One day, while perusing my scriptures, I noticed that when I marked passages that were interesting to me, I didn’t usually mark entire verses, but phrases within a verse. Sometimes I would only mark two words, or three words at a time. Sermons don’t have to be long, sometimes they can be as brief as a sentence. Here is one of my favorite “Sermons in a Sentence:”
Every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple . . . —Mosiah 2:6
King Benjamin couldn’t address his People within the walls of the temple; his audience was too large. So he had a tower built near the rounds, and the people pitched their tents “towards the temple,” where they could sit inside and listen. Where we choose to “pitch our tent” is a metaphor for our personal priorities. By contrast, Abraham’s nephew Lot “dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly” (Genesis 13:12–13). These verses compel us to ask, “Where is my tent pitched— toward the temple, facing the world, or somewhere in between?” The world would like us to pitch our tents timidly and temporarily so that we can shift their orientation according to social pressure, the media, and our moods. But the gospel says, Make up your mind! Drive your stakes deep into the earth, determined to keep your heart, might, mind, and strength towards the Lord, His gospel, and His house.
(Excerpt from Sermons in a Sentence, 45).
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