Jesus Christ Is at the Center of All Temple Worship

Teacher notes

Supplies, board work and timing. Never printed on the cards.

SUPPLIES: one ball of yarn or light string, at least sixty feet — longer than you think, because the circle has to get wide enough to pull tight. Scissors. Board space for the blessings list. Pictures of the tabernacle and of Solomon's temple, unlabelled, for the matching bit. A picture of the nearest temple is worth having up on the wall before they walk in. LOCATION: the classroom, chairs pushed back — this needs about twelve feet of clear floor and nothing more. THE ACTIVITY IS 'BUILD THE WHEEL' AND IT REPLACES THE MANUAL'S BICYCLE TIRE. Same idea, done with bodies instead of a prop, which is the difference between a question about a wheel and a wheel they are standing in. RUN IT IN THIS ORDER. One, go around the room and each student names one thing that is in a temple or happens in a temple — no repeats, keep it fast, write them on the board as they go. Baptisms for the dead, the font on the oxen, sealings, the endowment, covenants, white clothing, the celestial room, family names, the words on the outside of the building. Two, you hold the ball in the middle and hand one end of the string to each student in turn, unspooling as you go; they step back until their line is taut. Twenty spokes, one hub, and the room is now a wheel. Three, ask what the hub is, and let somebody say it. Four, and this is the moment: let go of the middle and step out of the circle. Every spoke in the room goes slack at the same time and the whole thing is a pile of string on the floor. Say nothing for a second. Five, back in seats, silent and personal: which spoke is yours right now, and what is at the center of it? DO NOT EXPLAIN THE WHEEL BEFORE YOU DROP IT. The explanation is the string hitting the floor. Elder Allen D. Haynie says it afterward, not before: '[Jesus Christ] is why we come to the temple. He is who our Father in Heaven desires us to meet in the temple. He is at the center of every symbol, every ordinance, every covenant, and every hoped-for blessing in the temple. Seeking Jesus in the temple enables us to understand why we are in the temple and why we should return' ('Meeting Jesus in the House of the Lord,' [Brigham Young University devotional, Oct. 10, 2023], 6, speeches.byu.edu). THE NAME IS ALREADY ON THE BUILDING and it is the best detail in the lesson. Every temple has it cut into the stone outside: HOLINESS TO THE LORD — THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. The center of our worship is written on the front of the building and most of us have walked past it. Point at the picture on the wall. THE OLD TESTAMENT HALF IS QUICK AND IT IS WHY THIS LESSON BELONGS IN THIS SEMESTER. Put the two pictures up unlabelled with 'the tabernacle' and 'temple of Solomon' on the board and let them match and say what they know. The tabernacle was the first house of the Lord in the Old Testament, around 1300 BC, portable, carried through the wilderness; Solomon's temple was permanent, in Jerusalem, around 1000 BC, destroyed and then rebuilt around 500 BC. Then threes, one verse each, and have them link the three references in their margins: Exodus 25:8 for the tabernacle, 1 Kings 6:12–13 for Solomon's, Haggai 2:7 for the rebuilding. Each group summarises one truth. THE TRUTH THEY SHOULD REACH is that the Lord commands His people to build temples so that He can dwell among them — same promise, three buildings, eight hundred years. Then ask what 'dwell' means, and do not let it stay abstract: feeling His presence and power, coming to know Him better, having an actual relationship with Him that is stronger than it was. Doctrine and Covenants 110:7 is the modern version and it is worth reading aloud: 'I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.' In mercy. THE BLESSINGS LIST GOES ON THE BOARD BEFORE PRESIDENT NELSON, not after — ask what blessings they have seen or think can come from worshipping the Lord in His house, and write them down. Then pairs with the statement, and let them add. PRESIDENT NELSON, 'Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,' Liahona, May 2024, 121, 122: those who serve and worship in the house of the Lord 'can expect to receive answers to prayer, personal revelation, greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge, and increased power.' Then the promise, and read this part slowly because the repetition is the argument: nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world's mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing. ASK THE MANUAL'S QUESTION STRAIGHT: which of those blessings addresses a real need of a teenager? They will pick comfort, answers to prayer and strength, and they will be right. Make them pick one for themselves rather than in general — that single choice is what card 1's plan is built on. MAKE THE PLAN CONCRETE OR IT IS NOT A PLAN. A date, or the next ward or stake youth temple trip, or the question 'what do I need to do to have a current recommend.' If a student in this class cannot go right now for any reason, the honest version of the plan is the step that gets them there, and say that out loud so nobody is sitting there with nothing to write. FamilySearch and a family name is a real option for anybody with a phone and ten minutes. PASTORAL NOTE, AND IT MATTERS MORE THAN THE ACTIVITY. Some of this class will have been to the temple many times with their families and some will not have been at all, for reasons that are not theirs. Do not let the room sort itself into those two groups. Keep the frame on the invitation and the next step rather than on a count of trips, and never ask for a show of hands on who has gone. THEME LINK, AND IT IS THE CLEANEST OF THE YEAR: the water station in the parable is a house on a hill. Isaiah 2:2–3 — the mountain of the Lord's house established in the top of the mountains, and 'let us go up to the mountain of the Lord' — and Isaiah 12:3, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. The temple is the well on the hill. Free is not the same as easy: there is no price at the door and there is still a climb to the door, and President Nelson's phrase 'as regularly as your circumstances permit' is the climb named honestly. THE WEEK CLOSES HERE AND IT IS WORTH SAYING IN ONE SENTENCE: Monday He wrote His law in your heart, Tuesday a king burned the words that do the writing, Wednesday His compassions failed not even after you broke it, and today you go to the house He built so He could dwell with you. TIMING: naming the spokes three minutes, build and drop the wheel four, Haynie and the name on the building two, tabernacle and Solomon with the three verses six, blessings board and President Nelson six, card 1 and the plan five, journals at 7:05. If you are badly behind, cut the matching activity and keep the three verses — the three-times-the-same-promise is the doctrine and the pictures are only the hook.