“Praise to the Man”

Posted on by Mitch Peterson

Last updated on November 5th, 2023 at 08:03 am

General Conference Applied

S2 E4 – Sunday, October 29, 2023 | “Praise to the Man” by President M. Russell Ballard; October 2023 General Conference

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Corresponding Talk Outline: “Praise to the Man“

Podcast Episode Outline

Report on Prior Week’s Action Item

  • “Think about and pray about Helaman’s sons, Nephi and Lehi, and the other servants of the Lord laboring with them.” Then, I will write in my journal the impressions that come.
    • This directive has reference to Helaman 11:23. The footnote for the word “revelations” in this verse lists three passages: Jarom 1:4; Alma 26:22; Doctrine and Covenants 107:19. The verse in Alma contains the phrase “mysteries of God,” and the verse in the Doctrine and Covenants contains the phrase “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Helaman 11:23 indicates that Nephi, Lehi, and their brethren “knew concerning the true points of doctrine.” In Helaman 11:22, there were “contentions concerning the points of doctrine.” Jarom 1:4 states: “As many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit.” When I choose not to be stiffnecked, instead embracing the doctrine taught in the Lord’s Church, the Spirit will be my companion, and I can not only feel His presence during challenging times, but He will reveal unto me the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven that my Heavenly Father wants me to know. But, as it states in Alma 26:22, it is requisite also for me to have faith, repent, and to pray “continually without ceasing.” Anyone can receive revelation, even daily revelation, if they are willing to put in the work. Revelation came to the prophet (Nephi) and to his brethren. Lastly, it is important to share revelation that I receive with my children, as well as to teach them how to receive revelation for themselves.
  • “Ponder whether there is anything for which [I] might repent and receive forgiveness. [I will] pray with faith to know what to do to be cleansed.” Then, I will write in my journal the impressions that come.
  • During my prayers this week, I will contemplate “if [my] motives are too selfish” as I ask Heavenly Father for various things. Then, I will write in my journal the impressions that come.
  • Before each prayer this week, “I [will] try to remember the Savior’s sacrifice and His love for me.” Then, I will write in my journal how my prayers changed because of this focus on my Savior.
  • I will share my experiences with my accountability partner, and I will also share with you at the beginning of General Conference Applied season 2 episode 4.

Introduction

On Saturday, October 21, 2023, I served in the temple. I try to attend the temple with a question in mind, as I have mentioned in previous podcast episodes. This time, knowing that this talk (“Praise to the Man”) would be my focus, I determined that I would contemplate the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith during my time in the temple. Because of that exercise, I was prompted to utilize the following resources in this podcast episode:

1: “I pray that the Lord will bless me. My eyes aren’t what they used to be. I went and saw the eye doctor, and I said, ‘I can’t see the teleprompter.’ And she said, ‘Well, your eyes are old. They’re not going to change.’ So, I’ll do the best I can.”

  • The day President Ballard gave this General Conference address, he shared the following on social media:
    • “I did not read a prepared address today at general conference. My eyes are getting dim as I approach 95 which makes it more difficult to see the teleprompter. However, I didn’t want to allow this obstacle to keep me from sharing my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. I declare my witness that Jesus Christ is our Beloved Savior. He is our Redeemer. I testify that striving to live His commandments will bring peace and happiness into our lives. Through Him, we may return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know this is true. My dear friends, please know that I love you and pray for you. May God bless each of us in our endeavors to follow Him.”

2: “I’d like to share with you some things that have been in my mind. I have seemed to have the Prophet Joseph in my mind the last few months. I’ve sat and contemplated his glorious responsibility in becoming the prophet of this, the dispensation of the fulness of times.”

  • Episode 7 of the Road to Carthage: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast features President Ballard. This podcast episode dropped on June 21, 2023, just over 3 months prior to the October 2023 General Conference. In this interview, President Ballard shares similar thoughts to what he shared in his General Conference address. The Prophet Joseph Smith has certainly been on his mind.

3: “We sing, ‘Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah!’ (‘Praise to the Man,’ Hymns, no. 27).”

  • “First Presidency Commissions New Biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith”
    • “President Oaks concluded his address with a tender experience Larry Miller had with American opera singer Michael Ballam.

      “‘Shortly before Larry Miller’s death in 2009, Michael and his son Ben visited Larry in the hospital. During that visit,’ President Oaks said, ‘Larry asked them to sing the last verse of ‘Praise to the Man,’ a hymn of tribute written after the Prophet’s martyrdom that concludes with the words ‘millions shall know Brother Joseph again.’ After they sang it, Larry asked them to sing it again, but to change the word ‘millions’ to ‘billions shall know Brother Joseph again.’ They sang that, and tears flowed down Larry’s cheeks. With the project now concluding, the groundwork has been laid for those hopeful words to become a reality.'”

4: “Though my message this morning is simple, it’s deep, and it’s full of love for the Prophet Joseph Smith and for all of those, my brothers and sisters, who have sustained him and were willing to sustain him in his youth. I would like to pay tribute this morning to his mother. I’ve always thought how wonderful it was that when Joseph came home from that experience in the Sacred Grove and told his mother what had happened, Lucy Mack Smith believed him. I’m grateful for his father and his brothers and his sisters and his family, who sustained him in this tremendous responsibility that the Lord placed upon him to become the prophet to restore the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ once again upon the earth.”

  • Road to Carthage Podcast – episode 7:
    • 12:55 – “I love the prophet Joseph Smith, and I love his brother Hyrum and the whole Smith family and Lucy Mack and their remarkable father. We don’t think much about Joseph Sr., but just think what it would have been, when Joseph went and told his father what had happened, if his father said, oh Joseph, you’ve been out in the sun too long. You go take a nap. That wasn’t what happened. He believed him. When he went to his mother, she believed him. And so, I think his father and mother were prepared, and I guess Brigham Young was right, that the Smith family had been in the eyes of the Lord from the foundations of the creation of the world.”

5: “For nearly 50 years, brothers and sisters, I’ve had the privilege to cover the world in my assignment as a General Authority of the Church. It’s been a wonderful blessing. I think I’ve gotten pretty close to almost all parts of the world. I’ve met with members of the Church all over the world. Oh, how I love you. What a glorious experience that’s been—to look into your faces, be in your presence, and feel your love that you have for the Lord and for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

  • Elder Quentin L. Cook in his October 2023 General Conference address (“Be Peaceable Followers of Christ“) stated (this was not in his published address, but it was what he stated when he first stood at the microphone): “I feel privileged to have had the blessing of hearing my Quorum President, M. Russell Ballard, bear his precious testimony. He’s been a general authority longer than anybody else that has lived at this time.”
  • President Ballard was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1976, and served as a member of the Seventy until his call as an apostle in October 1985.

6: “[Jesus Christ] is our best friend.”

  • Worldwide Day of Testimony – President Emily Belle Freeman:
    • 02:15 – “I have experienced His grace. He has healed my wounds, strengthened my weakness, increased my capacity, and helped me to become the person only He could help me become. Through the process, we have become dear friends.”
    • 03:05 – “I love Him. He is my greatest friend.”

Reminder

In each episode of General Conference Applied, we are attempting to answer two questions:

  1. What is the speaker inviting me to do?
  2. How might I consider taking action?

What is the speaker inviting me to do?

Doctrines and Principles

As we have discussed in previous episodes of General Conference Applied, it is important to identify the applicable doctrines and principles of each General Conference address. In “Praise to the Man,” I identified 4 doctrines (Godhead, Restoration, Prophets and Revelation, and Commandments) and 5 principles (Our Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, Our Chosen Leader and Savior, Praying to Our Heavenly Father, Prophets of God, and The Church of Jesus Christ Today). I have included a detailed breakdown of these doctrines and principles in the talk outline, but I will share additional insights during this podcast episode.

Invitations

  1. “I think it’s one of the most glorious and wonderful things that anybody in this world can know—that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have revealed Themselves in this latter day and that Joseph has been raised up to restore the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.”
  2. “May we have the Spirit of the Lord well up in our hearts, and may our love for the gospel of Jesus Christ—our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ—increase… as a result of our attending general conference.”

Directives (“an official or authoritative instruction”)

  1. “Strive to serve [Jesus Christ] and keep His commandments and be more like Him.”

How might I consider taking action?

Invitations

1: “I think it’s one of the most glorious and wonderful things that anybody in this world can know—that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have revealed Themselves in this latter day and that Joseph has been raised up to restore the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.”

  • The Church of Jesus Christ Today: “In the spring of 1820, one of the most important events in the history of the world occurred. The time had come for the marvelous work and wonder of which the Lord had spoken. As a young boy, Joseph Smith wanted to know which of all the churches was the true Church of Jesus Christ. He went into the woods near his home and prayed humbly and intently to his Heavenly Father, asking which church he should join. On that morning a miraculous thing happened. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. The Savior told him not to join any church because the true Church was not on the earth. He also said that the creeds of present churches were “an abomination in his sight” (Joseph Smith—History 1:19; see also verses 7–18, 20). Beginning with this event, there was again direct revelation from the heavens. The Lord had chosen a new prophet. Since that time the heavens have not been closed. Revelation continues to this day through each of His chosen prophets. Joseph was to be the one to help restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ.”
  • In General Conference Applied season 2 episode 3, we discussed how President Henry B. Eyring pays attention to the Prophet’s “littlest words.” In this invitation, the word KNOW stood out to me.
    • The Church News Podcast episode 150 – “I know my testimony has been strengthened to KNOW that Joseph Smith is exactly who he said he was, that he testified of Christ, which is the real message that we want to get from the Joseph Smith Papers: that Christ is at the head of this Church, that Joseph is the one who brought His gospel back to the earth so that people can understand Him and live according to His teachings.”
  • In General Conference Applied season 1 episode 5, we discussed President Ballard’s April 2023 General Conference address “Remember What Matters Most.” As you may recall, in that address, President Ballard shared his thoughts on those things which matter most. He stated: “First, a relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is most important. This relationship matters most now and in eternity.”
    • It strikes me that “one of the most glorious and wonderful things” that anyone can KNOW is that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that the most important thing is “a relationship with our Heavenly Father and [Jesus Christ].”
    • Consider how the Father and the Son appearing to Joseph Smith has allowed you to develop a relationship with Them.
  • My friend, Jeff Perry, published his first book this week entitled “The Intentional Engineer: A Guide to a Purpose-Driven Life and Career For Engineers and Technical Professionals.” I am still making my way through the book (it has been excellent thus far – and I’m not even an engineer!), but I was intrigued by a quote that Jeff shared from Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” (this book is on my reading list for later this year). Here is the quote:
    • “Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it… Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it means nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.”
  • When I was in the Celestial Room of the temple on Saturday, October 21st, I read Joseph Smith – History 1:23-25,33 – “It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.

    “However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.

    “So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation…

    “He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.”
  • The adversary does not want us to KNOW that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and restored Their gospel to the earth. He is putting up Resistance. For me, this is further proof that this is Jesus Christ’s Church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I am grateful that despite the Resistance he experienced, he remained faithful until his martyrdom, sealing his testimony with his blood.
  • Why is it so important to develop a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith? Consider this: I have noticed that when people leave the Lord’s Church, they also leave the Lord. Prophets testify of and point us towards Jesus Christ. I do not worship Joseph Smith, but I revere him as a Prophet who has taught me the nature of God and His Beloved Son.

2: “May we have the Spirit of the Lord well up in our hearts, and may our love for the gospel of Jesus Christ—our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ—increase… as a result of our attending general conference.”

  • President Ballard is inviting us to have the Spirit to be with us, to increase our love of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to increase our love for our Savior Jesus Christ, “as a result of our attending general conference.”
  • There are many messages delivered in General Conference on a variety of topics. Might we consider relating each of these topics, however, back to our Savior Jesus Christ?
  • Additionally, in what way should I attend (or watch or study) General Conference so that my love for Jesus Christ and His gospel is strengthened? Does my attending / watching / studying perhaps need to be more active?
  • In the middle of this invitation was a directive which will assist us in taking action on this invitation.

Directives (“an official or authoritative instruction”)

1: “Strive to serve [Jesus Christ] and keep His commandments and be more like Him.”

  • “Strive to serve [Jesus Christ]”
    • Mosiah 2:17 – “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”
    • General Handbook section 1.4 – “Prayerfully seek to know how you can help bring about God’s purposes in the lives of those you serve. God will direct you through the promptings of the Holy Ghost (see 2 Nephi 32:5). Laboring with the Lord in His vineyard will bring you great joy (see Jacob 5:70–72).”
  • “and keep His commandments”
    • Commandments: “Commandments are the laws and requirements that God gives to mankind. When we keep the commandments, we manifest our love for the Lord and receive blessings from Him (see Leviticus 26:3–12; John 14:15; Mosiah 2:41).”
    • John 14:15 – “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
    • April 2014 General Conference – Elder Robert D. Hales – “‘If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments’” – “At times members may participate in “selective obedience,” claiming to love God and honor God while picking and choosing which of His commandments and teachings—and the teachings and counsel of His prophets—they will fully follow. Some obey selectively because they cannot perceive all the reasons for a commandment, just as children do not always understand the reasons for their parents’ counsel and rules. But we always know the reason we follow the prophets, for this is the Church of Jesus Christ, and it is the Savior who directs His prophets in all dispensations.”
    • Joining me each week for General Conference Applied is a fantastic way to learn “the teachings and counsel of [the Lord’s] prophets.” Are we selectively “picking and choosing” which of these commandments we will fully follow? If so, how might we take action and change this week?
  • “and be more like Him.”
    • 3 Nephi 27:27 – “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”
    • October 2023 General Conference – President Dallin H. Oaks – “Kingdoms of Glory” (discussed in General Conference Applied season 2 episode 2) – “The Apostle Paul taught that the Lord’s teachings and commandments were given that we may all attain ‘the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.’ That process requires far more than acquiring knowledge. It is not even enough to be convinced of the gospel; we must act so that we are converted by it. In contrast to other preaching, which teaches us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.

      “From such teachings we conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is based on the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. We qualify for eternal life through a process of conversion. As used here, this word of many meanings signifies a profound change of nature. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”

This Week’s Action Item

“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”

Karl Pearson, an early 20th-century British mathematician

“Those who measure their progress improve. Those who measure and report their progress improve exponentially.”

Dan Sullivan, founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc.

“Do something, do anything! But to start, just do ONE thing.”

Mitch Peterson

This week I will:

Tags

Book of Mormon | First Vision | Jesus Christ | Joseph Smith | Restoration

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