What Shall a Man Give?

Brothers and sisters, I know that temples of the Lord are holy places. President Henry B. Eyring once stated the purpose I feel today:

I know that temples of the Lord are holy places. My purpose today in speaking of temples is to increase your desire and mine to be worthy and ready for the increased opportunities for temple experiences that are coming for us.¹

There is a scene in the film The Family Man that I think about often. An angel in disguise is working the register in a convenience store. A girl sets a dollar on the counter for something that costs about a dollar. The angel treats the one dollar bill as a ten and counts nine dollars and change back into her hand. She looks down. She knows. The test is whether she will walk out of the store nine dollars richer than she has any right to be. You sold your soul for what? Nine bucks? So disappointing.

The Lord told Moses, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”² Temples are central to the effective fulfillment of that work, and of the stated mission of His Church. The nine dollars in the story is whatever we take instead—ease, a little extra cash, another hour of television, another year of delay. It is never worth the soul.

The Mission of the Church

Christ built His Church with a specific mission in mind. Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.³

The mission of the Church is the work of salvation and exaltation. We come unto Christ and assist in God’s work by living the gospel of Jesus Christ, caring for those in need, inviting all to receive the gospel, and uniting families for eternity.

Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Paul called this “the perfecting of the saints.”³ Living the gospel includes exercising faith in Christ, repenting daily, making covenants with God as we receive the ordinances of salvation and exaltation, and enduring to the end by keeping those covenants. It includes learning and teaching the gospel at home and at church. It includes becoming self-reliant in providing for ourselves and our families, both spiritually and temporally.⁴

I know what it is to miss out on promised blessings. There are things spoken in my patriarchal blessing that I did not receive, because I was not faithful to the requirements. I was not obedient, and I lost what had been offered. That is not abstract to me, it is real. I can still go back and read it and be reminded of what I’ve lost. In returning to the temple I have begun to receive some of those blessings again. Not all of them, and not in full. Some gifts, once passed by, do not come back in the same shape. But the house of the Lord has given me a portion I had, in my disobedience, forfeited and it has taught me not to treat the promises of the Lord as optional. Do not miss out on your promised blessings the way I did.

The five laws of the endowment are not suggestions attached to a nice building. They are the terms on which the gift is predicated. Simply going to the temple is not enough. In the endowment we covenant to live five laws, and those laws have to be practiced in ordinary life if the gift is going to take:

• The law of obedience, which includes striving to keep Heavenly Father’s commandments.
• The law of sacrifice, which means sacrificing to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
• The law of the gospel, which includes exercising faith in Jesus Christ, making and honoring essential covenants with God, enduring to the end, and striving to love God and our neighbor.
• The law of chastity, which means abstaining from sexual relations outside of a legal marriage between a man and a woman, which is according to God’s law.
• And the law of consecration, which means dedicating our time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed us to building up Jesus Christ’s Church on the earth.¹³

Those five laws are how our home can become like a temple, and how that feeling can linger after we walk back out into the world. Be in the world and not of the world. Do not take the nine dollars.

Caring for Those in Need

Paul called this “the work of the ministry.” Caring for those in need includes serving and ministering to individuals, families, and communities; sharing resources, including Church assistance, with those in need; and helping others become self-reliant.⁵

The work of the soul is more important than the temporal salvation of a man. The Church’s focus is properly directed primarily at the salvation of man. Helping those in need is the duty of the individual member.

Mark records the widow and her two mites:

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.⁶

What was the instruction here? Was it to chastise the temple community for having built and maintained a house of God instead of supporting this poor widow? Was it to decry the unfairness of the requirement of tithing? No. As Jesus taught here, it was to remark upon the great faithfulness of this woman, and to commend her actions toward the profit of her soul.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?⁷

Inviting All to Receive the Gospel

Paul called this “the edifying of the body of Christ.” Inviting all to receive the gospel includes participating in missionary work and serving as missionaries, and helping new and returning Church members progress along the covenant path.⁸

The temple is not a private club at the end of that path. It is one of the reasons the path exists. Every person we invite toward Christ is being invited, eventually, toward a font, an altar, and a sealing room.

Uniting Families for Eternity

Paul’s end is “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Uniting families for eternity includes making covenants as we receive our own temple ordinances; discovering our deceased ancestors and performing ordinances for them in the temple so they can make covenants with God; and going to the temple regularly, where possible, to worship God and perform ordinances for His children.⁹

Endowment means gift. Are we treating it like a gift?

Sometimes what we want most are answers and guides. How do I lose weight? How do I get rich? What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? Well, we know the answer to that, but still. We keep looking for one pill, one magic trick. We already have the path. We already have the guide. Are we utilizing it? Are we going to the temple?

Family Men

Men, it is your duty as the priesthood leader in your home to ensure that temple attendance happens.

Brethren, your first and most responsible role in life and in the eternities is to be a righteous husband. Second only to the title of husband is that of father.¹⁰

The power is within you as bearers of the priesthood. Enjoy the inspiration of God, our Eternal Father, to lead, guide, and direct your families in righteousness. You stand at the head of the family—the only organization I know of that can be eternal. Should not that charge and responsibility receive top priority in your life?

Do not sell your family short for nine bucks, a mess of pottage, or a few hours of television. Do not trade what you want most for what you want now.

Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. … In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.¹¹

Record Your Impressions

When you go, do not just pass through the house. Record your impressions. The Prophet has asked us to do that after conference; the same counsel belongs after the temple. Write what the Lord said, write what you felt, then live it.

I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your life in ways nothing else can.¹²

I know that temples of the Lord are holy places. I know that God’s work and glory is the immortality and eternal life of man, and that the house of the Lord is where that work is bound, sealed, and made available to the living and the dead. Do not trade that gift for a pittance. Let us all increase our desire to be worthy and ready.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.