have a nursery downstairs.
• Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the
  choir. They need all the help they can get.
• Please place your donation in the envelope along
  with the deceased person you want remembered.
• The church will host an evening of fine dining,
  super entertainment and gracious hostility.
• Potluck supper Sunday at 500 PM - prayer and
  medication to follow.
• Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday
  at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
• The eighth-graders will be presenting
  Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement
  Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to
  attend this tragedy.
• Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First
  Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door
  at the side entrance.

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3 Nephi 16 7,10

• because of the unbelief I have caused my
  people who are of the house of Israel to be
  smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be
  slain, and to be cast out from among
  the Gentiles, and to become hated
  by them, and to become a hiss and a
  byword among them

4
3 Nephi 16

• 10 At that day when the Gentiles shall sin
  against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness
  of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will
  bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.
• 11 And then will I remember my covenant
  which I have made unto my people, O
  house of Israel, and I will bring my
  gospel unto them.

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Covenants with Abraham

• Genesis 17 JST
• And thou shalt observe to keep all my covenants
  wherein I covenanted with thy fathers and thou
  shalt keep the commandments which I have given
  thee with mine own mouth, and I will be a God
  unto thee and thy seed after thee.
• And I will give unto thee and thy seed after
  thee, a land wherein thou art a stranger all the
  land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession
  and I will be their God.

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(No Transcript)
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The Abrahamic Covenant with IsraelBro. Rhodes,
BYU

• 1. They will be ministers of the Gospel to the
  world (the nations of the earth blessed)
• 2. They will have Eternal increase
• 3. They will Inherit a promised land- Canaan
• 4. They have the right to hold the Holy
  Priesthood
• 5. They will become like God

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Is the Covenant unfair?

• "Israel is a group of souls tested, tried, and
  proven before they were born into the world. . .
  . Through this lineage were to come the true and
  tried souls that had demonstrated their
  righteousness in the spirit world before they
  came here.
• (Melvin J. Ballard)

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President Harold B. Lee

• "Those born to the lineage of Jacob, who was
  later to be called Israel, and his posterity, who
  were known as the children of Israel, were born
  into the most illustrious lineage
  of any of those who came upon the
  earth as mortal beings. All these
  rewards were seemingly promised, or
  foreordained before the world was.

10
John A. Widstoe

• "All who accept God's plan for his
  children on earth and who live it are
  the children of Abraham. Those who
  reject the gospel, whether children in the flesh,
  or others, forfeit the promises made to Abraham
  and are not children of Abraham."

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The Covenants of God are Unilateral
The Lord Makes Covenants with us- Then calls to
us through prophets
Our Response?
Reject
Follow
GATHERED IN
SCATTERED
REPENT!
12

• Having mentioned my intention of going to
  Downham and Chatburn, to several of the
  brethren, they endeavoured to dissuade me
  from going, informing me there could be no
  prospect of success whatever,
• However, this did not discourage me, believing
  that the Gospel of Jesus Christ could reach
  the heart, when the gospels of men proved
  abortive I consequently told those brethren
  that these were the places I wanted to go to,
  for that it was my business not to call the
  righteous but sinners to repentance.
• At Chatburn I was cordially received by the
  inhabitants, who turned out in great numbers to
  hear me preach. They procured a large tithing
  barn, placing a barrel in the center, upon which
  I stood.
• I preached to them the first principles of the
  Gospel, spoke
  in simplicity upon the
  principles revealed by our Lord and
  Savior Jesus
  Christ,
• My testimony was accompanied by the Spirit
  of the Lord,
  and was received with joy, and
  these people who had been
  represented
  as being hard and obdurate, were melted
  into
  tenderness and love.

13

• I told them that, being a servant of the
  Lord Jesus Christ, I stood ready at all
  times to administer the ordinances of the
  Gospel, and explained what was
  necessary to prepare them for
  baptism..
• When I concluded I felt someone pulling
  at my coat. . . . I turned round and asked
  what was wanted. Mrs. Elizabeth
  Partington said, "Please sir,
  will you baptize me?" "And me?" "And
  me?" exclaimed more than a dozen voices.
• Accordingly I went down into the water and
  baptized twenty-five. I was engaged in this duty,
  and confirming them and conversing with the
  people until after midnight.
• The next morning I returned to Downham, and
  baptized between twenty-five and thirty in the
  course of the day.
• The next evening I returned to Chatburn. The
  congregation was so numerous that I had to preach
  in the open air, and took my stand on a stone
  wall, and afterwards baptized several.
• We were absent from Preston five days, during
  which time Brother Fielding and I baptized and
  confirmed about 110 persons organized branches
  in Downham, Chatburn, Waddington and Clithero

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• The Promise
• 5 Therefore, when these works and the works which
  shall be wrought among you hereafter (The Book of
  Mormon) shall come forth from the Gentiles, unto
  your seed which shall dwindle in unbelief because
  of iniquity (The Lamanites)
• 7 And when these things come to pass that thy
  seed shall begin to know these thingsit shall be
  a sign unto them (The Lamanites), that they may
  know that the work of the Father hath already
  commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant (of
  Abraham) which he hath made unto the people who
  are of the house of Israel.
• 22 But if the Gentiles will repent and hearken
  unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I
  will establish my church among them, and they
  shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered
  among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have
  given this land for their inheritance
• 23 And they the Gentiles shall assist my
  people, the remnant of Jacob The Lamanites, and
  also as many of the house of Israel as shall
  come, that they may build a city, which shall be
  called the New Jerusalem.
• 24 And then shall they assist my people that they
  may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all
  the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem.

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Why havent we built Zion yet?

• "Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the
  transgressions of my people, speaking concerning
  the church and not individuals, they might have
  been redeemed even now.
• "But behold, they have not learned to be
  obedient to the things which I required at their
  hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do
  not impart of their substance, as becometh
  saints, to the poor and afflicted among them
• "And are not united according to the union
  required by the law of the celestial kingdom
• "And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the
  principles of the law of the celestial kingdom
  otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.   
• "Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders
  should wait for a little season, for the
  redemption of Zion."  (DC 1052-5, 13)

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How does the Temple prepare us to build Zion?
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Wilford Woodruff

• I saw a short distance from the Missouri
  River, where I stood, twelvemenwhose hands
  were uplifted while they were consecrating the
  ground and later they laid the corner-stones
  of the house of God. I saw myriads of angels
  hovering over them, and above their heads
  there was a pillar-like cloud. I heard the
  most beautiful singing in the words
• "Now is established the Kingdom of our God and
  His Christ,
• and He shall reign forever and forever,
• and the Kingdom shall never be thrown down,
• for the Saints have overcome."
• I saw people coming from the river and from
  distant places to help build the Temple. It
  seemed as though there were hosts of angels
  helping to bring material for the construction of
  that building.