Lecture One (Series 3): Repetition and the Holy Sacrament
Description: Have you ever found something new when reading a familiar passage of scripture? *We will
discuss how repetition in scripture study is so beneficial – and no passage of scripture is more repeated than the
Sacrament prayers.
I love the scriptures, and I love to learn new things – I love that I can learn new things from both new
as well as familiar passages.
Purpose of Scripture: Joseph Smith “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct
of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding
by its precepts, than by any other book.”
How often would you like to get nearer to God? How often do you study your scriptures?
The same things every day!? What is the purpose of such repetition?
What's your favorite scripture? (Pair & share)
Who learned something about a passage new to them?
Did anyone learn something new about a scripture they'd heard before (seeing it a new way)?
*Who has placed their favorite verse where they see it all the time, or actively seeks it out often?
-I knew a girl who had my friend burn a CD with the same one song repeated over and over…
Do you think some scriptures more important than others? – why would you say that?
REPETITION
- John Bytheway – if the Lord had a favorite scripture, it would be somewhere we would see it
all the time – (The Best Three Hours)
Sacrament prayers locations? (Moroni 4, D&C 20, 3 Nephi 18, on a card by the sacrament table)
- The sacrament brings us together (only meeting including all family), brings us to Him in
humility (kneel with the congregation), prepared to make and keep covenants
-
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland – video clip (3:24 – 6:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT4i5rlM-Zo
Promises and Covenants
Bro of Jared – Ether 1-2 – gifted prayer = maintain an ongoing relationship with the Lord (without
taking a break)
- What are we doing each week during the sacrament? (on the board)
o Take His name upon us,
o always remember Him,
o keep His commandments =>
 Being “willing” (not perfect) to take His name and always remember him (see 3N 18:10)
o That we may always have His Spirit to be with us.
- How to be willing = He doesn’t give us all the answers, we maintain our connection by working
our way through the dark patches
o Ether 3 = MM takes his best temporal offering (rocks), Lord touches/blesses it
o Making an offering before the Lord, best we can (“willingness” not perfection)
 Take His name upon us - Example
 Always remember Him – Dallin H. Oaks, Young people, it is not a time for whispered
conversations on cell phones or for texting persons at other locations. When we partake
of the sacrament, we make a sacred covenant that we will always remember the Savior.
How sad to see persons obviously violating that covenant in the very meeting where
they are making it. (Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament, Ensign 11/08)
 Keep His commandments, and repent when necessary
An Effect of the Sacrament
1- The Savior and the Sacrament (3 Nephi 18) – a lasting effect
I would be better if the Lord was present at my meeting (and so would the speakers!)
-Robert D. Hales - When young men prepare, bless, and pass the sacrament in worthiness and
reverence, they literally follow the example of the Savior at the Last Supper4 and become like Him.
(Coming to Ourselves: The Sacrament, the Temple, and Sacrifice in Service – Ensign, 5/12)
2- (“Positioning”) 3 Nephi 18:25 "come unto Christ to feel & see" => do unto "the world" –
examples:
o Isaiah 6 – purification and preparation to serve (in this example, like the Savior)
o Ether 2-3 – the preparation & purification of the Brother of Jared
Ether 6 – MM takes the light to the ships, and to all men, women, and children
Elder Bruce R. McConkie “The sacrament of the Lord's supper is an ordinance of salvation in which
all the faithful must participate if they are to live and reign with him.” (Promised Messiah, pg. 384)
-
Personal Story – foreign exchange in Brazil – nearly 6 months away from church, because
attendance was "inconvenient" – when I returned home, I felt the true “homecoming” on Sunday
o Trevor’s Sacrament – be quick and excited to get back to church & partake often
o And then guide others back to the font of bread and water
Clip - Elder Holland – CR 10/95 - With a crust of bread,
always broken, blessed, and offered first, we remember his
bruised body and broken heart, his physical suffering on the
cross where he cried, “I thirst,” and finally, “My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (John 19:28; Matt. 27:46.)
The Savior’s physical suffering guarantees that through his
mercy and grace (see 2 Ne. 2:8) every member of the human
family shall be freed from the bonds of death and be
resurrected triumphantly from the grave. Of course the time of
that resurrection and the degree of exaltation it leads to are
based upon our faithfulness.
With a small cup of water we remember the shedding of
Christ’s blood and the depth of his spiritual suffering, anguish
which began in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he said,
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt.
26:38). He was in agony and “prayed more earnestly: and his
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the
ground” (Luke 22:44).
The Savior’s spiritual suffering and the shedding of his
innocent blood, so lovingly and freely given, paid the debt for
what the scriptures call the “original guilt” of Adam’s
transgression (Moses 6:54). Furthermore, Christ suffered for
the sins and sorrows and pains of all the rest of the human
family, providing remission for all of our sins as well, upon
conditions of obedience to the principles and ordinances of the
gospel he taught (see 2 Ne. 9:21–23). As the Apostle Paul
wrote, we were “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). What an
expensive price and what a merciful purchase!
That is why every ordinance of the gospel focuses in one way
or another on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
surely that is why this particular ordinance with all its
symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more
repeatedly than any other in our life. It comes in what has been
called “the mostsacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of
the Church” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation,
comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft,
1954–56, 2:340).