From http://www.lds.org

Write the following question on the board: How is the sacrament affecting your life? To answer this question, invite members to work in pairs to select and discuss one phrase from the sacrament prayers in Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79 and the counsel in Doctrine and Covenants 59:9. Give each pair time to find scriptures that help them better understand their phrase and discuss how they would answer the question on the board. You might also invite class members to choose favorite sacrament hymns and sing them together.

See also Cheryl A. Esplin, “The Sacrament—a Renewal for the Soul,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2014, 12–14.

 

D&C 20:77, 79

‘To always have the Spirit with us is to have the guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost in our daily lives. We can, for instance, be warned by the Spirit to resist the temptation to do evil.

For that reason alone, it is easy to see why the Lord’s servants have tried to increase our desire to worship God in our sacrament meetings. If we partake of the sacrament in faith, the Holy Ghost will then be able to protect us and those we love from the temptations that come with increasing intensity and frequency.

The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptation less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always.’ (Henry B Eyring, General Conference, October 2015)

‘Some people have told me that they’ve heard sacrament prayers so often that they don’t even hear them when the sacrament is blessed. Perhaps this is because they don’t understand what is being said. Perhaps you might want to pull your scriptures at the proper time and study these prayers. They contain profound and significant information about our promises to the Lord, and his promises to us.’ (W Mack Lawrence, General Conference, April 1991)

D&C 59:9

‘If we will keep the associated covenants, the sacred priesthood ordinances will change us, sanctify us, and prepare us to enter the presence of the Lord. ^{[See  Doctrine and Covenants 84:20]} So we bear one another’s burdens; we strengthen one another. We retain a remission of sins when we give spiritual and temporal relief to the poor, the hungry, the naked, and the sick. ^{[See  Mosiah 4:26]} We keep ourselves unspotted from the world when we keep the Sabbath day and worthily receive the sacrament on the Lord’s holy day. ^{[See  Doctrine and Covenants 59:9](Carol F McConkie, General Conference, April 2017]}

First Presidency Statement on the Sabbath, January 1993

Since the creation of the earth, the Sabbath day has been established by God for the spiritual well-being of His children. Throughout generations of time, the sacred law of the Sabbath has been upheld by the prophets of God as a holy observance to help sanctify and bring joy to those who would keep the commandments of the Lord. So important is this matter that the observance of the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments written by the finger of the Lord on Mount Sinai.

Shortly after the restoration of the gospel, the Lord reaffirmed the importance of Sabbath day observance when He declared to the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
“For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
“Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times;
“But remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
“And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.’ (D&C 59:9–13.)

We sense that many Latter-day Saints have become lax in their observance of the Sabbath day. We should refrain from shopping on the Sabbath and participating in other commercial and sporting activities that now commonly desecrate the Sabbath.

We urge all Latter-day Saints to set this holy day apart from activities of the world and consecrate themselves by entering into a spirit of worship, thanksgiving, service, and family-centered activities appropriate to the Sabbath. As Church members endeavor to make their Sabbath activities compatible with the intent and Spirit of the Lord, their lives will be filled with joy and peace.

Ezra Taft Benson
Gordon B. Hinckley
Thomas S. Monson

Watch video: The sabbath and the sacrament (L Tom Perry, April 2011)

Watch video: Reverence the sacrament Elder Quentin L. Cook explains explains that through taking the sacrament, we show our willingness to follow the Saviour.