Lesson Plan for Mosiah 1-3

Watch the Video Presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/e6PSnQyyIXo

TRUE LEADERSHIP

What does King Benjamin teach you about true leadership?

Take a look at the following verses and mark everything you can about good leadership in one color.

• Words of Mormon 1:13-18

• Mosiah 1:10

• Mosiah 2:4

• Mosiah 2:11-16

Possible Answers:

• WofM 1:13  Protects his people

• WofM 1:14  Acts with the strength of the Lord

• WofM 1:14  Expulses evil

• WofM 1:15  Exercises justice on the guilty

• WofM 1:17  Holy

• WofM 1:17  Righteous

• WofM 1:17  Speaks the word of God with power and authority

• WofM 1:17  Uses sharpness at times (D&C 121:43)

• WofM 1:18  Labors with all his might for his people

• WofM 1:18  Establishes peace

• Mosiah 1:1-2  A good father

• Mosiah 1:3-7  Loves and teaches the scriptures

• Mosiah 2:4  Just

• Mosiah 2:4  Establishes peace

• Mosiah 2:4  Teaches people to keep the commandments

• Mosiah 2:4  Teaches people to rejoice and be filled with love

• Mosiah 2:11  Humble

• Mosiah 2:11  Chosen by God

• Mosiah 2:11  Gives God the credit for his power

• Mosiah 2:11  Serves with all his might, mind and strength

• Mosiah 2:12  Doesn’t seek their money

• Mosiah 2:13  Teaches obedience and doesn’t suffer wickedness

• Mosiah 2:14  Labors to serve

• Mosiah 2:15-16  Does not boast in himself

THE WORTH OF THE WORD

We see Benjamin as a King, we get see him as a Father. We see him teaching his sons, before he teaches his people, perhaps emphasizing which role is more significant

What is it that Benjamin teaches his children?

The scriptures. One of the most important things you will ever teach your children is the scriptures. Do they see you value them? Do they see you study them? Do you take the time to teach them from the scriptures?

What value do the scriptures have according to Mosiah 1:3-7?

• 1:3 We must have suffered in ignorance. Remember the fate of the Mulekites in Omni 1:17 who did not bring any records. It led them to “deny the being of their Creator”.  Maybe that’s a warning to us, that without the scriptures in our lives we may find ourselves losing faith. And a set of scriptures that is not being used, that’s gathering dust under our beds or on our bookshelves, is no better than not having the scriptures at all. Like Mark Twain said: "A man who won’t read is no better off than a man who can’t.”

• 1:4 tells us that if it weren’t for the scriptures, Lehi could not have remembered all these things. Back in Adam and Eve’s day, they didn’t call them scriptures. They actually called them “Book of Remembrance”. You can see that in Moses 6:5 and 46. Maybe that’s what we should call them, I think it’s actually a much more descriptive term than scriptures. That’s what these books are, a collection of all the things God wishes us to remember. Remember my covenants, remember my commandments, remember what happened to the people who followed my will and what happened to those who didn’t, remember my love, remember my grace, remember that I answer prayers, remember my sacrifice. It’s when we forget these things that we begin to dwindle in unbelief. So be sure to jog your memory daily by studying your book of remembrance.

• 1:6 these sayings are true, and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes. That’s one of the coolest things about the scriptures. They are right there in front of our eyes. They are tangible, they are material. Sometimes we have to have faith in things that are not seen, which are true. But the scriptures are right in front of our eyes. They exist. Even the most hardened atheist has to admit that the Book of Mormon exists, and they have to account for that existence in some way. There are many theories out there, but the only one that really makes sense to me is that it was translated through an uneducated young man, by the gift and power of God.

• 1:7 Remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby. Search the scriptures diligently, and you will reap a profit from them. Profit is when you get more out of something than you put in. That’s diligent scripture study. Whatever effort you are willing to put into them will be rewarded four-fold, or 20 fold, or even 100 hundredfold. Make time to dig deeply into them. You will never regret it.

ETERNALLY INDEBTED

ICEBREAKER

Object Lesson: Bring in a plate of Christmas cookies.

Do you give away plates of cookies at Christmas?

What has been your experience with this?

Describe your experience. You feel a need to give cookies back to those who give to you. Want to repay them.

TRANSITION

So see if you can find in the following verses the word that best describes that feeling we get when somebody does a favor or something nice for us. What is it in Mosiah 2:23, 24, 34? It’s the same word in each verse.

We feel INDEBTED. And that’s not necessarily in a bad way. We feel a sort of obligation to do something back for that person. So, if you’ll forgive me for the cookie plate analogy, I’d like to use that as a metaphor to help you understand what I feel King Benjamin is teaching us about our relationship with God. And that’s the first idea. We are indebted to God. Why? Because of all that He’s given us. We have been given much. And King Benjamin wants his people to understand that.

GOD’S COOKIE PLATE FOR US

So can you find God’s cookie plate in Mosiah 2: 20-22. What are some of the blessings that he wanted them and you to contemplate?

• :20 Life, Preservation, Joy, Peace

• :21 Air to breathe, Ability to move and use agency, Support

• :22 Prosperity
  

What cookies would you add to that plate? What else had God blessed you with?

We naturally want to give something back. But can we? King Benjamin’s answer: Yes, we can. We can give some cookies back to God, and Benjamin is going to show us. In fact, we need to give something back, he requires something back. It reminds me Doctrine and Covenants 82:3

3 For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.

And I think we water that verse down sometimes by saying, that of him unto whom much is given much is expected, but notice, expected is not the word he uses. Much is REQUIRED. There is a subtle yet important distinction between expected and required. God requires something of us.

OUR COOKIE PLATE TO GOD

What does he require? What cookies can we give to God? There are 3. At least 3 that are taught by King Benjamin. Can you find what they are in Mosiah 2:19-20, 21, and 22

19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another

So what’s the first one? Gratitude or thanks. We can thank Him for those things. Just like you teach your kids when somebody does something nice for them. Now, what do we say?  Thank you. Good boy. We should do the same with God. We should voice our gratitude to Him. And I don’t think he’s asking us to do this out of the Spirit of, Hey I’ve done all this for you and now you better say thank you. No, I believe our Heavenly Father knows the good that gratitude can do for us. Gratitude is healthy for the soul and a sibling of happiness. So, the first cookie that we give is Gratitude.

The second cookie. vs. 21

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

So cookie #2 is service. We need to serve God. But some may wonder, wait a second, how do I serve God? I can’t go visit him when he’s lonely, I can’t help him with his yard work, I can’t share the gospel with Him, he already knows it fairly well, I can’t help Him through a trial or a challenge. So how do I serve God? Well King Benjamin has already explained this solution back in vs. 17, and you probably have heard this before, it’s a very famous verse.

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

So I serve Him, by serving others.

Like Jesus taught in Matthew 25:40

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

So visit a friend when they are lonely, help a neighbor with their yard work, share the gospel with a coworker, help a family member through a trial or challenge. In all of these cases, you’re serving God. That’s how you repay Him, by paying it forward, instead of paying Him back.

And then the 3rd cookie in vs. 22

22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

So the third thing required of us, is obedience. To keep his commandments. To follow his instructions for effective living. And again, I don’t believe that that is a self-serving kind of requirement. It’s not about Him, it’s about us. He knows what will make us happiest, and the commandments are simply the guidelines to living a better life. Considering all that God has done for us, the least we could do is follow his life counsel.

There you have it then. Our three cookies. So God blesses us with all these things and we feel indebted.

GOD’S RESPONSE

How does God react when we give back to Him? Find the answer by reading Mosiah 2:21-24 in its entirety.

So what does God do? He immediately blesses us with more. It’s like he says, Oh, thank you so much for your gratitude, and service and obedience. When my children do these things for me, it makes me so happy, so proud, here take another plate of cookies, and he hands us another giant plate of blessings. And what do we do, we feel indebted, so we run back and whip up another batch of gratitude, service, and obedience, and bring it to him, and he blesses more and more, and we continue to remain indebted to him forever and ever. And therefore, we never break even with God. It’s impossible. That’s why he says in vs. 21 that even if we should serve him with all our whole souls, we would still be unprofitable servants. But notice the word he uses, he doesn’t say worthless servants, just merely unprofitable, which is ok, he’s not trying to make a profit on us. He’s not into making money, he’s into making Saints, and eventually Gods and Goddesses. It’s not about the bottom line, it’s about the employees. In fact, it’s not really an employer/employee relationship at all. It’s a parent/child relationship.  God’s greatest asset, his work and his glory, is the immortality and eternal life of man. So it’s okay that I can’t ever really repay him, but he appreciates and requires the effort.

NO SUCH THING AS SACRIFICE?

And I love that principle of God always giving more back than we give. What I get in return far exceeds what was given up. The place where I see that message most beautifully taught is in the hymn “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”. In almost every verse, we have the narrator of the hymn describing a sacrifice he makes for the poor wayfaring man, the stranger. In vs. 2 he gives him bread, and in return, he receives manna. In verse 3, he gives the man water, and in return, he receives living water, he drank and never thirsted more. In vs. 4 he offers the man shelter from the storm, lets him sleep in his own bed while he goes and sleeps on the floor, but he says it was like sleeping in the Garden in Eden. Vs. 5 he binds up the man’s physical wounds, while in return, peace binds up his broken heart. And then the most beautiful part of the hymn. The man is in prison and asks the narrator to die for him, his flesh was weak, his blood ran chill, but his free spirit cried I will. So I assume that between the 6th verse and the 7th verse, the man does die for his friend, he gives his life, and now he is entering the Spirit World, Then in a moment to my view, The stranger started from disguise. The tokens in his hands I knew; The Savior stood before mine eyes. He spake, and my poor name he named, “Of me thou hast not been ashamed. These deeds shall thy memorial be; Fear not, thou didst them unto me.”

So do you see how sacrifice works with God? I give him bread, he gives me manna, I give him water, he gives me living water, I give him shelter, he gives me Eden, I give my life, and he gives me eternal life. A beautiful hymn, no wonder Joseph Smith loved it so much. It actually leads me to conclude that really, in a way, there is no such thing as sacrifice, because God always gives a greater thing in return, so how can that be sacrifice.

THEREFORE WHAT

Well, this is all supposed to lead us to the grand conclusion. King Benjamin is steering us to a certain point. This realization of how God works with his children should make us feel a certain way. Look how he ends vs. 24. “Therefore, of what have ye to boast?”, continuing into vs. 25:

25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.

So this thought, this realization should make us feel what godly quality?

Humility. This should keep us humble. We have no reason to boast. We’re just dust, and even that dust belongs to God. Now, why would King Benjamin want to emphasize this with his people? I think it’s important to keep in mind the audience of this sermon. We learn back in Mosiah 1:11 that they were a diligent people in keeping the commandments of God. They’re living in a time of peace. The worry about people in this situation, when they’re doing what’s right and everything is good, is that it’s very tempting to start to feel prideful, they might feel like they have something to boast of. We’re going to see that process over and over in the Book of Mormon. A righteous people begins to be lifted up unto pride. It’s the step from righteousness that begins the downward spiral. So perhaps King Benjamin is hoping to stop that problem before it even starts.

ONE MORE COOKIE

And before the end of the chapter, King Benjamin is going to add one more cookie to our plate. And it’s a big one. Gratitude, Service, ‘ Obedience and Humility will lead us to one of the greatest blessings God has to offer us. What is it in vs. 41?

Happiness

So not only does God promise never-ending happiness in the future, but happiness now! In the present. But it’s the path to happiness that Benjamin is pointing out here. You have probably heard a lot of advice out there on how to be happy. Is it through money, success, power, meditation, freedom from trials and pain, healthy eating, exercise, relationships? As good as some of those things may be, there is only one guaranteed path to happiness. That’s obedience to God’s commandments. Righteousness always was happiness. And since we can control our obedience, therefore, we can also control (in one manner of speaking) our happiness, regardless of the events that surround us or what happens to us.

Joseph Smith once said:

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God."

"Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 256-257”

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

• Between gratitude, service, and obedience—which do you feel you need to work on most?

• How could you show God more gratitude this week?

• Who is somebody you could serve this week? How will you do it?

• What commandment do you need to follow more closely? What’s your plan?

• Think of a time when either gratitude, service, or obedience brought you happiness? What happened?

• What reasons do you have to be humble?
  

PUTTING OFF THE NATURAL MAN

ICEBREAKER

Object Lesson: Two magnets and a paperclip.

Put the paperclip between the two magnets and slowly start to push them towards the paperclip.

Ask the class to vote on which magnet they think is eventually going to pull the paperclip to it.

See who guessed correctly.

Imagine that the paperclip represents your soul and the two magnets represent two invisible forces in life that are attempting to pull us in opposite directions.

What are the names of these two forces that are present in every single one of us according to Mosiah 3:19?

Fill out “Which Side Will Win?” Chart together as a class, or have them work on individually or in groups to fill it out.

Handout available at https://www.etsy.com/shop/TeachingWithPower

But what are those two forces? The natural man and the Holy Spirit. Both of these forces are pulling in opposite directions in our lives. Now I think we understand what the Holy Spirit is. It’s that member of the Godhead that guides us, warns us, comforts us, and helps us to recognize all truth.

THE NATURAL MAN

But what is the natural man? Or natural woman. Well, it’s that part of us that is self serving-that only wants to satisfy its own desires.  Our spirits have been placed in mortal, fallen bodies with impulses and hungers and self-interest. And what is natural for a fallen body isn’t necessarily natural for our spirits. Maybe the best way to illustrate the natural man is to give you some scenarios and ask you how the average mortal might act in the following situations. What would come naturally?

• A car cuts you off on the freeway.

• You see somebody unknowingly drop a $20 bill on to the street.

• You see somebody that doesn’t dress as nicely as you.

This struggle has been expressed in other ways in the scriptures.

Jesus said:

41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)

Paul taught:

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:23)

Nephi said:

“O wretched man that I am”  (2 Nephi 4:17)

And “Why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul?” (2 Nephi 4:27)

See, even great men like Paul and Nephi felt that conflict within themselves. That inner war.

And some rhetorical questions to ask here:

• Have you ever felt those two forces pulling on you, that inner struggle?

• Have you ever consciously done something that you knew you would regret later?

• Have you ever made a new year’s resolution you didn’t end up keeping?

• Have you ever given into temptation and shortly after complained “Why did I do that?! I didn’t want to do it, but I did it anyway."

If you have, that means you’re human. You’re mortal. You have the natural man or natural woman inside of you. But remember, God doesn’t want you to be human, to be natural. You were never meant to be mere mortals for eternity. You are meant to become gods and goddesses. And in order for that to happen, we’re going to have to overcome the natural man.

This was a central theme in C.S. Lewis’s theology. He spoke of it often and it matches up nicely to what we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ believe. He said:

“Christ says: Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

Mere Christianity

Well, that’s going to be quite the process, isn’t it? It’s going to take some time. And there we stand, caught in the middle of these two forces. When they pull, we’ve got to make a decision.

DON'T

What I don’t want to do is what Benjamin describes in Mosiah 2:32-40 and 16:3.

Don’t

• :32 List to obey the evil Spirit

• :33 Transgress the law of God

• :36 Go contrary to that which has been spoken

• :36 Withdraw yourself from the Spirit

• :37 Open rebellion against God.

Well if I choose to list, and transgress, and withdraw, and rebel, what qualities do I begin to develop? I actually get these from Abinadi. I think he describes these individuals best. I become

• Carnal

• Devilish

• Sensual.

Carnal is defined as “relating to physical needs and activities” as opposed to spiritual needs and activities. Sensual means relating to the physical senses. Again, natural man. Basically the devil wants to turn us into animals, solely acting on physical instincts and needs. But we’re not animals, we are souls—spirit and body. As a famous philosopher once said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience”. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Well, what are the consequences of taking those actions? There’s plenty in there.

• :33 drinketh damnation to his own soul, his wages are an everlasting punishment

• :37 Become an enemy to all righteousness, the Lord has no place in him.

• :38 Not only do we become an enemy to righteousness, but an enemy to God.

• :38 lively sense of his own guilt, shrink from the presence of the Lord, fills his breast with guilt, pain, anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascenders up forever and ever.

• :39 mercy having no claim, and his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.  

• :40 awful situation.
  

So back to 3:19. What does Benjamin conclude we will become if we list to obey the natural man, or withdraw ourselves from the Spirit, or come out in open rebellion against God?  

I become an enemy to God. And I will be forever and ever.

DO

Unless I do something else.  I can avoid that dreadful fate. What can I do and what qualities will I have according to 3:19? Also, what results will that bring according to Mosiah 2:41? What can I do?

I can yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and put off the natural man.

Great words. Rather than list, I can yield. When I yield to something, I am giving it the right of way. Some synonyms for yield, submit (a word he’s going to use later in the verse) relinquish, bend, and then my favorite, surrender. We’ve got to stop fighting God and his will. We should surrender and recognize that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than our own. We must surrender to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. Enticings is interesting. That word is more commonly associated with temptation—Satan entices us to sin—but he uses it to describe what the Spirit does. One definition of "enticing" is "to persuade with promises of something". Now I like that definition, that seems to make sense. The first principle of righteousness, or of using priesthood authority in D&C 121:41 is persuasion. God doesn’t motivate with force, or fear, or deceit, that’s the adversary’s method. God seeks to motivate us by persuasion, to persuade us with logic, rationality, and love. And then he makes us promises for following his commandments. They may not be as immediate or pleasing to the natural man as sin is, but the promises of the Holy Spirit are far greater, meaningful, and eternal! Happiness, eternal life, grace, forever families, knowledge, priesthood power. God has some very enticing promises for us. Definitely worth putting off the natural man, for. And I like that phrase too. Put off could just mean getting rid of the natural man, but it could also mean resisting. Like putting off somebody’s phone call, or putting off a chore. I defer those impulses or I ignore them as a nuisance until the point that my natural man is starved and weak and powerless. That’s why I think God asks us to make sacrifices. Every sacrifice we make strengthens our spirit and weakens our natural man. Fasting is a good example of this, I resist my desire to eat (a natural desire) in order to strengthen my Spirit. Tithing, I resist my desire to greedily reserve all my resources for myself in order to support God’s kingdom. Service, I resist my inclination to be self-interested in order to serve and help somebody else. Sacrifice is God’s gym or his spiritual training program. It works out and strengthens our spiritual muscles.

Well, according to that verse, what are the qualities I develop?

• I become like a child

• submissive

• meek

• humble

• patient

• full of love

• willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I invite you to ponder the significance of each of those qualities.

If you want my thoughts on why God asks us to be like little children, watch: https://youtu.be/Vr79f3XRumU

I would like to focus for a moment on the idea of submitting. It goes back to that idea of surrender. He compares it to a father-child relationship. We need to be submissive to God’s will. There may be things in my life that the Lord sees fit to inflict upon me: challenges, obstacles, pains, difficult commandments to keep, intimidating callings, tragedies. We need to recognize the wisdom of God and accept those too, knowing that God has infinitely more knowledge and perspective than they do. So they submit their will to His. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prays:

39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)

Christ was always submissive to his Father’s will.

And if I do this, what will be my final destination on this side? What do I become as opposed to an enemy to God?

I become a Saint.

That’s our goal. We want to be saints—Latter-day Saints, not enemies to God. A saint, according to the 1828 Websters dictionary is “A person sanctified; a holy or Godly person, one eminent for piety and virtue”. In this life, God is constructing saints out of us, not gods yet, but saints. Saints are gods in embryo. They are the people who have learned to put off the natural man.

And what will be the results of becoming a Saint? Mosiah 2:41

• Happiness

• Blessed in all things both temporally and spiritually

• Received into heaven.
  

And speaking of Gethsemane, that’s the other element of 3:19 we want to touch on here. That process of becoming a Saint is only possible through the power of something. We can’t overcome the natural man on our own. It is only through what?

Through the atonement of Christ, the Lord.

And that is what a majority of chapter 3 is all about. Mark everything you learn about the Atonement from these verses (Mosiah 3:5-18)

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

• Which force (the natural man or the Holy Spirit) would you say has the greater pull in your life right now?

• Are you “listing” to obey the evil Spirit in any area of your life? What can you do to “right” yourself?

• How could you “yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit” more in your life?

• What blessings have come to your life when you have yielded to the Holy Spirit?

CONCLUSION

So I say, be a Saint, and put off the natural man. The natural man or woman inside of us is a powerful force. However, we have far more powerful forces on our side to overcome it. God has equipped us well for this struggle. We have the enticing of the Holy Spirit to guide and motivate us with its promises. We have opportunities to sacrifice to give us spiritual strength, and most significantly, we have the atonement of Christ the Lord to help us overcome our natural man mistakes, and to transform us into Saints and eventually Gods. Until that day, yield, don’t list, and God promises you never-ending happiness.