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This is the third episode in a five part series about the doctrine of Christ. Listen to hear why continuing on from faith in Jesus Christ and repentance to baptism and partaking of the sacrament will give you even more power in your life to change.
There's more than one way to be a spiritually minded woman who wants to make and keep covenants, know her Savior and make it back home. Yes, there are essential CHECKPOINTS on the covenant path, but there are NO CHECKLISTS with a million checkboxes you must check off.
Each week on the Spiritually Minded Women podcast I’ll be sharing insights about how to embrace YOUR journey on the covenant path with CHECKPOINTS instead of CHECKLISTS.
Welcome to the Spiritual Minded Women Podcast. I'm your host, Darla Trendler. You're listening to episode three in a five part series on the Doctrine of Christ Baptism and the Sacrament. Let's dive in.
Who are you? Think about that for a second. Do you have an answer? Do you know who you are? One of the first things that probably comes to mind to answer that question is your name. If you walked up to me at church or at a restaurant or in Target and asked me, Who are you? I know my first reaction would probably be to say, I'm Darla.
If I asked you who you are, the first thing you would probably tell me is your name as well. Today I'm gonna share some thoughts about baptism and the sacrament and how these ordinances will help you know who you are. As I've been sharing these episodes on the Doctrine of Christ, I've been weaving in the story from the Book of Mormon of King Benjamin's people.
So as a refresher, King Benjamin was a prophet who lived on the American continent about 124 years before Christ was born. Benjamin knew he was nearing the end of his life, so he brought his three sons together to teach them from the scriptures, and he tells one of his sons, Mosiah, that he's gonna be the next king.
And Benjamin tells Mosiah to gather the people together at the temple so he can tell them that Mosiah's gonna be the new king. And he has some other things that he wants to teach his people. Benjamin also tells his son another purpose for gathering his people is that Benjamin, who is a prophet, wants to give the people a name.
So let's recap before we move on. Benjamin has at least three purposes for gathering his people. One, he needs to tell them that Mosiah is gonna be the king. Two, he needs to teach them from the scriptures about Jesus Christ. And three, he wants to give his people a new name.
So I just shared how your name is part of knowing who you are and the name King Benjamin tells Mosiah that he wants to give his people is gonna help them know who they are, but he doesn't tell Mosiah exactly what that name is yet.
So what was the name king Benjamin gave his people. I'm gonna tell you that in a few minutes, but first I wanna share with you some of the things King Benjamin taught his people after they gathered at the temple. One of the most well known things that King Benjamin taught was about service. He taught his people that when you serve people around you, you are really serving God.
He taught them about keeping the commandments and about faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. And King Benjamin taught his people that Jesus Christ is the only way to gain salvation. Benjamin's address to his people, which is found in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 2-6, is a beautiful way to learn more about what we are talking about in this series.
Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Another thing Benjamin taught was about the difference between the natural man and a saint. I wanna share with you how this particular teaching of King Benjamin helped me personally to answer the question, who are you?
I was a brand new missionary and I went to a zone conference, which is just a meeting with a lot of missionaries. They come together and leaders get up and train and speak. And we heard our mission president's wife speak about obedience and her words resonated with me and I really felt a strong desire to spend the rest of my mission trying to be obedient.
After the meeting, I was talking to another missionary about what the mission president's wife had shared. And remember, I'm like this brand new missionary and I have a lot of zeal. And this missionary I was talking to had been there for quite a while and he said to me, "I can't be an obedient missionary and be myself. I just want to be me."
This missionary's words caused me to stop and reflect. Was he right? Was I giving up being me by striving to be an obedient missionary? I wondered if it was possible to be myself and be obedient. So I went back to my area with my companion, and I pondered these thoughts, and then I was led to a scripture.
I read King Benjamin's words in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 3:19. "For the natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam and will be forever and ever unless he yields to the enticings of the holy spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ, the Lord, and becometh as 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." End quote.
As a young missionary, after reading and pondering the scripture over several more days, I realized that who I was was not the natural man. If I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought about all my natural tendencies, the "natural Darla" would include things like being prideful, focused on myself, very content in my own little world, and maybe a little too intense about college football.
Those are just a few of the things. There's many more things that would be included in the "natural Darla" and none of those things really make me feel super good inside. But in reading the scripture and pondering about who I am, I learned that those things are not me. Those things are not being myself.
My true identity was someone who was trying to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Who I was was not the "natural Darla", but a saint who was striving to be submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love. In other words, who I was was someone who was using the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life to repent and become better.
What I learned as a 22 year old missionary and have carried with me since then is that I could be myself and be obedient to God because being myself was not the natural man. Who are you? You are a saint. You are a disciple of Jesus Christ. You are someone who is trying to use the atonement of Jesus Christ to become better.
So what was the name king Benjamin wanted his people to be known by? I told you I was gonna come back to that. We have three chapters in the Book of Mormon of him teaching this group that's gathered at the temple. He teaches them about Jesus and his mission and how his atoning sacrifice was for them, and that the Savior is the only way, and all of it resonated with Benjamin's people and learning about Jesus Christ caused them to want to make covenants with God.
They wanted to remember the Savior. They wanted to keep his command. In Mosiah 5:2 we read "And they all cried with one voice saying, Yea, we believe all the words, which thou was spoken unto us. And also we know of their surety and truth because of the spirit of the Lord omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually."
And then again in Mosiah 5:5, Benjamin's people say, "And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us all the remainder of our days." And then after they say all this, Benjamin reveals the name he wants his people to be known by.
And this is in chapter five, verse seven, He says, "And now because of the covenant which you have made, ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons and his daughters. For behold this day, he have spiritually begotten you. For ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name. Therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters."
And then in verse eight he says, "There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh. Therefore I would that you should take upon you the name of Christ."
So let me ask the question. I started with again. Who are you? Yes, you are your name, but if you have chosen to make the covenant of baptism, you also have another name because King Benjamin's people had faith in Jesus Christ, repented and then made a covenant, they were called the children of Christ.
If you have exercised faith in Jesus Christ and repented and made the covenant of baptism, you also have this. You are a child of Christ. You have taken upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ.
And if you have exercised faith in Jesus Christ and you are seeking to repent, but you have not been baptized, I am just gonna invite you to learn more about taking that next step in your journey on the covenant path.
Feel free to reach out to me on my website. I would be happy to answer any questions that you have, and I'll also put a link in the show notes where you can learn more.
In the Bible, we read about the day of Pentecost, a time after the resurrection of Christ when Peter was preaching to a group about Jesus Christ's mission.
And this is what is recorded in Acts 2:37-38. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said into Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Faith in Jesus Christ that leads to repentance is a great first step, but there is more. Repentance is not complete without the ordinance of baptism. Elder D. Todd Christofferson, an apostle taught. "Another essential element of repentance is baptism by immersion by which we begin to take upon us the name of Christ. Many verses in the scriptures refer to 'baptism unto repentance' or 'baptism of repentance.' end quote.
Elder Christofferson gave links to scriptures that reference this, and here are some of them. Acts 19:4: "Then said Paul John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus.
And then in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 5:62, we read, I speak by way of command and unto you that belong to the church and to and unto to those who do not belong to the church, I speak by way of invitation saying, Come and be baptized unto repentance that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life.
And then finally, in Restoration Scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants section 35 verses 5-6 it says, "Thou didst baptize by water unto repentance, but they receive not the Holy Ghost. But now I give unto thee a commandment that thou shall baptize by water and they shall receive the Holy Ghost by the laying of hands, even as the apostles of old.
In this talk in the same quote, Elder Christofferson goes on to say, "These phrases recognize the doctrine that the baptism of water is the final or crowning step in the process of repentance, the renunciation of sin coupled with our covenant of obedience completes our repentance. Indeed, repentance remains unfinished without that covenant." End quote.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that baptism is the first saving ordinance of the gospel. A saving ordinance is something essential you must do to return to God. While faith in Jesus Christ and repentance, which I have discussed in previous episodes, can be done on your own baptism, as well as receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, which I'm gonna talk about in another episode in this series.
Both of those things require priesthood authority. When you are baptized by someone holding the priesthood, you become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And not only do you become a member of the church, but you also become like Benjamin's people, a child of Christ.
Since I know that most people listening to this podcast are already members of the church and have been baptized, I'm gonna share from that perspective. But again, know that if you have not been baptized, This episode will be a great place to learn more. You are so welcome to listen in and learn with me.
When you were baptized, you covenanted with God to do three things. One, take upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ. Two, keep the commandments and three, serve the Lord. Any covenant, including the covenant of baptism, is two ways. So the first way is you promising to do the three things that I just mentioned.
And then the second side of that is that God promises things back to you. In the church resource, True to the Faith found in the Gospel library app and on the church website, we read about what God promises us, and this is what it says "As you keep the covenant you made at baptism, the Lord will bless you for your faithfulness. Some of the blessings you receive are the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, the remission of your sins, and the privilege of being spiritually reborn."
Baptism only happens once. You don't continually get Reba every time you sin. Like we'd be living in the font, right? If we were doing that. Instead, we take the sacrament each week in our church meetings and I really felt like it was important to not only talk about baptism in this episode, but to also talk about the sacrament.
When I was preparing this episode, I found an amazing talk about the sacrament and the doctrine of Christ and kind kind of how those go together. It was given by Elder Dale G. Renlund, who's an apostle. It was in a BYU devotional in September, 2021, and it's called Lifelong Conversion. I'll link the talk along with all the other talks and scriptures I'm referencing in this episode in the description of the episode or the show notes on my website.
I would highly encourage you to go read this particular talk Lifelong Conversion by Elder Renlund. So to start my thoughts on the Sacrament, let me share a few things that Elder Renlund shared in this talk. And I'm actually gonna quote him a lot because he just says it so perfectly,
The first thing I wanna share with you that Elder Renlund said is this, "The Sacrament does not replace baptism, but it provides the link between the initial steps in the doctrine of Christ, faith and repentance, and the later step of receiving the Holy Ghost. In the cycle, it serves a similar function, as does baptism. This allows for the elements in the doctrine of Christ to be experienced iteratively in our lives." End quote.
So in this talk, Elder Renlund shared how we rely on Christ both repeatedly and iteratively, that's a little bit hard to say, but repeatedly means that we do something over and over, or in this case, we are always using the elements in the doctrine of Christ to come closer to Him. And we do that over and over.
The secular definition of iteratively means a process to continuously improve a concept design or product. So when Elder Renlund says in this quote that the sacrament allows the doctrine of Christ to be experienced iteratively in our lives, he means that we are not just go going around in circles, but we are progressing and changing each time we experience the sacrament.
Last week I promised I would talk about how the sacrament will help you let go of old patterns and create new ones with Christ by your side. The sacrament can help you go from where you are now to where you want to be, turning to Christ and allowing him to live in you. You can experience a renewal each week as you partake of the sacrament.
Okay. Now here is another thing I wanna share from Elder Renlund's devotional talk. He said this quote "For those of us who have been baptized, how can the step of baptism be repeated? Well, it is through the sacrament. The covenants of baptism are renewed by partaking of the sacrament in remembrance of our Savior and His atoning sacrifice and the blessings of baptism are also renewed. The sacrament is the next ordinance needed after making a good choice and the next ordinance needed after making a poor choice. The sacrament is the next ordinance needed every week for the rest of our lives."
I was baptized when I was eight years old, and I've been taking the sacrament my entire life. I think it would not be a stretch to say that I have taken the sacrament for granted for a good portion of that time, but there have been moments where I have thought more deeply about what the sacrament means and how it can help me allow Christ to live in me and help me become who he wants me to be.
When I was a young girl, my family lived in northern Arizona near the Navajo Indian Reservation, and our stake included many branches in remote areas of the reservation. My dad was assigned to be a high councilor and he spent many Sundays driving dirt roads to get to these branches. My dad would often take me and my younger sister with him.
He would speak in sacrament meeting and my sister and I, in matching dresses, would sing a Primary song. I have vivid memories of visiting the Bodaway branch. They did not have a building, but I remember climbing the steps of a single wide trailer and sitting in folded chairs for sacrament meeting.
Etched in my mind is my eight year old self sitting in one of those chairs with the sacrament bread, which was Navajo fried bread made by a woman in the congregation, being passed on a plate. I don't think I realized the significance of taking the sacrament in these circumstances until much later in my life, but I look back and I can still feel the simplicity and the importance that experience taught me about the.
My family moved when I was nine or 10, and the rest of my childhood was spent taking the sacrament in comfortable chapels with lots of people.
After I was married and had two small children, I was asked by a member of my stake presidency to attend a youth trek as a leader. My husband stayed home to watch our little kids, so I attended the trek as a "big sister" in a family with three other adult leaders. We trekked the first day with no problems, but then during the night we were woken up with rain.
All of the leaders in my family were up placing tarps and digging trenches to keep the rain from soaking everything. And I'm gonna add a side note here that this was a hardcore trek. We didn't have tents. We only had plastic sheeting, tarps and wooden poles. And I just recently went on another trek and it was not that hardcore and it rained and we had tents, so it was a little bit easier.
This trek, we were not using tents, so we were working all night to keep everything and everyone dry. But by morning the rain had not let up and there was mud everywhere. There was no way we could keep treking, so we stayed put all day. Now this trek was being held over a Sunday. I don't know that they do that anymore. This was like 20 years ago.
But the plan during this trek was to hold a big sacrament meeting with the whole stake. Permission had been given for the sacrament to be blessed and passed as well. But the rain had continued and leaders decided it was best for everyone to stay hunkered down in their families.
So we huddled together for a long time under tarps. We were covered in mud and everything was wet. Late in the afternoon, the rain started to let up. I'm not sure why, but they decided to just have us stay in our trek families and we were authorized to bless and pass a sacrament in our small group.
We threw a wet blue tarp out on the ground and our trek family knelt on the tarp together. We were tired and wet and muddy. But I will never forget the young men in our group blessing the sacrament and passing it around our circle. Suddenly the ordinance took on a whole new meaning for me. No longer was I taking it for granted.
I felt the spirit so powerfully, and I remembered why I sat in a clean, dry chapel every week to take the sacrament. When all of the other stuff was stripped away. The only thing left to think about was the Savior. During the Covid pandemic,
we had many months of home church. Partaking of the sacrament in my home was another sacred experience that has taught me the importance of the sacrament.
I didn't worry about what I was going to wear to church or who I was going to talk to after the meeting was over, or if the speaker was gonna go over on his or her allotted time. I was just able to truly experience the sacrament in the way, I think I was meant to experience it, remembering Christ and my covenant to take his name upon me and keep his commandments.
Recently, I've been thinking about how I can make the sacrament more sacred in my life on any given Sunday, not just in out of the ordinary circumstances like these experiences I've just shared.
Elder L. Tom Perry has said, "Partaking of the sacrament provides us with a sacred moment in a holy place." End quote.
In the devotional I mentioned previously given by Elder Renlund, he talked about how you have to take the sacrament every week. You can't store up the power of the sacrament in your life. He compared taking the sacrament each week to getting sleep. You can't get a bunch of sleep over the weekend and then not sleep all week.
He said, "Similarly, you cannot adequately compensate for missing the sacrament. When circumstances preclude it, so be it. Do the best you can, but to willfully choose to not participate in the sacrament when you could is a spiritual death trap. The seemingly small action jeopardizes things of an eternal nature." End quote.
I've shared several times here on the podcast, a quote by Elder Boyd K. Packer that says, "True doctrine understood changes, attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of gospel will improve behavior quicker than the study of behavior will improve behavior." End quote.
To truly have the principles of baptism and the sacrament change old patterns and help you create new ones in your life, you need to understand the doctrine.
You can use this episode and the resources in the episode description and show notes as a jumping off point and the discussions guides that are coming at the end of this series, and the spirit will guide you to what you need to understand more fully in your life to change and draw closer to Christ.
You can get into the scriptures, you can read conference talks, and you can learn what the spirit wants you to learn. And then when you understand the doctrines and principles more fully, you'll be prompted by the spirit to know the personal applications and the things you can do in your life to make the covenant of baptism or to truly renew the covenant each week as you partake of the sacrament.
I mentioned that this is something I've been doing in my life. I have come up with my own applications for how I use the gift of the Sacrament to help me create new patterns in my own life. You can do the same thing in your life, and I testify that the Sacrament can help you change because I've seen this for myself as I have sought through the spirit to know how to apply Christ's atonement and the covenant of baptism and the ordinance of the Sacrament into my life.
Remember what President Nelson promised us in April, 2021 conference when he said, "Ordinances unlock the power of God for your life." End quote. He followed that promise with this one six months later when he said, "The pure doctrine of Christ is powerful. It changes the life of everyone who understands it and seeks to implement it in his or her life."
President Nelson said the doctrine of Christ and the accompanying ordinances, like baptism and the sacrament will bring power in your life. He promised us that. You can exercise faith in Jesus Christ and repent and you'll receive great blessings. These two things alone will help you experience great change in your life.
But if you aren't continuing on the path to baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, you are leaving so much God has for you on the table. He has so much more power for you to access when you take the next step to make a covenant and be baptized by proper authority. And that power continues to increase as you partake of the sacrament and renew your baptismal covenant each week.
Even more power comes through the gift of the Holy Ghost, which we will talk about in the next episode. So back to the place that we started at the very beginning. I'll ask you again, who are you? I would submit you are a saint. You are a disciple of Jesus Christ. You are someone who is trying to use the atonement of Jesus Christ to become better. You are someone who has taken upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ. You are a child of Christ.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please share it with a friend. I would love it if you would leave a review and rate it on Apple Podcasts. This actually helps more women find the podcast and learn how to use Christ's atonement and doctrine to co-create the life they want with God by their side. To find out more about discussion guides, coaching, and more ways to be part of the Spiritually Minded Women community, head over to spiritually minded women.com.
Have an amazing day. I'm cheering you on.