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Endowment and Sealing Ordinances

“Endowment and Sealing Ordinances,” Topics and Questions (2023)

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woman walking in front of the temple

Gospel Study Guide

Endowment and Sealing Ordinances

How God leads His children back home

Imagine you are on a long journey. The path is narrow and sometimes difficult to find, but you know you are headed in the right direction because of certain markers along the way. As you reach each one, you draw closer to your goal. Finally, at the end of your journey, you look back and see how those markers helped lead you to your destination.

In the gospel, the endowment and sealing ordinances are like markers along a narrow path. They are both essential in helping you on your journey through life, bringing you closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Each one leads you back home to Them, helping you through the challenges you experience on earth and preparing you for the eternal blessings that are in store for you in the life to come.

What Are the Endowment and Sealing Ordinances?

The endowment and sealing ordinances are essential parts of the covenant path that lead us back to God. We participate in the endowment and sealing ordinances in the temple. During these ordinances, we make covenants, or promises, with God. If we are faithful to the covenants we make in connection with these ordinances, we can receive eternal life through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Topic overviews: Endowment, Sealing

Related gospel study guides: Covenants and Ordinances, Temples, Participating in Temple and Family History Work, Vicarious Ordinances for the Dead

Section 1

During the Endowment Ordinance, We Make Sacred Covenants with God

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interior image of temple

One of the ordinances we receive in the house of the Lord is the endowment. The endowment is a gift from God. During this sacred ordinance, or ceremony, we learn about God’s plan of salvation and our Savior’s central role in that plan. We also make covenants with God. Heavenly Father blesses us for making and keeping these covenants by giving us increased access to His power. The covenants we make as part of the endowment give us opportunities to grow and change. Through them, we can become more like Jesus Christ and feel peace, confidence, and joy.

After we receive our own endowment, we can participate in the endowment ordinance on behalf of others who have died. In the spirit world, those deceased people can choose to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the ordinances performed for them and receive salvation and exaltation.

Things to think about

  • During the endowment, we covenant to live five different laws. Read about these laws in section 27.2 in the General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Gospel Library). How are you already living these laws? What could you do to live them more fully? How does Jesus Christ exemplify living these laws? Ponder how living each of these laws can help you become more like Him.

  • We are fortunate to live during a time when temples are being built around the world. Elder David A. Bednar taught: “Understandably, the announcement of each new temple is a source of great joy and a reason to give thanks to the Lord. However, our primary focus should be on the covenants and ordinances that can change our hearts and deepen our devotion to the Savior and not simply on the location or beauty of the building.” How do you believe the covenants and ordinances of the endowment can change your heart? How can they deepen your devotion to the Savior? Ponder how focusing on the endowment covenants and ordinances in this way could help prepare you for exaltation.

Activities for learning with others

  • In his talk “Why the Covenant Path,” Elder D. Todd Christofferson compared living the gospel of Jesus Christ to avoiding “unforced errors” in tennis. Read about this comparison in his message, and discuss what “unforced errors” we avoid by keeping the five covenants we make during the endowment (see General Handbook, 27.2). You might also watch a video of a tennis match or even play some tennis to see what unforced errors look like. Then discuss other blessings of keeping covenants that Elder Christofferson shares in his message. How do these blessings strengthen your desire to walk the covenant path and receive the gift of the endowment or keep the covenants you have already made in the temple?

  • Part of the endowment includes wearing sacred clothing as we make covenants and receive ordinances. Consider discussing some examples of other occasions when we wear special clothing and why that clothing is important to the experience. Then you could watch the video “Sacred Temple Clothing” (4:12), which explains what temple clothing represents and why endowed members wear temple garments underneath their clothes each day. Talk about how sacred clothing helps us express feelings of devotion to God and helps us draw closer to Him. You could also review Sister J. Anette Dennis’s talk “Put Ye On the Lord Jesus Christ” to learn more about the temple garment. Or you might explore together the “Temples” page on ChurchofJesusChrist.org to find more helpful resources about temples, including those that show you inside the house of the Lord. How could you use these resources to help others who might have questions about the temple and temple clothing?

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Section 2

The Sealing Ordinance Binds Us to the Family of God and to Our Earthly Families Forever

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multi-generational family at temple

Some of God’s greatest blessings for His children are available through the sealing ordinance. During this ordinance, a man and a woman enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage when they make sacred covenants with each other and with the Lord (see Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4). If the couple is faithful to their covenants, they can be bound to the family of God and to their earthly family for eternity. They are also promised marvelous blessings in the life to come.

Sealings can be performed on behalf of those who have died so that they, too, can receive eternal blessings and forever be united with their family and God’s family. Like all other priesthood ordinances, the sealing ordinance is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and can bring us peace and purpose in this life.

Things to think about

  • When Jesus Christ gave the Apostle Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” He was giving him the sealing power—the power to provide blessings on earth that will continue in heaven (see Matthew 16:19). Read Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16; 132:7, 45–46 to learn about how these keys were restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the latter days. These keys are now held by our current prophet, and they unite families for eternity. Yet the sealing power “may seem to some to be a very bold doctrine” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:9). Why might it seem that way? How does it bring you hope to know that family relationships that are sealed on earth are also sealed in heaven?

  • President Russell M. Nelson taught: “A marriage covenant made in the temple is tied directly to [the] Abrahamic covenant. In the temple a couple is introduced to all the blessings reserved for the faithful posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Read about some of these blessings in Doctrine and Covenants 76:50–60; 132:19. How can you be “just and true” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:53) to your covenants with God so you and your loved ones can receive His greatest promises? Write down any impressions you receive, and then act on them.

  • The sealing ordinance is received at a holy altar in the temple. What do you think an altar might represent? These scriptures could guide your thinking: Genesis 8:20; 26:23–25; 1 Nephi 2:7; Moses 5:5–9. What does the symbolism of the altar suggest to you about the sealing ordinance and family relationships?

Activities for learning with others

  • Traditionally, seals have been used for legal documents, diplomas, or important letters to show they are legitimate. Perhaps you could look at pictures of some of these different types of seals or make a seal of your own. Then review the talk “The Sealing Power” by Elder D. Todd Christofferson together. What are the differences between an earthly seal and God’s sealing power? What blessings are available through His sealing power? If you have received the sealing ordinance in the house of the Lord for yourself or for an ancestor, consider sharing your experience. How have you come to know that the Lord recognizes your sealing ordinance as “legitimate” or valid?

  • Sometimes, difficult or unhealthy family situations make it hard to want to be with our families for eternity. Or perhaps a family member did not honor his or her marriage covenants, so we doubt that our family will last forever. About such cases, Elder David A. Bednar taught: “To you who have experienced the heartache of a divorce in your family or felt the agony of violated trust, please remember it begins again with you! One link in the chain of your generations may have been broken, but the other righteous links and what remains of the chain are nonetheless eternally important. You can add strength to your chain and perhaps even help to restore the broken links. That work will be accomplished one by one.” Read Elder Bednar’s words together and then create a paper chain. Then you could each write on one of the links something you will do to be a strong link in your family through the Savior’s sealing power.

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