Ordinances
What is an Ordinance?
� An ordinance is a
sacred ceremony that
has spiritual meaning.
Examples: baptism,
confirmation, the
sacrament and sacred
temple ordinances
And this greater priesthood administereth
the gospel and holdeth the key of the
mysteries of the kingdom, even the
key of the knowledge of God. D&C 84:19
And without the ordinances thereof, and the
authority of the priesthood, the power of
godliness is not manifest unto men in the
flesh D&C 84:21
The priesthood directs sacred ordinances
Ordinances & Covenants
What are Covenants?
� A covenant is a sacred agreement
between God and a person or group
of people. God promises a blessing
for obedience to commandments.
Ordinances & Covenants
� The world shakes hands
or signs contracts to
make covenants.
� The Lord uses sacred
ordinances.
The Savior doesn’t have us sign a contract or shake hands, he has us experience an ordinance
The OrdinancePromised Blessings
� The sacrament
� Holy Ghost to be with us
The Covenants
� Take his name
� Always remember
� Keep commandments
Each ordinance has deep symbolic meaning . . .
addressed more in Lesson #5
Rather than use a lengthy contract
The Lord uses a sacred ordinance
� Rich in symbolism
� Routinely renewed
� He asks us to ponder
� Provides understanding
and insight on many levels
Ordinances & Covenants
We make important covenants and promises in the temple:
• to be strictly virtuous and chaste,
• to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure;
• to give all we have to build the Lord’s kingdom;
• to help prepare the earth for the return of Christ
(Summarized from: The House of the Lord, rev. ed. [1976], 84).
Sacred temple covenants are experienced as an ordinance too
Each covenant is experienced as part of an ordinance
Temple Ordinances
� Baptism for the dead
� Endowment
� Sealing families
• Key to the knowledge of God
• Manifesting the Power of GodlinessD&C 84:19,21
Blessings come from Obedience
D&C 130:20-21
When we obtain any blessing from God,
it is by obedience to that law upon which
it is predicated.
We must be faithful to temple covenants
For of him unto whom much is given much is required . . .
I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye
do not what I say, ye have no promise. D&C 82: 3,10
How do you think this verse applies to temple covenants?
Why is it so important
to be faithful to temple
covenants?
And we will prove them herewith,
to see if they will do all things
whatsoever the Lord their God
shall command them; Abr 3:25
Faithfulness to our covenants will bring peace and safety
If we keep our covenants, the covenants will keep us spiritually safe (Neal A. Maxwell, Conference Report, Apr 1987)
How does keeping our covenants help keep us
spiritually safe?
Consistency & Striving
� Elder Boyd K. Packer said: “When you come to the temple and
receive your endowment, and kneel at the altar and be sealed,
you can live an ordinary life and be an ordinary soul—struggling
against temptation, failing and repenting, and failing again and
repenting, but always determined to keep your covenants. …
Then the day will come when the Lord will say: ‘Well done, thou
good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into
the joy of thy lord’ Matthew 25:21
(Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled [1991], 257).