Wait, Am I Like the Bad Guy? | Mosiah 11-17 | May 13-19 | Week 20

  Welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture. I am Cindy Young, and I'm so glad you're here. On this show, we talk about scripture study techniques that are so simple, even a kid could do it, but they're also so effective that you will use them for the rest of your life and you will have more meaningful and effective scripture study.

We follow the Come Follow Me schedule, and this week that means we are in Mosiah, and it is the story of Abinadi.   

What I really want you to come away with this week is the power of a story and connecting with the story.

From the time they're very young, kids really love the story of Abinadi. I mean, what's not to love about it?
There's a bad guy wicked king Noah,
and then Abinadi comes and says you need to repent and do better.
Noah tries to kill him, 
but then Abinadi is protected.
Abinadi comes back in disguise
and starts preaching again,
but then he's captured.
Abinadi is so strong in his testimony,
and he knows that he's probably not even going to make it out of there alive,
but he still stands strong, and he testifies,
and then in the end, he does die.
King Noah and the wicked priests put Abinadi to death.
They burn him to death.
But Abinadi never backed down.
He stayed true to his testimony.
It's such a great story.

Even little kids connect with this story. So I want to talk to you about that, and how can we use that in our scripture study as we're getting older, right? You might be a big kid or a teenager; you might even be an adult. What do you do with this story? How do we go next level with it?

The secret is that stories are powerful in and of themselves, because we really, just as humans, we want to connect with people. And so when there's a story, then we can connect with the people inside that story, and it helps us to learn better, and it will stay in our hearts.

So even though it's a lot of chapters this week, I really want you to pay attention as you read and📍 try to connect with somebody in the story. Okay? There's power in identifying with the characters. And if you just say, "Oh, that's cool. I like him," and then move on, then you're missing out on this really powerful tool.

Okay, so we have three people in the story, right? We've got   📍 Abinadi, and everybody wants to be like Abinadi, he's so great. And then we have   📍 wicked King Noah. And we also have   📍 Alma, who heard Abinadi's words, and he's the only person that believed. And then because he believed, King Noah tried to kill Alma, too, and Alma had to run away. But it's important to know that Alma listened, and believed.

We don't have time to talk about all three of them today, but there are prompts for thinking about all three on the free worksheets if you   📍 want to go to the website. I want to talk about   📍 King Noah. Okay, now none of us wants to think that we are like wicked King Noah. Noah is the bad guy here. He is living his very worst life. He's doing all the bad things, all of them.

So, is there a way to learn from King Noah when he's the bad guy?  I'm here to tell you, yes, you can. And I have really bad news for you guys. You ready?   We all make bad choices.  All of us.  If we look at the way King Noah acted, when a prophet came and talked to him, then we can learn a lot. 

So we need to start 📍 asking questions, and then we 📍 apply it to ourselves.

So when a prophet came and told him, you need to repent,📍 what did Noah do? Do you remember? Let's find it in the scriptures real quick. Mosiah chapter 17 verse 1 says this. "It came to pass that when Abinadi had finished these sayings, that the king commanded that the priests should take him  and cause that he should be put to death."  Sounds like King Noah really didn't like what Abinadi said, right? He was like, nope, that's it, we're gonna just kill you, because I don't like what you said.

That's crazy!  Okay, so, 📍 what about me?  What do I do when I hear a prophet or apostles or something in the scriptures tell me that I need to do better and that I need to repent or stop doing something?  Do I turn my back on the prophet? Do I say "hmm-mm? That's uncomfortable. I don't like that!"  Do I just close my scriptures and never look at them again?

This is where thinking about the character is helpful because now you get to take it and apply it to yourself and say, Oh, no, am I ever like King Noah? What can I do to not be like King Noah? Does that make sense? Okay. Now, something else about King Noah is that then Abinadi kept telling him, no, you really do need to repent, and there came a point, um, in 17 verse 11, it says, "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." Abinadi was getting through to King Noah. He was like, okay, this is sounding a little scary. Maybe I just need to let you go. Maybe I need to rethink some things. But, in verse 12, "the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying, He's reviled the king! Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain." 

Noah was about to let Abinadi go, and the priests said, No way! Boo! No!  And so then,   📍 the king was like, okay, you're right. You're right. I've just got to kill him. And so that's what he did. 

So, how does that apply to you? Do you ever do something like that? Now, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you probably have never ordered somebody to be killed, right? I'm sure I'm right about that one.  But have you ever listened to your friends, and done something wrong? There was a time in my life when  📍 I was exactly like King Noah in that I listened to the people around me and did something I shouldn't.

You ready to hear my story?  Oh, I kind of hate this story because it shows you  one of the things that I am not proud about.

I was in fourth grade, and we had just moved to town, and I didn't have very many friends, and I was awkward, and I really wanted to impress the people around me. And one day, out at recess, we were playing on the field, and the people that I wanted to impress, told me that I really needed to just start saying bad words.  And they'd say them with me, and I kind of didn't want to. But they were like, no, Cindy, it's fine. You can do this. Just try it. Try it.  And so they told me bad words to say,  and I said them, and I ended up saying every bad word that I knew. Every single one of them. I said them, and they cheered for me, and clapped, and thought it was so great that I was saying those bad words. And I was like, okay!  I'm being accepted!  This is great! Okay, I mean that was a little bit hard, but, but at least now I have friends. 

And then the bell rang and it was time to go inside  and we turned to go, but there was one person who was walking slower than the rest of them.  And this person turned and looked me in the eye and said,  I always thought it was cool that you didn't say those words.  I'm sad that you said those today.  And then they turned and walked away.  And I just, I just wanted to melt away. I didn't know what to say. And I felt so bad.

 I did exactly what King Noah did.  Now, the difference is, as far as we know, Noah didn't cry about it. I went home and cried about it, and decided to not say those words anymore. And thankfully, the atonement is real, and I was able to repent, and move forward, and make better choices.

So what about you?  📍 Have you ever had a time where you were kind of like King Noah,  and you made a bad choice based on the people around you and what they said you should do, rather than making your choices based on what the Lord wants you to do?

I bet you have. I bet you have. And if you haven't yet, good news!  I mean, kind of good news.  📍 You're going to at some point, because we all do this. All of us will have a time when we go, ugh.  I wish I hadn't listened to them. I wish I had listened to the Spirit.  

So here we're taking King Noah's story, and I'm calling it King Noah's story on purpose because we're focusing on him.  What can we learn from him? Identifying with that character is going to give you knowledge and strength in order to make better choices in your life. Okay? You're going to be able to recognize times when you go, hold on, this is a King Noah moment. And am I going to be like King Noah?  Or am I going to say, no, I'm going to be more like Abinadi, or I'm going to be more like Alma. 

You will have those chances and learning the story enough that the person is real in your heart and mind will help you to be able to be strong in those situations. And the spirit will be able to bring the story into your mind when you need it most. And you will be blessed for knowing these stories. 

I wish we could talk about all of it, but I'm going to leave you guys to go study on your own, because it's more effective when you do the studying.  You have to do it, okay?

Remember the parable of the snowball. If I am just telling you about the scriptures, it's like I'm throwing snowballs at you. They're just gonna whiz right on by. You want your own snowball? Your own knowledge of the scriptures? You've gotta make the snowball yourself. And then, you've got to search and ponder and that's like rolling the snowball to make it bigger and bigger and your testimony and knowledge will grow and grow. So,  as you study the gospel this week, be sure you are reading primarily (mostly, firstly, most importantly) scriptures. 

Have fun studying. I'll see you guys next time. Bye! 

  📍  Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!