Hyung Jin Moon
July 4, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea
Transcribed by: Rosemarie Hoyte / Regina Shin
Proofread / Polish by: Jennifer Yashiro / Bruno Klotz
Opening Prayer by Rev. Michael Brazil:
Our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Mother! We thank You so much for this wonderful day. We thank You for the love and grace that You have showered upon us throughout this past week and today. We really want to sing You praises, we want our hearts to open wide to You, to welcome You, to ask You humbly to come and be with us.
We want to come before You, kneeling and offering our apologies and repentances for every thought, word or deed that we did that hurt You, others or ourselves this past week. And we want to be renewed and re-empowered, knowing that You love us so deeply, that You are forgiving us and that You have forgiven us.
You are encouraging us to be our best, to pursue the destiny that You have given us, to be Your true sons and daughters. You believe in us, You applaud us, You are our biggest fan! Heavenly Father, we truly want to make You proud, we want to fill up Your heart with joy and gladness. We look forward to the day where we no longer have to repent for hurting You; where we can share with You the deepest joy; where we only bring You love, joy, hope and goodness.
Again, we thank You so deeply from the bottom of our hearts for the grace and love that You have given to us. We, again, humbly ask that You be with us. Let us open our hearts so we can receive Your message today, and we ask that You speak through our speaker to help us grow ever closer to You and Your ideal. We very humbly offer all this as blessed central families from around the world. Aju!
Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Welcome to the Headquarters of the Unification Church! Last Wednesday it was the 20th Chil Il Cheol, which is the “Declaration of God’s Eternal Blessing”. At the Headquarters Church we did the celebration with many blessed families and honored Heavenly Father and True Parents.
Brothers and sisters, we are always honored to have you here in this sanctuary, and for those who are joining us via Internet -- wherever you are, whatever situation you are in, we are welcoming you. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters!
Hyung Jin Nim
Welcome brothers and sisters! Let’s start by manifesting the Principle. Let’s do it together! Hands together, Give and Receive action, Four Position Foundation, lift it up, coming together as one and inherit the true love of God. Aju! We just did it, we drew our symbol. Every time we start we want to start with that symbol and also as we end our final meditation practice we are going to end with that symbol.
Let’s start with the Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 2396. Father tells us:
“You must share true love. Because of false love the mind and body were separated. The husband and wife, brother and sister, were separated. Therefore you can connect to God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven through establishing the point where mind and body can be united, husband and wife can be united and brothers and sisters can be united. That is by sharing true love.”
When we look at our symbol this is our Principle in its essence and core. Whenever we talk about Principle to anybody, we always share what this symbol is. It’s Give and Receive action. Every relationship that we have has Give and Receive action. All our relationships are contained within the Four-Position Foundation. They are not only in our family; they are also between mind and body, between us and creation, between us and the community, etc. In the Principle we see these things.
All these things already exist in our lives. However, the question is whether or not they exist centered on true love or on another type of ambition. Father explains that the nature of true love is for the others. When a husband really can devote himself to his wife and honor her then he is sharing true love and he is going to receive that back through that Give and Receive action. If the husband is nagging his wife, looking down on her, not really supporting her then this is exactly what he is going to receive back.
That’s the principle. We see that in every aspect of our life. You can see it throughout the entire universe, you can see it with the atoms, how they relate to each other. We can see this principle everywhere. When we look at this principle, it’s so precious. Really the core of it is learning to share, learning to become givers. When we do that we are going to be able to receive what we have given. So Father is asking us today to make sure that we are giving and sharing true love.
We always want to invite you at the beginning of service to remember that service is not just for observing. We want to participate; we want to get God excited. So, when the Two Rivers choir is up here, singing their praises, let’s do it together, let’s sing together, we want to reach our hands up and touch God’s face, we want to get His blessing today.
When we come to service, we want to come with this kind of attitude. When we do that we become stronger. Our faith becomes stronger, our hope becomes brighter, and as we leave this place, we become more victorious, brighter, and more successful, and we are going to get more things done. If you believe it, let’s give it up for God and True Parents!
Hyung Jin Nim’s remarks about prayer:
Let us take this time to pray for those who have departed. We must never forget those who are not with us in physical form. They are with us in spirit. So, let’s take this time to offer this prayer and praise. When we listen to this song, when we offer our prayer, let’s offer it for the people that we love, that are like guardian angels to us. Let’s gather our hearts and pray for them.
Interesting Story:
I heard a story about a man. His name was Henry. He was very old and was now on his deathbed. He was right about to pass into the spirit world. There he was lying in his bed, very frail and weak. All of a sudden he smelled this incredible fragrance. He thought: “What is this incredible smell?” And then he came to think of it. It was his favorite chocolate chip cookies!
So, he said: “You know what, before I go to heaven I’m going to get myself a cookie, there might not be any in heaven!” He was very frail and wobbly. He must have gathered all his strength to get out of the bed. He walked all the way down the stairs, almost tripping down. He got to the kitchen and saw on the kitchen table about a hundred of his favorite chocolate chip cookies! Absolutely heaven! He thought that this must be heaven.
He walked into the kitchen, he was reaching his hand towards the beautiful, delicious, fragrant cookies and all of a sudden his hand was smacked! As he looked over, he saw his wife standing with a spatula. She said: “Henry, stay out of those. Those are for the funeral!”
Main Sermon:
Brothers and Sisters, today I’d like to talk to you about “Seeing Your Destiny.” You know, in order to live the Blessed Life, we have to be able to envision and see our destiny. Without seeing ourselves differently, our life will never change. Without seeing ourselves reaching our potential and reaching our destiny, we will never be able to reach our destiny.
You see, we have to visualize ourselves. We have to use the practice of our mind, to use the practice of our visualization and see ourselves getting smarter, getting more successful, getting more prosperous in the soul, getting more prosperous in the body, getting more prosperous in the mind, etc.
We have to see ourselves constantly, one year from now, "How am I going to look, what’s going to be our situation?" We have to see ourselves improving, maturing, getting better, and getting more victorious.
It’s important to visualize yourself at the finish line, so to speak, at the mountain top -- getting up there and returning that glory up. You see, when we start seeing ourselves, we’re going to start moving in the direction of our success, and in this age of liberation, this is so very important for us as Unification Church to live the Blessed Life.
Let’s take a look at some of these World Scriptures. I’m going to go up to the prompter today and read them together with you. Let’s read Christianity together. This is from Proverbs 3:5. Let’s read that together.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understandings.”
Here we see that the Proverbs are teaching us and asking us, that many times we may not understand the situations that we’re in, but that we must learn to trust, to see, to believe in God.
Let’s take a look at the next scripture today. This is from Buddhism. This is from the Sutta Nipata 11 46. Let’s read that together.
“By faith you shall be free and go beyond the world of death.”
Here, even in Buddhism, a very important aspect of the practice of the eight-fold path is faith, Sahda in Sanskrit, very important to believe in the teachings, to believe in the potential for us to become great ones, etc. It’s very important to see ourselves, to start believing -- to have faith in the fact that we can do so.
Let’s take a look at Hinduism today. This is from the Rig Veda; let’s look at this from 10151. We’ll read that together.
“Faith is composed of the heart’s intention. Light comes through faith,”
the Rig Veda tells us. It’s very important that in our life we understand that faith is the light. Faith is the thing that brings us through darkness. Faith is the thing that holds us up when we’re going through obstacles in the valleys of the shadow of death. Faith is the vehicle that allows us to move into our destiny. It’s very important to believe in our destinies -- have faith in it.
Let’s take a look at Islam today. This is the Koran 10th Sura. We’ll read that together.
“Truth has come to you from your Lord, so do not be a waverer; do not be someone who rejects God’s signs,”
the Koran says. Have faith in the Lord. Have faith that you’re not going to be a “waverer”. Know that we don’t reject God’s signs. Implore us to believe and to have faith in ourselves, believe in our Movement, etc. This is what Islam is asking us for today.
Let’s look at True Parents’ words today, on faith and believing. Let’s read that together:
“A Life of Faith consists in living always with an atmosphere of spring, having a renewed mind. In your Life of Faith you must always rejoice and be thankful. When you rejoice in prayer, and experience a constant welling up of pride, your mind is a joyful mind.”
And here Father is asking us, telling us again, reminding us that the joyful mind, the faith-filled mind is full of joy, is full of hope, is full of spring, abundance. It’s not full of dreariness and defeated mentality. It’s full of life. It’s full of energy.
You know, when we look at the Bible, there’s a story in Exodus 3. This is the story where Moses meets God, the angel of God, so to speak, in the burning bush. Here God commands Moses, to go and tell the Pharaoh to “let the people go.” "Let the people of Israel go so that that they can now move into their Promised Land, move into the land of milk and honey."
At this point, Moses is very reluctant. Here he is. He’s already 80 years old. Aaron is 83 years old. They are very tired. They’ve lived a long life. They’ve gone through a lot. They’ve been slaves most of it. They’re very tired out. They don’t know if they can make it. There are a lot of people younger than them. “God, why are you asking me, I’m 80 years old? Can you ask someone a little younger? I’ve got problems in my knees. I’ve got a little hip problem, too.”
You see, God was asking Moses, “You have faith. Believe in the destiny of your people.” And God tells him, “I will sway the Egyptians. I will do wonders and miracles so that they will start to believe.” And then He says to them, “I will change them, so that they are favorably disposed to you and your people.” And this is a very important passage in Exodus. In Exodus 3:22, God says, “Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing which you will put on your sons and daughters.” He tells them, “Go and get it. I will change the situation of the people, so when you ask them for gold and silver, they will give it to you. They will give you necklaces and jewels, and then I want you to put them onto your sons and daughters.”
But see, this was not enough; the Israelites had to do their part. God turned the Egyptians to have favor upon them, but now the Israelites had to go, and they actually had to ask these people. They didn’t know what it’s for. "Why are we asking them for gold and silver? Why do we have to put these things on our children? It makes no sense."
You see, for over 430 years the Israelites were slaves of Egypt. That means, for 430 year their whole purpose of existence was being a slave. You see, they thought they would never amount to anything. They had told themselves for hundreds and hundreds of years, passed on through generation after generation, “You’re not going to amount to anything. All you’re going to be is a slave. Your whole purpose of existence is being a slave -- is working and doing menial labor. That’s your value. You’re not going to have any other value than that.” That’s all they heard for the last 430 years. And if you think about it, 430 years -- that’s grand parents, those are parents, and those are children that are hearing these kinds of things.
At the age of eighty years old, again, Moses goes and he asks the Pharaoh. He tells him. Then they have to go and they have to get the silver and the gold. And then you look at this and we ask, "Why did God command them to do such a thing?" In the desert, there’s absolutely no reason to wear jewelry. It’s hot, metal is cumbersome. You’re sweating. It’s going to get nasty and stinky. There’s no good reason to wear jewelry. If you’re wearing jewels, there are bandits -- there are all sorts of tribes that may even want to steal that from them. Why would you put the citizens of Israel under such a hazardous condition?
You see, at the time slaves were not able to wear jewels. They were not allowed to wear jewelry. The jewelry was only worn by the merchant class or the wealthy aristocrats. Slaves were not able to wear jewelry. So, in a slaves’ perspective, from a slave’s mentality, they were only good enough to do menial labor. They were only good enough to do the bottom work, to be at the bottom of society. But God wanted to change that, He wanted to change their mind. He wanted to change their way of thinking. And never, in a million years, did the children of Israel believe they’re going to be wearing jewels one day. They didn’t believe it. They said, “It’s never going to happen!”
You could see the young kids walking around saying, “We’re going to be slaves. My dad says I’m going to be a slave. I guess that’s what I’ll become. I guess I’m going to work hard being a slave.” And never did they even think, “One day we’re going to be wearing jewels. We’re going to be the aristocrats. We’re going to be the successful ones.” You see God knew that they had to get out of this defeated mentality -- the mentality that brought them down, the mentality that made them buy into the lies that for 430 years their grandparents were told that they were always going to be slaves. Their parents were told, “You’re always going to be slaves.” Their children were told, “You’re always going to be slaves.” They had to break out of that, or else they would not be able to enter the Promised Land.
You see, they had to start changing their perspective of themselves. They had to start changing their identity. And you can imagine, you can start seeing those little children. They’re used to wearing old rags and things like that. Now they’re walking around -- and I’m 7 years old and I see my friend, now he’s got jewels on or she’s got jewels on -- and I’m looking at him and I’m saying, “Hey wait a minute, I thought we were all going to be slaves. I thought we were all destined to just be at the bottom. Wait a minute, why are you wearing that jewelry? That’s right, that’s right; we’re not going to be there forever. We’re going to move out. God has promised a land of milk and honey. We’re going to move towards that.”
You see, God was asking them to change their perception of themselves. He was saying, “Look at yourself in a different way,” and he started with external form. He started with making them change the way they appeared.
You know, I was in a barber shop one day getting a hair cut because, as you know, with hair, you have to cut it. This is a very cumbersome thing, because when I was bald, I didn’t have to go to a barber shop; I’d just do it myself. It’s much better. But I was there sitting and the TV’s on and there was a show about these people getting makeovers and the show had this lady come out. She had totally no confidence in herself, no self-esteem. She was totally beaten down. She had believed the lies in her mind that were passing through every day. “You're so fat, you’re ugly, and you’re never going to amount to anything. You look terrible. Boy, how you really let yourself slip, you look really bad. Boy, that cellulite is everywhere now.” She started believing all these kind of things.
And so you could see her. She was doing the interview, she was crying, she was crying to the camera saying “I don’t have any self-esteem, I can’t go out. I’m a prisoner of my own home. I don’t want to go into the streets. I feel so terrible about myself.” You could see her, really not valuing herself at all. But you see, they are challenged on these makeover shows. The people are challenged. They’re not just told, “Oh, you’re beautiful just the way you are. You’re beautiful. Keep those grandma pajamas on -- you look fantastic!” They’re not told that. They’re told, “Honey, get up out of your sofa, get on to a treadmill. Get some good food in you.” They’re challenged by the professionals. The professionals come out -- they’re all fit -- and they make them do the exercise routine. They make them do the stair climber, the treadmill, the elliptical thing, all that kind of stuff. They make them diet. They take them shopping. They buy them a new wardrobe. They do their hair and make-up and now they’re looking at themselves and saying, “Hey there, wait a minute. I’m looking a lot better. I never thought I could look like this. I thought I was a prisoner in my grandma pajamas. Now I’m looking fantastic.”
Now they’re starting to change her perspective, the perspective of that person’s self. Many times in those shows they will have the host enter into the person’s house, go in their closet, scourge around in there and throw out those old sweat pants and the big, big baggy old waistband pajamas that they’re wearing around the house all the time. You’ll see episodes all the time when the people will then say, “Oh, you can’t throw that away, I’ve been wearing that for 10 years, 15 years.” And they’ll say, “Honey that is the reason why we’re going to throw that away. We’re going to let it go, let it go.” They throw it out.
You see, what they’re doing, in essence, is changing the person’s image of themselves. They’re making them believe in a new “me” -- in a new them, to see themselves in a new way; seeing their destiny in a different picture. Not only seeing themselves when they are 50 and 60 becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and doing less and less and getting older and then just passing away. But re-envisioning their destiny in a new way. “Wait a minute; I’m going to become younger. I’m going to become even more fit. I’m going to become even more active. I’m going to become successful and healthy.” They start seeing themselves in a totally different light and this is exactly what God was telling the Israelites to do with their children.
He was saying, “If you are going to enter into the Promised Land, you’ve got to see yourself in a different way. You’ve got to see yourself like that. Look at those guys, they’re totally different. They look fantastic!”
You see, in the same aspect, even when we started in ministry with Unification Church, it was the same way with us. You know, for 30 years we have been told by society that we’re heretics, we’re a cult. “You’re a cult; you’re a pass-by religion.” We’ve been attacked. Our members around the world have been kidnapped. They’ve been illegally kidnapped in different nations -- kidnapped for “deprogramming”, but kidnapped, illegally, and tortured to leave. We’ve been harassed at school, we’ve been harassed at work, and we’ve been harassed in life, for being Unificationist. We’ve been derogatorily, pejoratively called “Moonies” and things like this. So, over time, we’ve been beaten down by these lies. Just like the Israelites had heard for over 430 years. “You’re never going to amount to much; your movement is going to pass by. It’s not going to be anything big -- you people are crazy! There are 27 working messiahs in this world -- you all believe in a messiah -- we don’t need that belief. We all believe in a messiah.” We’ve all been told these things and we have started to slowly believe it.
Nobody thought we could change the media here in Korea. Nobody! When we started doing interviews, people were telling us, “You’re crazy! Don’t do it! They’re going to attack us. They’re going to flip it and attack you!” We turned that around.
Nobody thought that we could change the business portfolios and make them profitable. Kook Jin Hyung did that. Nobody thought in Korea that Father would write an autobiography. Who has heard of a religious founder writing an autobiography and having a best seller, a national best seller? I have never heard of that in my study of religion. I have never heard of that! Let’s give it up for True Father! (Clapping)
Nobody said we could witness. Everybody said, “You can’t witness to professionals. There’s nothing attractive about our Church. Principle is dead, it’s past, it’s old age. You know, that was working in the 70’s.”
Forty percent of the Chaedan, they’re all professionals, they’re all members now! Forty percent. Nobody thought we could actually actualize the goal when we started here in ministry in Headquarter Church. Our initial goal was, within this year, to create the congregation so that we could serve 2,000 members. When we started that, it was totally insane. Everybody was saying, “It’s impossible! There’s no way! There are not even 2,000 members in this area! You’re not going to be able to serve 2,000 members!” Right now, at Headquarter Church, we have over 8,000 registered members. Let’s give it up for Unification Church! (Clapping)
Even one year ago when we were talking about True Father’s mission to now build the Temple -- 21,000 members in a temple, that’s world class! That’s the major leagues! 21,000 in one area in Seoul - we had so many people say, “That’s insane, there’s no way. There’s no way it’s possible! Unificationists -- we can’t do that! We’re never going to be at that level -- at least not in our lifetime. It’s going to be maybe 500 years, a thousand years from now. 21,000 members -- that’s more members than in all of Korea. How is that possible? 21,000 new members we have to make, and create new Unificationists that have faith and believe?”
Now we’ve seen an incredible turnaround. In about one year, we have seen an incredible turnaround. People who said, “That’s absolutely impossible,” are now saying, “Wait a minute! Hey, maybe it’s possible! Maybe it’s doable. Maybe we can do it. Maybe we can go world class. Maybe we can get to the major leagues, so to speak.”
You see, God is asking us in this age to put on the gold and the silver. He’s asking us, “I’m changing the situation for you. I’m changing it to be favorable. I’m changing people to be favorable towards you," just like He did for the Israelites and the Egyptians. And He said to them, “Then I want you to put the silver and gold on your children”, and that is what God is asking us to do, as a Movement, to put on the silver and gold, so to speak, and to see ourselves in a new way. To understand ourselves in a new way and say to ourselves everyday, “Yes, we can! Yes, we can be an incredible tradition. Yes, we can be the fastest growing religion IN THE WORLD!" I believe it! Aju? YES, WE CAN! YES, WE CAN! That is what God is asking us to do today. (Clapping)
You know, every morning we circumambulate the Chung Bok Goong, the site which is now under construction. It’s really incredible. In the mornings we’re out there doing the circumambulations; we do 8 rotations around the Chung Bok Goong after mediation, offering 120 bow devotional training. And then while we’re rotating, it’s just incredible.
There are these incredible apartments all around. There are these premium level parks all around, with benches and everything, and in the streets there are lights that change color. The little box lights -- they change color. From red to green, from purple to brown, from brown to whatever -- they’re changing lights. It looks like you’re literally walking on a sea of stars as you’re walking around and circumambulating the Temple -- very beautiful. And I can see myself envisioning Unificationists in a totally different way. I can see myself, how my mind is changing, saying, “Wait a minute, Yes, we are going to go to the world stage. It is going to be possible.” I can see myself seeing this building and saying, “My God, we’re in the middle of Seoul, our Unification Movement is getting stronger. Look at this. All these people, I believe, will become Unificationists -- they’re going to come to our Church.” If you believe it, let’s give them a big round of applause, in advance. (Clapping) It’s just so amazing, amazing! We couldn’t even imagine this one year ago. But now God is saying, “I prepared a situation for you. I’ve made favor for you as a Unification Movement and now you’re going to move to the next stage.”
Here, when we see that area, of course we know that when we enter into that Temple there are going to be a whole new group of people that will understand the Principle. But I know that some of us may enter with that defeated mind set, “Oh look at these people. Oh well, they’re not going to understand us, they can’t be witnessed to.” But I do believe that the majority of us will enter into the Temple and say, “You know what? Yes, we can; yes, we can be successful. Yes, we can be attractive to all these people. Yes, we can witness to all these people, make new members and create a thriving community. Yes, we can build Unification Church to be an amazing tradition that takes the national stage, that captures the imagination of the world that brings together the religions. Yes, we can!” I believe that we’re going to go in as a majority like that. And when we do that, then we’re changing our perspective. Yes, we can see our children grow up in this kind of neighborhood, seeing them grow up to be successful; seeing them to actualize their destiny. Seeing them to become the great global leaders they’re supposed to be, that they are destined to become.
Brothers and Sisters, what can we learn today? You see, it’s all about seeing our destiny. It’s all about seeing ourselves in our destiny, in the picture of our destiny. You see, God has an incredibly planned situation around us -- just like he did for the Israelites. He planned the situation so that the Egyptians were favorably disposed to them and they had to take advantage of that situation. They had to move towards the Promised Land.
You see, it’s so important in our age, in this day and age, to start believing, "Yes, we can be successful as a Unification Tradition. Yes, we can be attractive. No longer will we be a cult. Yes, we will become a phenomenal world religion. Yes, we will become at the world stage, and move the hearts and minds of people centering on the Principle." This is the faith and the belief and the seeing of our destiny that we have to have in order to really make it actualize. We have to let go of those defeated mentalities, that limited thinking is holding us back, saying, “You can’t make it, there’s no way. There’s nothing possible, it’s totally impossible. You’re not going to be able to do that.” We have to start letting those go. You know why? Because God is saying, “I’m making you over. I’m giving you a makeover. I’m changing your appearance. I’m changing your situation. So now I have you in my favor and now I’m going to build you up to be the great children that you were destined to become.” Let’s give it up for Unification Church! (Clapping)
If we go forth with this kind of confidence, I absolutely believe, we will find ourselves truly inheriting the love of God. We will actualize the unity that True Father has always sought and we will be able to be the global citizens that Unificationists are destined to become. If you believe it, let’s give it up for God and True Parents today! (Clapping) We are entering into our Promised Land.
Hyung Jin Nim’s Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day that You have blessed upon us. We pray and hope, we have faith and we believe that You are instilling within us a new vision for ourselves in our lives. You want us to let go of all those past defeats and failures. You want us to say “Bye-bye!” to the past, to the uncertainties. We know that You want us to move beyond the fears and doubts. We want You to know that we will step into faith and into the light.
We pray that You may give us strength and courage on this day, for You have challenged us to see ourselves in a new way. You have challenged us to be all that we can become from the individual level to our worldwide movement. We pray that we may be connected to that, that we may bring forth that incredible light to this world.
We thank You so much Father, for we know that You have great confidence in us. Let us also have confidence in ourselves. We are proud Unificationists and today we want to offer all this to You in praise and glory and thanksgiving, in our own names we want to offer this. We offer this together as we join our hands and create the Unification symbol. Give and Receive action, Four Position Foundation, may I inherit the true love of God. Aju!
Offering Prayer by Mrs. Ing Keng Brandner:
Our dearest Heavenly Father! We want to thank You for this life that You have given to us. We have to see ourselves in a different light. Indeed each one of us is a jewel to You; precious jewels that you don’t see. But You see the beauty in each one of us. We thank You that we can be building blocks for You.
We thank You that You are the source of our love, life and lineage. At this time You have called each one of us, so that we can be walking at the same time and breathing the same air as our True Parents.
We really thank You for this inspirational sermon given by our dear Rev. Hyung Jin Moon. We are so inspired that You have given us this life, this life that is so precious. Generation after generation we never want to forget to give thanks to You. As each one is bringing this offering to You with a sincere and honest heart, however small it is, may each be a pure offering so that You can accept it.
We want to thank You for everything that You have given to us. With this, give us the strength for the week. We want to offer this to You and I pray and ask all this in our names and in my name, Ing Keng Brandner, as blessed central family. Aju!