Book of Mormon Lesson Plan 47

Introduction

Think of a place and a time you have always wanted to visit.  Now imagine that you wake up one morning and find yourself there, visiting as a guest in the house of a church member.  It’s the Sabbath, and you’re getting ready to go to Church.  What do you expect to find there?  What will be similar?  What may be different?

If you had been visiting the Nephites, you would have recognized the ordinances administered among them and been able to worship with them.  The same is true today in any ward or branch throughout the world.

Moroni continues to write in hiding

Moroni assumed that the account of the Jaredites as recorded in the book of Ether would be his final writing.  But since he hadn’t died yet, he added a little more information for us.

Who was he hiding from, and why?  Read Moroni 1:2-3.  How can we develop this type of motivating faith?

Who did he write to in his unplanned addition?  Why?  Read Moroni 1:4.  What motivated this action?  How can we follow his example?

Moroni teaches about essential gospel ordinances

Prior to the book of Moroni, we are not taught very much about how ordinances were administered.  In four short chapters, Moroni gives us a glimpse into how the Nephites confirmed, ordained to the priesthood, and administered the sacrament.

The gift of the Holy Ghost

Read Moroni 2.  How did the Savior instruct the Nephite disciples to give the gift of the Holy Ghost?

• By the laying on of hands
• In the name of Jesus Christ
• After mighty prayer

Ordaining Priests and Teachers

Read Moroni 3. 

• To preach repentance and remission of sins
• Through enduring faith in Jesus Christ

Notice that again, this ordinance is performed after praying unto the Father and through the power of the Holy Ghost.

What are the duties of the Priests and Teachers today?  Read D&C 20:46-47, 53-55.  How can we help those who hold the Aaronic Priesthood to fulfill these responsibilities?

Administering the Sacrament

Read Moroni 4-5.  We hear these prayers every week in Sacrament Meeting.  What do they mean to us individually, and day by day?

• To remember, follow, and obey Jesus Christ

It struck me recently that in our prayer to the Father, we seek His blessing as we promise to remember, not Him, but His Son.

In Spanish, the word used in place of the English word “partake” is “participar,” which also means “to participate.”  I like the image of the sacrament being something not that we passively partake of, but that we actively participate in.  How can we participate more actively in the sacrament in our lives?

How have you felt blessed as you have worthily partaken of the sacrament in your life?

Church record keeping and fellowship

Read Moroni 6:1-3.  What are the requirements to be baptized?

• Bring forth fruit meet of it.  What does that mean?  What does fruit represent in the scriptures?
• Genesis 3: Fruit of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden
• 1 Nephi 8: Fruit of the tree of life in Lehi’s vision
• Jacob 5: Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree
• Alma 32: Fruit from faith is delicious to the soul
• D&C 53: Blessings that come from God as a result of our faith
• Galatians 5: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…
• In verse 2, it does not say that they witnessed that they had repented, indicating that the process of repenting was completed.  The verbs are witnessed and repented.  The verb tense is the same in both cases.  If these people were to stand before us today, they would witness that they repent – both in the present tense. 
• Repentance is not something that we do once and get it over with, because we don’t sin once and get it over with either!
• This is why we have to have a determination to serve him to the end (verse 3).

Read Moroni 6:4.  Why were their names recorded?  Who has this responsibility to remember and nourish?  (The Priests and Teachers for one, as well as all of us who have likewise been baptized.)

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “Any convert whose faith grows cold is a tragedy. Any member who falls into inactivity is a matter for serious concern. The Lord left the ninety and nine to find the lost sheep. His concern for the dropout was so serious that He made it the theme of one of His great lessons. We must constantly keep Church officers and the membership aware of the tremendous obligation to fellowship in a very real and warm and wonderful way those who come into the Church as converts, and to reach out with love to those who for one reason or another step into the shadows of inactivity” (in Church News, 8 Apr. 1989, 6).

What can we do to follow President Hinckley’s counsel?  How have you been blessed as others have remembered and nourished you?

Moroni recorded that the Church “did meet together oft” (Moroni 6:5). Why? (See Moroni 6:5–6.) How are we strengthened when we fast and pray together? How do Church meetings give us an opportunity to speak to each other “concerning the welfare of [our] souls”? Why is it important that we meet together to partake of the sacrament?

What did Moroni teach about how Church meetings were conducted? (See Moroni 6:9.) What can each of us do to invite the Spirit into our meetings?