Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 6

As we persevere on the difficult path of life, we know well that we are immersed in a sorrowful situation. We know that many painful circumstances lie ahead of us. We know that we have not the heart which can sing in sheer happiness when we face Heavenly Father, this land, and humanity. Father! Please have mercy on us. We have been worn out by sorrow and hardships. We have struggled without even knowing in what direction to go. Please hold onto those of us who have wandered, not knowing on whom to lean. Father, we feel how wonderful and great is Your amazing grace, yet we are unable to return glory to You. Please forgive us.

Father, You have suggested to us the path by which to avoid sorrow in this sorrowful world. However, we ask for Your forgiveness since we were inadequate in upholding Your predestined will. We know that You have prepared a path by which we may avoid hardships, even though we deserve a suffering course. We are so grateful. However, we ask for Your forgiveness since we were unable to walk that path.

We now desire to live the rest of our lives according to Your will, for Your joy and glory only. Nevertheless, the power of death and the influence of sin in this world powerfully encircle us. You know how difficult it is to escape from them. Therefore, benevolent Father, please be present at this time.

Father, please forgive us. We have not yet become people who return glory and joy to You from a liberated position. Please subjugate the power of darkness by spreading new power and Your mighty hand. Father, we sincerely hope that You will raise the history of re-creation in order that we may sing of the glory of resurrection as victorious people.

Since the power of death is sweeping over us, we need to overcome the decision of life and death. We must gain the automatic and spontaneous power that can push this away and march forward. Loving Father, if there are children of Yours who yearn for such power, please personally grant them the ability and allow the authority of resurrection that they may become heavenly soldiers who pioneer their daily life with the hope of the future.

Father, please forgive them, even if their lives so far have been unworthy. Your will is to announce the new promise of tomorrow and to shake and move us. Loving Father, we sincerely desire that You allow us to fulfill our responsibility as pioneers today and tomorrow as we look toward Your will, Your ideology, and Your hope.

Father, now is the time to purify and check ourselves before coming into Your presence. It is the time when we cannot find any place on which to lean and when we cannot pass through the true center. Oh, Father! The last days are calling for someone who can understand and relate to Your heart, someone who can prepare the victory and bring glory to You of his own accord. You have called us to shape us into such people. However, we are ashamed in Your presence. Please forgive us.

We heard your words by which to understand and relate to Your heart as we go this path. We also saw the deeds which reveal Your grace. However, we have not become the heavenly soldiers who build a loyal altar by upholding Your will. Father, please guide us and protect us since we are afraid we may increase Your grief.

Can anyone claim to be loyal and righteous in Your presence? We are all full of shortcomings and unfaithfulness. Although we have understood Your heart which promotes goodness and that You are searching for those who will uphold Your will of goodness, we have not been able to act according to Your will, Father. Please forgive our disloyalty. Allow us to realize that Your heart is entangled in such situations and thereby compel us to give up everything we have and become reintegrated into what You can claim. Holding onto Your heart alone, Father, we yearn to follow, and move and act together with You wherever You may go.

Please recreate the thirty million people of this nation. Please lead these lives into Your garden of hope again. Make us worthy to lead the people. You have called us to Your will in front of others. Father, please allow us to fulfill our responsibility of communicating Your heart to these people. Please make us into the children who can spread Your words.

Father, even if individual hearts may differ in these sons and daughters who have gathered here today, I know the centers of their minds are the same. Their minds long to live for You, to follow You, and to inherit Your heart. Upon that condition, please work with them. Please move them and show them the glory of resurrection. Thereupon, lift them into the gracious realm of liberation. Loving Father, we sincerely hope for and ask this.

We know well that countless satans seek to invade us if there is any gap between You and us. I earnestly hope that our hearts can be connected to Your heart, our bodies connected to Your hyung sang, our situations connected to Your situation, and our wishes united with Your wishes that You may personally be present in this hour. In so doing, please allow this hour to be one of promise that we may fight off any encroaching authority of Satan and may bring victorious glory to You. Please allow this hour to be one of final decision, our loving Father.

We entrust this hour to You. Please do all according to Your will. Compassionate Father, please embrace us in this hour, for there is no one who claims to be self-righteous anymore. Please order us if You have any words of command. Please allow us to realize Your words, even through scourging if we are so ignorant.

Please, Holy Trinity, personally direct the whole hour hereafter. Through the protection of the myriad saints, allow no Satan to invade this hour. Please make this hour one that can be recognized as Yours; let our purified minds, purified bodies, and purified hearts be offered as living sacrifices to You. I earnestly hope that You will personally direct this hour of service, Father.

If there are any members who are unable to attend here, Father, please protect and bless them with the same grace. I ask You to protect Your young children with lonely hearts, who are fighting in the countryside, with the same grace. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Please allow us to check where our minds dwell. We know that our minds are moving around in all directions, although our bodies are gathered in one place. Just as Adam was shaped by the lump of soil moving according to Your hands, we know that our minds also should be moved according to Your desire.

Our sacred Father, please allow us to long for You at this time with a concerned mind that checks whether the original form and essence of our minds have become the holy of holies. Let us check if our minds can connect to Your heart, even as our bodies settle into one altar now.

We feel that we should not be without the sensitivity of mind by which an earnest heart toward Your gentle and holy presence can fill us, even without our being conscious of it. You wished to reveal our mission by discussing from the hidden depths and showing Your presence in the distant quietness. We cannot help hoping for such intervention on Your part.

When we did not attend You in the midst of Your distant quietness, when we were not able to connect with Your hidden situation, You were sorrowful, lonely and miserable. Knowing that You face such a situation, we should feel in our hearts the necessity of attending You as our real Father; we should feel the necessity of forming one, united, inseparable relationship centering on eternal life and eternal love. If such a heart does not emerge from within us, how can we call ourselves Your sons and daughters? How can we say that we have an inseparable relationship with You? If we are so, please allow us to know that we have nothing to do with the ideal of heaven You wish to grant us, we have nothing to do with the foundation for Your comfort for which You have toiled throughout history.

Compassionate Father, loving Father, if You abandoned these miserable ones, they would never be able to escape from the shadow of death. How can we, who are in such a situation, emerge before You as righteous? We cannot be proud of anything. We do not possess anything. The only thing we possess is our shortcomings. The only thing we feel is awe in Your presence. Father, please have compassion on us. We hope for Your benevolence, Your compassion and Your grace. We are all waiting for Your outstretched hand to appear. We sincerely hope, Father, that You will look at us with compassion.

The dispensational time calls for the last days. The wave of death is sweeping over us and trying to swallow each of us. We know that You see through our chaotic environment and that Your concerned heart and the marks of Your toil remain on this earth. We can understand how indescribably anxious Your mind is as You look at these things. However, Father, we earnestly hope that You will look at us compassionately at the same time and guide us.

If we have a lonely heart, we should confess and transform it into Your heart. If we have a sorrowful and frustrated heart, we should change it into Your heart of happiness and life. We are in such a pitiful situation. Father, You know this. Please forgive us. We have to entrust our difficulties to You and regain our energy from You in this fallen realm when we should be taking on and lightening Your burden.

Father, please permit all of our hearts to be connected. We struggled in the realm of death and had no relationship to one another before; yet we are gathered here as one family with admiration for Your heavenly dispensational ideology. Father, for this reason, we earnestly ask that You have compassion and visit us.

Who can have confidence in Your presence? Because You have confidence, we hope to have confidence; because You said it is so, we desired to feel it as You felt it. Father, if there is any wrong in this, please forgive us and personally direct us. We sincerely ask this.

Father, have mercy on the thirty million people of this nation. They are struggling, not knowing in which direction to go. They are howling at the crossroads of life and death. Satan's claim on their lives gets heavier, Father. We should feel sorrowful over this. We know that we should establish the victorious foundation by changing their path and cutting away the rope of death around them. Father, please grant us the power, if our power is not sufficient. Please give us courage, if our courage is not sufficient. As You gave the encouraging words, "Be bold and courageous!" to Joshua, we earnestly desire Your words of advice to us at this time.

Please permit us to bring the thirty million people before Your altar and connect them to Your life. We sincerely hope, Father, that You will guide us to become Your children who can sacrifice everything and fight against the satanic force that tries to separate us.

Father, there are sons and daughters of Yours in the lonely countryside now, pleading to You with their sorrowful hearts. Please be their friend, their resting place, and their guide. We sincerely hope that You will counsel and comfort them.

Please have compassion on Your children who do not have an environment in which they can share their difficulties with others. They do not have any members with whom they can share their hearts. They are in lonely circumstances. We know that Your world of heart moves beyond the limitations of time and space. Therefore, we ask that You allow the same heart to them at this time, so that their minds can be moved as Yours moves. Father, we earnestly ask that You inspire them with Your undiscriminating hand of grace, and reconnect them to Your heart.

Please allow the minds of the giver and of the receivers to be one. Please guide our hearts to be connected with Your tranquil heart. Father, we sincerely ask that You lead this hour so that we may kneel before You with a solemn attitude and harmonize with the natural desire to bow. Please direct this hour and prevent Satan's invasion during this time.

I ask in the name of the Lord. Amen.

My topic is "My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can Dwell." I will speak briefly upon this topic.

Countless people live on this earth, yet no one can confidently say that he possesses Heaven in his mind. The ideal world which humankind has admired and sought is surely heaven.

In this world, there are many who would wish to live well and be in a blessed position; however, those who can say "I lived well" and "I was blessed" are very few. When we look at this situation, we cannot deny that our life in this world is indeed not life in heaven, but its very opposite. I stand on such a border line; I stand in a position to search after Heaven. We cannot deny that we should seek out and live in such a place. Therefore, our mind searches for a better ideology, and our body seeks a better resting place.

However, the place we can confidently say is the best place in the whole of human history, the place where the original human mind can dwell, has not appeared yet. The lifestyle and social organization of such a life have not appeared in human history.

Therefore, although our minds yearn for a world of hope, we are living in the midst of difficulties in a situation where we cannot avoid the undesirable environment. Tomorrow will be the same. No one can deny that we live in an environment where we desire the world of hope, yet we live with lamentation and grief.

We have to think again about the problem of when we will be able to fulfill the garden of hope, the garden of ideology, and the garden of happiness by overcoming ourselves and our environment, when we will be able to live centering on for what we truly hope. That is the most difficult problem humankind has to consider and resolve.

This problem is so very troublesome, we cannot remain indifferent to it. Moreover, we know well enough through our life experience that our destiny does not allow our mind to stay cut off from the problem just because it is difficult to resolve.

We were born on this earth. However, we did not contemplate whether being born on this earth into our life was a good or a bad thing. There are many people who do not even think about whether this reality is true or not. After being born and living our lives, we are bound to die, leaving our bodies behind. We know well that each of us must go over the valley of death.

The issue of whether we die a truth death is related to us and to our lives. We should not forget that as we began, so must we end.

There may be many who are proud of the fact that they were born on this earth of their parents' lineage. However, a person with a true parental heart should grieve over the child she has borne. Even if a baby is lying in the cradle of happiness at birth, no one can be certain whether that child's whole life will be happy. The parent herself should experience a heart of sadness before a heart of happiness.

If we acknowledge that the child is not born in the garden of happiness, then the life he will lead after birth will be the same; the valley of death he will cross after his life will be the same. We must not forget that we are living in this kind of realm. Let us ask ourselves, "Have I yearned for the true life? Have I lived a true life? Do I have the confidence to victoriously face death as I sing of the preciousness of true life?" Everyone would have to say, "No."

For these reasons, we cannot deny that all people are within the fallen realm and all people have a deplorable destiny. We are not in the world of the normal mind; we are in an abnormal world and environment. Consequently, no one can assert the word "happiness" from the day he is born to the day he dies. We have to remember that such things as happiness, the ideal, and hope have no relationship to us. The reason my mind is not happy is that I have not become a person who can be joyful.

If I had a heart that substantiated hope, then I would rejoice in the midst of that fulfilled hope. However, I do not possess such a joyful heart. If I had substantiated the ideal, then I would be in the position to confidently command all things to follow me, but I do not stand in such a position.

Humankind should have possessed the true ideology, yet they did not. Humankind should have lived in a happy environment, yet they lost that environment. I should have become a person who sings the melody of liberty and peace and who returns the glory of all the happiness swelling in my heart to the Creator; yet I have not become such a person. We have to realize that there is nothing more miserable and sorrowful than this.

Jesus bore the whole burden of the four-thousand-year history. He bore total responsibility for the forefathers in history. He bore all the ideologies of happiness and the Kingdom of Heaven and the hopes of humankind throughout history. Therefore, Jesus is indeed the friend among friends, the center among centers, the center of our total life. He is the center of hope and ideology and even of life and death. Jesus left a word of hope on this earth.

Heavenly Father toiled over four thousand years of long history so humankind might gain new hope and recover happiness in the realm of the new heavenly ideology, coming out of the realm of lamentation and death.

What kind of strategy is needed to fulfill this dispensation? God had to raise one person and sanctify him. Because people on this earth cannot establish a relationship with Heavenly Father as they are, He had to choose a people as He persevered through dispensational history. We know well the history of God's dispensation of the chosen people. God chose Noah, Abraham and Moses for this purpose.

God's heart desired to complete the four-thousand-year history by raising Jesus and resolving all historical heartaches through him. Therefore, Jesus was essential and indispensable for God and the Israelites, whom God chose for the historical dispensational will. Not only the chosen people, all those who live in the world then, needed Jesus. Even all things which existed in heaven and earth then necessarily needed Jesus.

If we accept the existence of God, the central ideology which humankind desires, which will realize the joyful environment, must start with and from one principle standard. That would be an iron rule of the dispensation.

We cannot solve any problem without using a formula. Likewise, one principle standard must be established which will enable us to rigorously reject the historical resentment and introduce happiness into the hearts of humankind. If not, then even if there is some happiness, some ideology and life in God, they cannot make any relationship with humankind. For that reason, God toiled to educate the Israelites in heart to represent His heart. Their happiness was to represent God's happiness. They were to uphold the ideology of God's nation. Accordingly, God sent Jesus after four thousand years of the dispensation in order for Israel to build the garden of happiness and goodness by which they could connect with God in a real and substantial way.

Who was Jesus? During the four thousand years of the historical dispensation, no one was qualified to introduce the happiness of God. By the coming of Jesus, however, God's happiness was to be introduced at last and the garden of happiness which God permitted was to be built. We should understand that Jesus was such a new being in history. The Israelites at that time should have known that Jesus represented the sole substantiation of the hope of their ancestors, the substantiation of the happiness their ancestors had fought to attain. He was the hope for the restoration of Israel's national sovereignty and the establishment of the heavenly foundation.

Jesus resurrected the hope of the ancestors and of the earth, which was buried deeply in the heart of God. Moreover, he was the representative of God, the one whom God had sent to bring about the world where the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven could be fulfilled. Jesus was our representative, the representative of humankind who would build the garden of happiness. The Israelites should have known this; however, they did not realize this. Therefore, even though Jesus came to this earth, he had to go without becoming the central person of the new world. He had to go without possessing the people of the new world and without building the society and nation of the new world.

The world we live in today is fallen. Because nothing in this fallen world became the reality God hoped to fulfill, God can rejoice in nothing. God looks at this world with judgment, therefore, our lifestyle, environment and nation cannot communicate purely with His heart.

What does God long for now? He is longing for something new. When Jesus appeared before Judaism and the Pharisees who bragged of being the chosen, he said, "The things you assert and have pride in are not enough." We should know that Jesus' three-year public life course was the record of the battle he fought to declare and proclaim that everyone had to go through him, that he was the cosmic new being who brought a new ideology and world view. Jesus hoped that his disciples and the numerous people who followed him would become new people. Nevertheless, among those who met Jesus at that time, only a few believed and understood that Jesus came to introduce and build a new heart, a new ideology, a new life, and new happiness. Therefore, when Jesus came, he could not speak fully about these things and the blueprint for the new world before he departed.

Nicodemus appeared before this agonized Jesus. He was a government officer of Judea, a person in the position of a teacher and leader of the chosen people. Jesus emphasized to him the necessity of being reborn. We are destined to be reborn today, just as Jesus said.

If there is a last days in the six thousand years of history, then God expects to resolve everything at that time. God knows that He should judge and resolve this sinful world at a certain time. Therefore, we are walking our course of faith today fearing the last days. What kind of time is the last days? It is time to liquidate the old and assert the new.

Things Jesus Brought to Fulfill the Will of God

When we consider the course of history, numerous assertions of the past have changed as history progressed. As we face the last days today, democracy and communism are confronting each other and each is looking to dominate the other. Therefore, you should know that the time is coming when a new direction out of this battleground is to be discovered.

God is hoping that humankind will become his new second self. For that reason, our conscience is searching for our new self, which is different from our present self. If we live conscientiously, we cannot deny this. Our conscience constantly feels, "Oh, things should not be like this. We should not live like this." This shows that we realize this kind of society, this kind of world, must change. Accordingly, by the action of our conscience, we can find peace of mind, where we are moving toward our new selves and the new ideology without being consciously aware of it.

Jesus came to complete God's four thousand years of restorational history. What did he bring? He brought new life, a new ideology, and new love.

If a certain heavenly fortune were to flow through your heart today, would you feel the vitality of life to join and move with that fortune? Do you feel the heart of the one central ideology which can move all being, all cosmic ideological existence? Do you feel the heart of love which can embrace and melt all existence? We do not.

If God exists, who is He? He is the Subject of life who moves all beings which possess life today, tomorrow, and into eternity. Moreover, all living beings have an inherent nature to want to be with God eternally, to live centering on God, and to share life and death with God. God is the Subject of the realm of ideology and of this inescapable world. Moreover, God dominates the whole cosmos with love and heart, pouring out all His passion.

Today we are yearning for a new heart. We are seeking a new ideology. Where would that new ideology end? It is not a place of mere human involvement. Rather, it is a place where God and "I" can be together. In the historic last days, there will surely be judgment. What is judgment? The judgment will clear out all the conditions that are set in between God and humankind. When these conditions are resolved, a new history will start where God and humankind directly intertwine.

If that does not occur, then God is powerless. If God does not move His dispensation centering on such a person, then there should not be the word "judgment" in Christianity today. However, there is certainly an important word called "judgment." Therefore, we can understand without a doubt that the God who drives His providence toward that purpose exists.

We lost everything due to the fall. I lost the central figure who is the subject of life; I lost the central figure of ideology; I lost the central figure of love. Our mind, therefore, yearns for the life which can taste true joy. Our mind longs for a better cosmic ideology. Our heart demands a higher love.

The life, the ideology humankind sought, and the love which was entangled in fallen people's emotions started from fallen history, not from the garden where God's ideal is fulfilled. Therefore, now is the time when a life force that can drive away all the things resulting from the six thousand years of history is needed. We need the life force that can represent history and drive away all the things which boasted the power and value of life during the six thousand years.

What is the six-thousand-year history? It is the history of the restoration of humankind, which possesses life force. Therefore, we should have the great power of life which can drive away everything that moved within the realm of Satan's protection and rule for the six thousand years. We should realize that only then can we be reborn as our new selves.

To present ourselves as new selves, we should have the ideology which can drive away any thought or ideology formed through the six-thousand-year history. If we cannot, then we cannot come forward as the vanguard of the new age. I cannot be reborn as my new self. Without possessing the great power of life which can deny the six-thousand-year history, without having a new ideology that can drive away any other kind of thought or ideology, I cannot become a new self.

It does not end there. History has developed in the direction where human emotions of love are intertwined within our family. God has demanded this. However, since the family did not become the perfect foundation upon which the ideology can be practiced, it will all be broken apart in the last days.

Humankind has brought about the civilization of the twentieth century and seems to move around the world freely. Nevertheless, when it comes to moving this world, their power of life is extremely weak. Their ideologies are in a state of utter ruin. Their emotions and loves are in the same situation. Materially, people of the twentieth century have advanced worldwide; in the internal aspect of life, however, they are utterly weak. History is descending toward the age when no one possesses a fervent heart toward an ideology; no one can find the heart of true human love.

As a result, when we look at the family in this age, we cannot find the heartistic relationship between husband and wife, parent and child, that can be proud before God. The relationships between husband and wife, brothers and sisters, and between friends are all the same. Not only righteousness and the laws of human morality but even the standard of love itself is facing demise at this time. We have reached the time when God is about to demolish all these. For these reasons, now is the time when the great power of life and ideological authority is needed to straighten out this chaotic world. Such a time has come. The time has come for the love that contains the great power of life to be joined. Subsequently, all can unite and act toward one common purpose.

God has professed words to many people. God spoke of the chilling of love in the last days. He foretold that everyone would reject and betray God. God said that everyone would fall on the suffering and painful path when the time came. If one possesses the power of eternal life, then he will overcome any pain; however, in the last days, God said they would betray Him and their heart of love would fracture. Such a time is the last days.

What will God bring when He comes again? Since we know that God is not going to destroy the world but will come again with a new ideology, what will He bring? He will come with the great power of life and the authority of a new ideology. He will come with the origin of love. Such a person is called "the Lord" in Christianity.

We who have tread and walked the course of fallen history need the touch of life which is stronger and more permanent and eternal than anything we have enjoyed or experienced before. The place where we experience such a touch will be our eternal resting place, a place we would never want to leave.

The three disciples who saw the transfiguration of Elijah, Moses and Jesus wanted to remain in that place. Have you attained and experienced the state of heart where you feel, "This is my eternal resting place, the place of eternal happiness. This is where there is no beginning and no end"? When one appears with the great power of life to which all creation will bow their heads, he will naturally become the master of all things. In his ideological world, all things and even God would want to rest and remain. When his loving emotional heart wells up, all things should want to harmonize with it. Even God should want to rejoice with it. There is such a loving emotional state. If these contents are not fulfilled in the last days of human history, then God's dispensation will end in destruction. The whole dispensation of God for this world would become a total failure.

God has been toiling until now, for He cannot allow such a conclusion. Therefore, we cannot deny that the garden of new life, new ideology, and new love will certainly come to humankind today.

What should I, as an individual, do in these last days? To solve this problem, we have to hold onto the Messiah who came for all people. Humanity has progressed until today through numerous historical relationships. God's dispensational history was brought about through the chosen people God so lovingly chose. This history was for the purpose of embracing His loving sons and daughters.

Therefore, we have to conform with the heavenly content that moved the six thousand years of history to possess the power of life that can push the whole of it away. Jesus drove away the four thousand years of history when he came two thousand years ago by being connected to the historical heart of God. After clarifying everything in the four-thousand-year history, Jesus wanted to build a new garden upon that foundation. Therefore, holding onto that heart of Jesus, we should clarify history and think of the future. We have to think of how much Jesus longed for the emergence of his new ideology at that time.

Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was reborn, he could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, I must deny the life I have lived until today. No matter how much I think I have accomplished, I must deny my individual self. Because I am a fallen person, I cannot escape from that realm. My life and my lifestyle should be denied.

What we think of as normal is not indeed normal. We live an abnormal life; we have an abnormal lifestyle, and we die abnormally. The natural place for us to enter would be hell. What is heaven? It is the place where the person goes who lives a normal life, has abnormal lifestyle, and dies normally.

If Jesus came to distinguish between hell and heaven, to close the door to hell and open the door to heaven, to build heaven, then he certainly did not come with an ideology, a life, and a love that can be denied. You should understand this.

Who did Jesus come in search of when he came to this earth? Jesus came searching for the Israelites, whom God has established as the chosen people after indescribable hardships. Jesus was absolutely necessary for Judaism, the religion of the chosen. That absolutely necessary one was hung on the cross and departed. You should realize that Jesus was absolutely necessary for the Israelites and Judaism. The cross was absolutely unnecessary. It should not have been.

Why did Jesus come to this earth and for whom did he come? Representing God, Jesus came to this earth to make people walk the historical path with hearts that could connect to God's heart and the heart of history. The Jewish people understood how to follow God's history, but they were not able to follow God's heart. They upheld God's dispensation, yet they failed to uphold God's heart.

For that reason, Jesus came with the historical heart and God's heart, moving behind the dispensation. Jesus came with the heart that substantially represented the four thousand years of history. The Israelites and the leaders of Judaism, however, did not know this.

Searching for God means grasping the life that emanates from God's heart, finding the ideology that comes through God's heart, and searching for the love that comes from His heart. There cannot be life without going through God's heart. There cannot be ideology without connecting to God's heart. There cannot be love that does not come from God's heart.

For that reason, when Jesus came to this earth, he came as the owner for the four-thousand-year history in the realm of heart. Because his heart represented God's heart, whatever came out of his heart had the power of life. His heart was the substantiation of the historical life, of the historical hope and ideology, and the historical love.

Therefore, Jesus should have been regarded as more important than the people and nation of Israel and Judaism. The Israelites, however, killed this most significant Jesus. They were ignorant of the fact that they could have gained his heart and ideology for the nation, for God's dispensation, and for the whole universe through this one person, Jesus. They killed Jesus, for they did not know.

Today we believe in this Jesus. We should not believe now in the dead Jesus. We should believe in the substantial Jesus who had the new ideology, the new life, and the new heart of love. However, where did Jesus go? He is no longer on this earth. Because he was killed, he is no longer on this earth.

When will he come again? When Jesus came to this earth, he had the responsibility to establish a new form of ideology and to build a new history and people intertwined with new life and a new heart. Jesus left the word that he would come again, for he had to go without fulfilling these things.

The word that he would have to come again was indescribably tragic. Today's Christians, however, understand this as a glorious word. They do not know that they should mourn for the dead Jesus before having expectations of that word with hope, as a glorious word. Therefore, if one comes looking for my new self, we should attend and uphold that person.

We are in the last days of the six-thousand-year history, two thousand years after Jesus' coming. What should we do at this point? The descendants of Abraham should inherit the faith and loyalty of Abraham. The sixty thousand Israelites who followed Moses should resemble the faith and loyalty of Jesus. This is the Alpha and the Omega. For this reason, we can become a friend to God and Jesus in the world of the heavenly heart only when we fight to resolve the aching heart of God as He worked throughout history.

Who are sons and daughters of filial piety? In daily life, if someone just feels happy when he sees his parents happy, that is not a filial son. The real filial son or daughter would not only feel the happiness; he or she would also feel the course of past hardships that went before the present happiness. If a son or daughter only rejoices without knowing everything of the process that led to the happiness, this is not a truly filial child. If that is the case in the human world, it would certainly be true in the case of the heavenly dispensation and of God's will for the future.

Who was Jesus? He was the substantiation of new resurrection, culminating the four-thousand-year history. The people of that time did not know that he was unprecedented, representing Heaven and earth.

Had the high priests and Pharisees known that Jesus came for the followers of Judaism and the Israelites, they would not have opposed the people going to Jesus. However, they opposed and prevented this, and Jesus lived a heartbroken life on this earth and departed in misery. This is certainly the sin of humanity, not of God or Jesus.

How absurd is the fact that the birthplace of the Messiah, whom God promised for four thousand years through the prophets, was a stable. Think about it. In a stable? Many people today celebrate Christmas as a wonderful day but, actually, it is heartbreaking. Many do not know it is a sorrowful day for which no amount of tears would suffice.

Had there been people at that time who truly longed for and prepared for the Messiah such that their sincerity even touched the heart of Heaven, they would not have treated the Messiah in that way. There should have been people who prepared for Jesus, but there were none.

As we face the era of the last days, we hold resentment against our forefathers. For what? For allowing the historical conditions that culminated in the persecution of the Messiah. Moreover, we hold resentment against the people of Judaism and the Pharisees of two thousand years ago. If there were any indignation in the heart of Jesus, it would have been against the Israelites. However, Jesus did not resent them, for if he had abandoned them, God's foothold on the chosen people would be broken. As Jesus thought of the heavenly heart that had toiled for the four thousand years, he knew that all the work of God toward the Israelites would be lost if he abandoned them.

Knowing this, he had to bless his enemies out of the fear that the historical relationship would break and the suffering of his people would follow upon his death. He did not bless his enemies out of joy. He did not bless the people of Judaism, the Israelites, out of his love for them. We should realize that Jesus blessed humanity out of concern for the further burdening of God's tearful heart in the dispensation of history. Therefore, we can understand God's heart only when we dare to do the work in place of Jesus who died so regretfully, when we dare to feel anger concerning his death on the cross.

People say that Jesus came to die, but that is not true. As Jesus walked to his death, he was heartbroken and so was God. Jesus came for God and for his people. The day he was killed, Heaven could not help becoming utterly dark. We should understand this today.

Jesus was born on this earth as a totally new being in human history. However, he lived a miserable life.

For whom did Jesus live? He did not live for himself. It was not because he did not have pride. Although he was persecuted, he had within himself the power of life and ideology and the power of intense love. We should know that he lived without fully spreading his authority of life, ideology and love. For whom did Jesus live? He lived for his miserable people. The resurrected Jesus has toiled until today to resurrect our dead existence by his living substance. That has been the historical course of the two thousand years since his death. For whom did he live his thirty odd years? It was not for himself but for God and fallen humanity.

For that matter, for who did God toil? God has never lived for Himself. He lived to save the people who had died because of the fall.

What kind of days are the last days? Since Jesus did not live for himself, humanity has to offer a time when Jesus can live for himself. Since God also has not lived for Himself, humanity also has to establish a time when God can live for Himself. The last days are such a time.

God could not live for Himself until today because He had to save the dead people who had inherited the fallen lineage. Jesus could not live for himself during the two-thousand-year history. Holding onto humanity in the realm of death, God has been working six thousand years to save them and to restore a new day.

What determination should we make today? We should inherit Jesus Christ and be born again. Have you felt the power and touch of life permeating your mind? Have you felt that this is the only ideology for humanity? Have you felt that this is the only thing that can resurrect humanity at last and initiate a new history? If you have felt this, you should abandon living for yourself and walk the path Jesus walked.

After the resurrection, when Jesus looked down upon this world and saw how God's worry and concern filled this earth and how much toil remained, he wanted to pray, "Oh, God! Please entrust everything to me and rest in peace." That was the heart of Jesus. However, God could not rest. As Jesus felt sorrow, God also felt sorrow; as Jesus was dying on the cross, God also felt the pain of death.

As long as we believe in Jesus, we should not envy the world of glory, even if we have confidence that we will elevate to the position of glory from attending the resurrected Lord, having crossed the judgment altar of the last days.

Jesus came as the king of kings to restore the heavenly sovereignty, to attend God as the son of glory, and to bring peace to all people. However, he was not able to rejoice even for a moment. Jesus lived and died solely for us, humanity. God is still holding onto this earth. Jesus is still holding onto this earth. The Holy Spirit is still holding onto this earth. If we are to become friends of the heart with Jesus, we should have the heart that says, "God! Holy Spirit! We will hold onto this earth now."

What was it like for Jesus coming to this earth? He was born in a stable; he lived with the persecution and contempt of others; he died miserably, hung on a cross. Therefore, our task today is to feel the heart Jesus felt as he passed through the way of the cross.

If there is any glory, before I can sing of the glory, the Lord should sing to the Father, and the Father should sing to all people. Only after that can I sing of the glory. In order for the Father to sing of glory to all people, first there must be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Therefore, we should make the environment for God and Jesus to rest. We should re-establish the dignity of God as the Creator and the dignity of Jesus as the Savior. Heaven and earth, all things, the countless spirits in the spirit world and in hell, even Satan himself, should say, "You are indeed the son of God."

You know that the sad historical course has not ended yet, and the time of the judgment has not yet arrived. Nevertheless, you felt the heavenly life, embrace the heavenly ideology, and received the shock of the heavenly heart. What is it all for? Of course, it is for God's hope to be transferred to you. That is the purpose of God.

The people of this nation remain as God and Jesus' concern. We should be willing to take the responsibility over all such concerns and liberate Jesus and God. Therefore, centering on such a determination, you should bring the victorious results from the war and attain the qualification of being a friend of Jesus. Only then can you substantially elevate to the level of resurrection. Because Jesus lived such a life and resurrected after his death, we also must go beyond the condition of being resurrected after living such a life. Therefore, we must follow the path of Jesus to discover our new selves.

God's dispensation is not only looking for new individuals. He must find a new family, a new people, a new world, and ultimately the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus was unable to leave the value and standard of his heavenly character or personality as a new being on this earth. Therefore, he left behind the term "bridegroom and bride" as he left. God's will is to establish a heavenly individual to find a family. Having that family as a model, He is to find a people; having that people as a model, He is to find a nation; having that nation as a model, He is to find the world, restore heaven and earth, and ultimately build the Kingdom of Heaven.

What should we do to become a new, resurrected self? We must establish the standard upon which God can say, "I can now defend you, and I will take the responsibility for your life, your ideology, and your love and heart."

No matter how we are attacked, we can be resurrected if we have the standard upon which God will take responsibility for us. Jesus was able to be resurrected after the attacks of countless satans, for he had such a standard. His authority of life, ideology and love was connected to God's heart. For that reason, Jesus' substance was able to be resurrected.

If we have that kind of heart, who can attack the power of my life, my ideology, and my love? As long as God is with us, we have the authority to be resurrected after countless beatings from Satan, even after countless deaths. We should realize that we can be recognized as a new self with a new standard, a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven and a heavenly family, only when we stand on the judgment altar with that authority.

For this reason Christianity teaches, "Those who are willing to die shall live and those who want to live shall die." In the last days, we ourselves must die first if we are to become a new self, for everything in history is as death. We can become a new self only when we die in the fallen world and feel the glory of resurrection as we step over death by the power of God's heart, ideology and love.

We should become those who can courageously withstand any kind of storm with God's life, God's ideology, and God's heart embraced in ours. Only then can we become the long-awaited new self who is qualified and worth to be the central figure in the new age.

There is no one who can see through God's sorrow now on this earth, and there is no lineage that can be connected to God's heart of love. No people are willing to acquire God's ideology. There is no lineage connected to God's life which can remain together with God for eternity. Is all this true?

We are God's adopted children because Satan took possession of everything in history until today. The adopted child has a different lineage from the parents. For that reason, if we are to become children of the direct lineage, we must become a new self from the adopted child position. To attain the form of the children of direct lineage, we must receive the power of heavenly life, the touch of life, the ideology of life, and the impact of love. Without them, I cannot be reborn as a new self, a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a parent who can have the children of the Kingdom of Heaven. God's wish is to accomplish this. This is our wish, humanity's wish, Jesus' wish, and God's wish; yet we did not know this until now.

Think this over. You should not be without a longing mind that searches for a new life. You should remember clearly that you cannot remain in the new age if you do not search for the new ideology and the new love.

We realize that there have been many who came and went, yet there were truly few who came and went representing you, Father. There were many who loved centering on this earth, yet there were none who loved holding onto You.

So many people have longed for the garden of hope, the garden of ideology, yet there were none who held You and sang to You, "This is my every hope." Father, please allow Your sons and daughters who are gathered here to experience the feeling toward You. Make them understand that You are the whole of ideology, the whole of life, and the whole of love. Please make them understand Your sorrow of not being able to relate to us in a dignified environment, for we are unable to represent all of Your will.

You have now allowed us to re-establish Your dignity and Jesus' dignity. If any sorrow exists on the earth, we should take that sorrow as ours. Make us understand that any pain on the earth is ours. We should truly be connected to Your mind and Jesus' mind. Please give us the determination that we will take sorrow and hardship from You and resolve them. We know that we are at the historical turning point in which we must push away everything and feel Your grace of life. Please allow us to have a new foundation in our mind.

Please make us realize that we will not be able to escape a declining fate in the judgment of history if we do not have the new ideology and the new heart and do not establish the standard by which to be connected with You.

We know that Jesus lived for this mission, and he lived his thirty years of life not for himself but for his people and fallen humanity. We know that the era of the Kingdom of Heaven is coming in which Jesus can live for himself. We also know that we have the final mission to receive permission for the glory of resurrection by going over the suffering hills and the path of the cross in a victorious and substantial manner.

If Your children who are gathered here understand these contents, Father, they should unite with that will and substance. They should prepare a substantial offering for the accomplishment of that will. Please be with them, Father. I sincerely ask that You allow Your children to build a victorious altar that can be recognized by You so that they may prepare a holy temple.

Father, please subjugate everything from this hour on. I also ask You to accompany the whole schedule of this day. Please keep Your hand of protection upon the people of this nation and the members. I ask all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Volume 6

ISBN 0-910621-81-0