Temple and God’s ways (Father's day) 

I am thankful for the opportunity today to speak to you on this father's day, and I pray that I may be an instrument in the hands of God to say the things that he would want me to say.  I would like to consider and speak today about our earthly fathers and the parallels and characteristics shared by them and our heavenly father.

I have been given the assignment to speak based upon: 2 Nephi 2:2-3, Isaiah 55:8-9

Our Earthly Fathers

When you think of your father and his characteristics what ideas come to mind?  Here are a few I've thought of.

What are the Responsibilities of Fatherhood.

• Gives life to his family - he and his wife are the source of their life on this earth
• Loves his family
• Protects his family
• Provides for his family
• Teaches his family

We should respect and honor our father's for the great things they have done for us.  Our families are a blessing to us and have impacted our lives for good and bad.  

Are our Fathers perfect? No... they are imperfect men doing what they think is best in both their own life and in their actions toward their families.  However, we like them are learning and growing and trying to be better people.  The opportunity to become a father is one step in the plan our heavenly father has prepared for us to learn how to become like him.  He is a father - and our father.

Jesus Christ said it best when speaking to Mary after his resurrection:

John 20:17

17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

This is plain and clear that Jesus had a father and that father is the one whom he is going to ascend to and meet with after his resurrection.  This same person is not only his father, but the father of the apostles, and our father as well... This same person also has the Title of "God" and is the "God" of Jesus Christ as well as our "God"

Consider some of the many possible titles that our Heavenly Father could use: 

And yet the term of address and the title that he desires us to use when speaking of him is "Father". What do you think that tells us? (We are literally his children!)

Our Heavenly Father is a parallel to our Earthly Fathers

While we are on this earth we live with our family in our families "Home".  It is in this location that we learn from our family how to live and grow in this earthly state.  It is the responsibility of our parents to teach us, guide us and direct us in the way that we should live.  

Enos 1:1,3

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man—for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my God for it—

3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.

Notice the Parallels to our Fathers on earth:

• Gives life to his family - our heavenly father is the father of our spirits - we lived with him as a family before we were born
• Loves his family - John 3:16

16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

• Protects his family - 
• Provides for his family - all things including our very lives are provided to us by God as a gift
• Teaches his family - Alma 12:24,27-29 - The Plan of Salvation Taught

24 And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.
...
27 But behold, it was not so; but it was appointed unto men that they must die; and after death, they must come to judgment, even that same judgment of which we have spoken, which is the end.

28 And after God had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold, then he saw that it was expedient that man should know concerning the things whereof he had appointed unto them;

29 Therefore he sent angels to converse with them, who caused men to behold of his glory.

What then is the parallel to the "Home" in relationship to our Heavenly Father?

2 Nephi 12:2-3

2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The Temple is the "House/Home" of the Lord and is the location where we can learn of him and how we should live our lives

Bible Dictionary – Temple:
A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.
 
Whenever the Lord has had a people on the earth who will obey his word, they have been commanded to build temples in which the ordinances of the gospel and other spiritual manifestations that pertain to exaltation and eternal life may be administered. In cases of extreme poverty or emergency, these ordinances may sometimes be done on a mountaintop (see D&C 124: 37-55). This may be the case with Mount Sinai and the Mount of Transfiguration. The tabernacle erected by Moses was a type of portable temple, since the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness.
 
From Adam to the time of Jesus, ordinances were performed in temples for the living only. After Jesus opened the way for the gospel to be preached in the world of spirits, ceremonial work for the dead, as well as for the living, has been done in temples on the earth by faithful members of the Church. Building and properly using a temple is one of the marks of the true Church in any dispensation, and is especially so in the present day.
 
With the establishment of a temple men were set apart to sacred offices of the priesthood to officiate in the ordinances of the temple.  These priests were mediators between the people and God, performing for the people what they could not do for themselves.

Just as we learn from our father's in their homes so also do we learn in our Heavenly Father's "Home/Temple" how to live our lives and prepare to return and live with him again!

• He will teach us his ways
• So that we can walk in his paths
• That we may be joint heirs with Jesus Christ!

What then do we learn in the Temple?

Here are just a few things that we learn from the temple:

We learn that God is not a respecter of persons and that all men no matter where or when they lived have an equal and equitable opportunity for salvation.

In the temple we perform ordinances for the living and the dead. One of these ordinances is "Baptism for the Dead" thus allowing this ordinance to be available to all no matter when/where they lived.  Thus allowing everyone the opportunity to receive a remission of their sins and become clean before God!

We learn that as in our earthly home we learn line upon line precept upon precept.

“The endowment is another ordinance performed in our temples. It consists of two parts: first, a series of instructions, and second, promises or covenants that the person receiving the endowment makes—promises to live righteously and comply with the requirements of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The endowment is an ordinance for the great blessing of the Saints—both living and dead. Thus it is also an ordinance performed by the living in behalf of deceased individuals; it is performed for those for whom baptismal work has already been performed.” Ensign 1995 Feb a temple motivated people

When a father is teaching their children, or if they are learning in school they are taught one principle at a time gradually gaining knowledge and experience and increasing in their capacity to learn more.  So also in the "endowment". We are instructed to return again and again so that we may understand the principles taught as the dew from the heavens distills upon us.  Slowly, and based upon the capacity of the individual we will increase in knowledge.

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We learn that marriage is ordained of God and is an eternal not a temporal concept. (it never ends...)

“Another temple ordinance is that of celestial marriage, where wife is sealed to husband and husband sealed to wife for eternity. We know, of course, that civil marriages end at death; but eternal marriages performed in the temple may exist forever. Children born to a husband and wife after an eternal marriage are automatically sealed to their parents for eternity. If children are born before the wife is sealed to her husband, there is a temple sealing ordinance that can seal these children to their parents for eternity, and so it is that children can be sealed vicariously to parents who have passed away.” Ensign 1995 Feb a temple motivated people

Our heavenly father in his home is teaching us that we will also be able to like him be a member of a family eternally.  Not only that we may also create our own family as he has done through the ordinances that he has provided!

Is this all that we learn from the temple? No

Just as in life we should plan and expect to learn from God as we return to his "Home/House/Temple" regularly!  Just as his word never ends so neither does the knowledge and revelation that we can receive from him in his home.  

Conclusion:
 
“Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. We should hasten to the temple as frequently, yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow. We should go not only for our kindred dead but also for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety that are within those hallowed and consecrated walls. As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make the temple, with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience.
 
Let us share with our children the spiritual feelings we have in the temple. And let us teach them more earnestly and more comfortably the things we can appropriately say about the purposes of the house of the Lord. Keep a picture of a temple in your home that your children may see it. Teach them about the purposes of the house of the Lord. Have them plan from their earliest years to go there and to remain worthy of that blessing. Let us prepare every missionary to go to the temple worthily and to make that experience an even greater highlight than receiving the mission call. Let us plan for and teach and plead with our children to marry in the house of the Lord. Let us reaffirm more vigorously than we ever have in the past that it does matter where you marry and by what authority you are pronounced man and wife.
 
All of our efforts in proclaiming the gospel, perfecting the Saints, and redeeming the dead lead to the holy temple. This is because the temple ordinances are absolutely crucial; we cannot return to God’s presence without them. I encourage everyone to worthily attend the temple or to work toward the day when you can enter that holy house to receive your ordinances and covenants. As the prophets have said, the temple is a place of beauty; it is a place of revelation; it is a place of peace. It is the house of the Lord. It is holy unto the Lord. It must be holy and important to us.” Ensign 1995 Feb a temple motivated people