As a Times and Seasons exclusive, author Mike Winder is sharing a couple chapters of his new book Gold from the Plates: Greatest Hits Sermons from the Book of Mormon, published this summer from Cedar Fort Publishing & Media. Winder took 25 sermons from the book and gives a fresh look at each. Enjoy this one!
Alma the Younger once led an all-star cast of missionaries to the Zoramites. Among his fellow laborers were three of the sons of Mosiah (Ammon, Aaron, and Omner), his faithful companion Amulek, their convert Zeezrom, and Alma’s sons Helaman and Shiblon. Their great missionary success was not among the haughty Zoramites glazing themselves atop their Rameumptom tower, but among the poor class of people who had been kicked out of the fancy synagogues for not dressing in expensive enough clothing. These good people may have been “poor as to things of the world,” but they were also “poor in heart” and ripe in their humility for one of the most exquisite sermons on faith in all of holy writ. “Their afflictions had truly humbled them,” Alma noted with great joy, for “they were in a preparation to hear the word.”[1]
Alma begins by demolishing three myths: we can only worship God in church, we can only worship God on the Sabbath, and that God’s word can come only from adult men. These three falsehoods were some of the rules insisted upon by the Zoramite ruling class that had kicked the masses to the street, and they are just not true—then or now. Alma asked, “do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only?”[2] We can worship God in many places besides a church building; in fact, modern prophets have stressed the importance of home-centered gospel study and worship.
Alma then asks, “do ye suppose that ye must not worship God only once a week?”[3] Not only are we told to pray always, engage in daily scripture study, and learn as families during the week, but we also covenant on Sundays to have the Lord’s Spirit to be with us throughout the rest of the week, that we may always remember Him (not just one day a week).
Alma taught them that God imparts His holy word by angels—not just unto men, “but women also.” Each one of us children of heavenly parents—regardless of gender—is entitled to receive divine revelation for ourselves and our stewardships. Missionaries and Church leaders, both male and female, teach and testify of the Savior and His Good Word. Alma also noted that even “little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned.”[4] We have all heard profound truths from the mouths of babes, and felt the pure spirit of little ones.
Alma explained to these untouchables listening to him on the street in their coarse clothing that their poverty has made them humble, which is a blessing. “Because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed,” he said. But, “blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble,” he taught.[5] In times of trial—sickness, death of a loved one, financial woes—it is easy to be humble. But the real trick is to remain humble not just when in poverty’s vale, but when abounding in health, wealth, and prosperity. One of the blessings of fasting each month is that nothing humbles our natural beings like hunger. We can utilize fasting and prayer as ways to remind us to put God’s desires before our own.
Next, Alma defines the first principle of the gospel. “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” Alma explained that faith is different from knowledge, “for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.”[6] It is wonderfully authentic, therefore, if someone says, “I don’t know that the Church is true, but I hope it is true, and I have faith that it is.” In fact, we should appreciate that knowing the Church is true is a spiritual gift that comes more easily to some than to others.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Twelve taught:
We should not expect to understand everything before we act. That is not faith. As Alma taught, “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things.” If we wait to act until all of our questions are answered, we severely limit the good we can accomplish, and we limit the power of our faith. Faith is beautiful because it persists even when blessings don’t come as hoped for. We can’t see the future, we don’t know all the answers, but we can trust Jesus Christ as we keep moving forward and upward because He is our Savior and Redeemer.[7]
Alma then asked his listeners to pay attention— “awake and arouse your faculties”—to conduct “an experiment upon my words.” He implored his listeners to “exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”[8] If we have a desire to believe, that is fertile soil. This desire alone is enough to conduct Alma’s experiment.
“Now, we will compare the word unto a seed,” he said. “If ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold it will begin to swell within your breasts;” he said. Watering and nourishing this seed of faith comes from acting on our faith—from experimenting if living a Christlike life will bring our lives more joy; from seeing if immersing ourselves in church attendance, prayer, and scripture study doesn’t teach us something about our relationship with our God; and from throwing our cares, worries, and pains onto a very real Savior who knows exactly what we are going through. Doing these things will cause the seed of faith to grow, “and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”[9]
Living a Christ-centered life will change us. That is the miracle of Jesus. It always does and always will. As the seed of faith sprouts and grows inside us, we will have to admit, “the seed is good,” because our life with the gospel in it, striving to become like Jesus, will be better than without. The Lord becomes our light, and when we do good we will feel good, and “whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible,” Alma said.[10]
Yale University’s John D. Peters said:
Alma 32 offers a recipe for an activist spirituality in which we take responsibility for the results. Our knowledge of divine things depends to a large degree on how we conduct the experiment. Faith does not grow from overpowering clinching evidence. The soil, or the farmer, are being tested as much as the seed. Faith allows things to grow that would not exist otherwise. It is a greenhouse for beautiful plants. It is a habitat. Faith enables growth–of seeds, of selves.[11]
As the tree of faith grows, “let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bringeth forth fruit,” Alma counseled. “But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root,” he said.[12] At this point, the problem is not an issue with the seed; it is an issue with us who did not nourish the tree. Spirituality has a short shelf life, so we must continue to nourish our fledgling testimonies.
Yet, blessings abound if we do! “If ye will nourish the word,” Alma said, “by your faith with great diligence,” it will yield amazing fruit. In fact, the fruit “is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet,” he said, “and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.” In the end, “ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience.”[13]
Questions to ponder and discuss:
- What myths about worship did Alma challenge, and how can those insights change the way we live our faith today?
- What does Alma’s invitation to “experiment upon the word” suggest about the relationship between belief and action?
- What can we do to continue to nourish our tree of testimony long after it has grown, and why is this necessary?
- Alma describes the fruit of the tree of faith as “sweet above all that is sweet.” What does that fruit represent in your life, and how can you share it with others?
Footnotes:
[1] Alma 32:3, 6.
[2] Alma 32:10.
[3] Alma 32:11.
[4] Alma 32:23.
[5] Alma 32:14–16.
[6] Alma 32:18, 21.
[7] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Nourish the Roots, and the Branches Will Grow,” October 2024 General Conference.
[8] Alma 32:27.
[9] Alma 32:28.
[10] Alma 32:30, 35.
[11] John D. Peters, “Lessons on Faith from Alma and Elsewhere,” March 13, 2018, Brigham Young University–Hawaii.
[12] Alma 32:37–38.
[13] Alma 32:41–43.
Leave a Reply