Lesson #41 3 Nephi 22-26. “He Did Expound All Things unto Them” God's Promises, Judgment, Tithing, and Temple Work

Lesson #41 3 Nephi 22-26. “He Did Expound All Things unto Them”
God's Promises, Judgment, Tithing, and Temple Work

Attention Activity:
Bring in a picture of a Magic Eye or get one online. A good resource is http://www.magiceye.com/3dfun/stwkdisp.shtml. You don’t need to be able to do Magic Eye, it helps if you can or if someone in the class can, but even if no one in the class can that is ok. Show the class the magic eye and ask some of them to come and see if they can see what is in the magic eye. After a few have tried (usually come can do it and some cannot) ask, “When people are doing Magic Eye, what are some of the questions that you think are usually asked and what are some of the feelings or expressions of people ?” Make sure that you get a few responses for both questions that are asked and feelings or expressions. You will want to write answers down on the board to refer to later. Hopefully you should be getting answers like, “How do I do this?” “How do you see that?” “What is it supposed to be?” and “That is really cool.” “I can never do that.” Both feelings of frustration and excitement. (If you don’t get those answers, you may want to suggest some of these to kind of get them started. You will want to get most of these answers before being able to move on with the lesson. You can even ask some specific people how they felt as they looked at it. How did the successful ones feel and how did the unsuccessful ones feel. Talk with people who have never been able to do it and ask how they feel about Magic Eye.) Once you have gotten some good responses point out to the class that Magic Eye is a lot like reading your scriptures. Many of the responses that were listed earlier are similar to responses that people could give about their experiences reading scriptures. Ask class members to talk about a time when maybe they have felt similar in their scripture reading to what they felt doing Magic Eye or the responses were that are written on the board. If someone were to ask the question, “What are you looking for?” when talking about reading scriptures, what would the answer be? Share the following quote:

“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.
“The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior” (Pres. Boyd K. Packer Ensign, Nov. 1986, 17).

If we are trying to improve behavior through the study of the scriptures, then we need to be finding and understanding “true doctrine.” Today we are going to study a few doctrines and come to a better understanding of them.

Class Discussion:
There are four doctrines that we want to cover today. We will not be able to get into all of them really deep, but we want to establish a good understanding of each. The first is in 3 Nephi 22. This is an Isaiah chapter and Isaiah can be a lot like a Magic Eye—very hard to see what is going on sometimes. Instead of trying to figure out every verse, lets just look at the key element. Lets see if we can “see” what he is trying to say. Lets just look in verses 7-10, 16. “What is the main idea that Isaiah is trying to say here?” “How do those verses tie in with what the Lord teaches the people in 3 Nephi 24:14-18” “Why does it seem like the wicked are sometimes better off? What do these verses teach about when everything will be made right?” “Why would this be particularly important to these people at this time?” (Now this is the important question, and you may have to wait for a few minutes for some good answers, but don’t give up. Wait, and people will answer. Works every time!) “When have you felt these promises happen in your life?” or “How have you felt as you have seen these promises fulfilled in your life?”

Next principle is in 3 Nephi 23. Look (I wouldn’t have the class read these verses, that takes too long and people get bored. Just have them look on their own for a couple minutes.) in verses 7-14 and find what Nephi had forgotten to do and how Jesus felt about that. How do you think Nephi felt at this time? Why was it so important to have the prophecies of Samuel written down? (Now there is a small principle here, and a big principle here. You can go either way depending on what you think the class needs.) The small principle is that we have also been commanded to write things down. “How well are we doing at writing down the important things that the Lord tells us in our lives?” Two places you can go if you like are:
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-24,00.html This is a conference talk from President Eyring in the Oct 2007 conference about journal writing.
“Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 86. This is Elder Richard G. Scott talking about journal writing.
Either of these can be used to drive home the importance of writing in a journal.
The big principle is dealing with judgment. Nephi is going through a small judgment here about the things he is asked to do. Ask, “What things might Jesus ask us about when we get to the final judgment? How will we be able to respond?”

The third principle is 3 Nephi 24:8-12. Have the class look for every promise they can find for paying tithing. Come up with or share some modern examples of when these same promises are fulfilled today. Point out that tithing has been a part of the gospel dating back to Old Testament times. The importance of tithing is indicated by how long it has been a part of Christ’s teachings. “How can I show that it is a significant part of my life?”

The last doctrine is 3 Nephi 25:5-6. (You will really be lucky if you still have time for this. Time will probably have run out. Don’t push to get everything in. It is better to have a good discussion about a few things than a rushed discussion about a lot of things.) Your rush in this part can be part of the lesson. Point out that you don’t have much time to talk about this final topic, but have class members look in the chapter summary for chapter 25 and in the footnotes of verse 5 for other places that these verses are found. “Why do you think they are listed in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants?” Again, temple work is obviously important to the Lord, how important is it to us? If we want to be like God, how important does it need to be? What are some indications that it is important enough to me?