Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 12–16: Insights By Gogo Goff

I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 12–16 (If you missed last week’s insights for Come, Follow Me 3 Nephi 8–11 click here). Save this pin to read later.

Videos, articles, and insights for this weeks study of Come Follow Me 3 Nephi 12-16: by Jeremy Goff, aka Gogo Goff

Perfection.

“Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” 3 Nephi 12:48

This verse brings so much comfort to my soul! In Matthew when Jesus Christ delivered this part of the Sermon on the Mount, He delivered it differently. It read: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

The difference? In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ only refers to His Father as He, Christ, was not even “perfect” yet, and when we look at the footnotes we learn it means being complete. After His ascension into heaven, He had a Glorified and Immortal body, He was truly perfect and then commanded us to be perfect like God the Father or Himself, the whole point of the Plan of Salvation is to become like Him! This is why President Lorenzo Snow wrote, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” It could easily be read, “As man now is, Christ once was. As Christ now is, man may be.”

So when you’re feeling down, remember Christ even had to work towards perfection. And now He will help complete us! In the words of President Russell M. Nelson, “Perfection is pending. It can come in full only after the Resurrection and only through the Lord. It awaits all who love him and keep his commandments. It includes thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, and dominions. It is the end for which we are to endure.”

"Perfection is pending. It can come in full only after the Resurrection and only through the Lord. It awaits all who love him and keep his commandments. It includes thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, and dominions. It is the end for which we are to endure." President Russell M. Nelson

Vain Repetitions and the Sacrament.

“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
3 Nephi 13:7

I’ve always read this verse and thought it was taking aim at the rote prayers that many churches say, but then I applied President Uchtdorf counsel and I asked, “Lord, is it I?” I asked myself how can I apply this counsel to avoid “vain repetitions”? At first, I thought maybe this is about praying over the food that it will “nourish my mind and body.” That is repetitious and vain! But then I remember testifying as a missionary that no prayer is bad and that our Father wants to hear from us, even if it is just one word.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks…Of all the prayers we say in the church ordinances are the only ones that are always repetitious. But each ordinance we only do once for ourselves…Except for the Sacrament. I realized the Sacrament is always a repetitious prayer in the Church and it is every week. So I had to ask myself, for me, is it vain?

Do I pay attention and renew my covenants or is it a vain repetition?

Now when I read this verse I have a strong desire to make the sacrament sacred every Sunday.

"The ordinance of the sacrament makes the sacrament meeting the most sacred and important meeting in the Church." ~Dallin H. Oaks — “The ordinance of the sacrament makes the sacrament meeting the most sacred and important meeting in the Church.”
~Dallin H. Oaks

God’s Love.

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
3rd Nephi 14:11

God will always love us and want to give us the best He can, that is the message of this verse.
Living in the bible belt and sharing my testimony means I am always getting questioned and anti’ed. But I know the Plan of Salvation is true, I have both a spiritual witness and a logical one. “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). combined with this verse is a logical foundation for the Plan of Salvation.

The Plan of Salvation is the only Plan that could be true as it is the only one where God Loves us enough to give us our Families and to let us become like Him. That is what I would want for my kid so God must want at least that much for us!

I have taught many an atheist in my life and every time they deny God because they have never heard of a plan they could believe in. What Loving God would damn most of His Children? But when they hear the Plan of Salvation, Temples, and the Spirit world I have had them tell me, If there is a God, this is His plan.

Remember this truth, "All love emanates from God" Elder John H. Groberg — “Remember this truth, “All love emanates from God”
John H. Groberg

Jesus Christ, Our Lawgiver

“Behold, I have given unto you the commandments; therefore keep my commandments. And this is the law and the prophets, for they truly testified of me.”
3 Nephi 15:10

Sometimes we disconnect the Commandments from Christ who gave them to us, and one of the great attack lines against the church is that commandment or this commandment (like defending the family) is not “Christian” when in all actuality, it is 100% Christian to follow Christ’s commandments. And it is 100% Unchristian to teach people it is OK to sin.

A danger comes when we view the commandments as rules of men, it is easy to disobey men because it is easy to disagree with them and to rationalize why you are right.

The commandments are NOT from man but from God. Man can not make sin right no matter how much he legalizes it. At the end of the day, sin is sin even if everyone says it is ok. We must stand with the Lawgiver and His commandments.

"Too many Americans have lost sight of the truth that God is our source of freedom—the Lawgiver—and that personal righteousness is the most important essential to preserving our freedom. So, I say with all the energy of my soul that unless we as citizens of this nation forsake our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in jeopardy before God." ~Ezra Taft Benson — “Too many Americans have lost sight of the truth that God is our source of freedom—the Lawgiver—and that personal righteousness is the most important essential to preserving our freedom. So, I say with all the energy of my soul that unless we as citizens of this nation forsake our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in jeopardy before God.”
Ezra Taft Benson

Lands of Inharentence.

“But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, thus hath the Father commanded me—that I should give unto this people this land for their inheritance.”
3 Nephi 16:15-16

In this chapter Christ explains that if the Gentiles repent and turn unto Him, He will number them among the House of Israel and He will NOT suffer that Israel will destroy them at the last days.

But in this verse, Jesus Christ says that the Father has declared that if the Gentiles will not repent that He will give the land back to the Children of Israel, for he has covenanted with them that this land (North and South America) will be the land of their inheritance.

In English? God brought us to the Americas and if we serve and follow Him we will be partakers of the covenant and inherent the land. If we do not follow Him, He will take it away from us like the Nephites and Jaredites before us. Let us repent and come unto Him and receive a land of inheritance!