Rev. Kim Hong-deuk gave this sermon at CheonWon Church on February 4, 2024
Greetings, brothers and sisters, leaders and members, guests! It’s great to see you! Today is a truly precious and meaningful Sunday service. Did you feel great hope and delight from the video at the opening, with the testimonies and activities of middle and high schoolers and the YSP college students?
True Mother was greatly pleased by the testimony of Shin-heung nim, who worked in Japan, and said, “The UPA cadets are reviving Japanese members and youngsters.” She also greatly emphasized how important 2nd-generation education is for the completion of the providence. Furthermore, the future generation, especially the 2nd and 3rd generations, who will be responsible for the future of the Family Federation, are being nurtured through detailed strategies along with deep prayer.
Following True Mother’s vision and strategy for nurturing future talent, about 60 cadets of the 1st class of Sunmoon UPA, including Moon Shin-cheol and Moon Shin-heung, who will graduate from the Dept. of Theology at Sun Moon University this year, will embark on overseas missionary activity for 2 years starting the end of February. In particular, Mother dubbed them “Heavenly Top Gun” and directed them to pursue a “model course for the 2nd generation.” Along with this, she clearly presented the providential direction of nurturing the younger generation centered on young missionaries.
The first class of Sunmoon UPA cadets graduating from SMU this year were directed to go to Japan for 30 days before heading off on world missions, so they returned after working in Japan from last Dec. 26th to Jan. 27th this year. As you all know, last year was a very difficult year for the Japan Family Federation (FFWPU). After former Prime Minister Abe was assassinated in July 2022, our Japanese family has suffered truly beyond imagination, being persistently attacked and persecuted by opponents such as the Japanese government, media, the Communist Party, and established religious groups.
To inspire Japanese members, Mother dispatched the first wave of Sunmoon UPA graduates to Japan, including Moon Shin-cheol and Moon Shin-heung, guiding them with deep interest and love. Through family meetings, home visits, and street witnessing activities, they stirred great emotion, hope, and courage in our Japanese family. Even while on her U.S. tour, True Mother heard reports on the activities of Sunmoon UPA cadets in Japan, sometimes shedding tears, and sometimes she was delighted.
One Japanese family member shared a touching comment: “I feel that all first-generation Japanese members feel comforted and their buried pain and grudges are melting away through meeting the 3rd-generation grandsons of the True Family.”
Once again, please extend warm encouragement and applause to the Sunmoon UPA cadets, including Shin-cheol and Shin-heung, who are the hope of our church, and to Sunghwa Middle and High School and YSP University Student Council, who are the pride and hope of our Cheonwon Church. On this theme, I chose the title of today’s sermon as “Our Hope: the Leaders of the Young Generation!”
Dear family! I know many members are worried and concerned for the future of our church. It’s because they feel the witnessing activities aren’t going well like in the past, students and youngsters of the second generation are gradually leaving the church, their parents’ generation is aging, and the numbers of members who are being Blessed have declined. Some members are worried about the future of our church, fearing it could altogether disappear!
Of course, what they say is not wrong. It is also true that our church has been stagnant for some time now, no longer growing or developing. The number of inactive families is increasing, and the 2nd and 3rd generations are increasingly distancing themselves from the church. Yet at the same time, our church’s public activities and foundation are having an increasingly spectacular influence around the world as each day passes, and top leaders in many countries are greatly moved by our ideology and activities, including the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), education, media, science, religion, culture, arts, sports, etc. They are forming close relationships with us in various fields and participating in the peace movement.
Here’s how I view things: I believe for heaven’s providence to take a leap forward and make rapid progress, there must be a dramatic turning point marking a new milestone. Just as all fates have their moments, and there are ups and downs, likewise in Heaven’s providence there are trying times. In some ways, the past 11 years, while True Mother has endured difficult times alone after Father’s Ascension, have been the most trying times for our church, including intense both internal and external tribulations. You could say it was an ordeal we had to go through.
Taking advantage of this chaotic time in our church, Satan’s minions, sensing this was their chance, launched an all-out attack to completely destroy all the foundations the Messiah had built as if making their last-ditch effort. As a result, we ran into all kinds of difficulties at once, with even True Children leaving their mother’s embrace and splitting our movement.
However, over the past 11 years, True Mother has endured and overcome all the difficulties, taking the brunt of it in her whole body. What’s more, after Father’s Seonghwa, she said, “I am the only one left,” and shed tears saying, “It was as if I had to find a small needle in a blinding sandstorm in a barren desert.”
Recently she said the small needle she found was our children of the 2nd and 3rd generation who have become completely one with True Mother’s heart. Last time, she called the 40-day spiritual practitioners to Cheon Jeong Gung and said, “I have been waiting for you for a long time. You are the little needles I was looking for.” She personally gave her words of blessing.
Now, we can feel overwhelming hope seeing our 2nd and 3rd gen youngsters. Surely in time to come the 2nd and 3rd generations will stand tall as a greater beacon of hope for our unified family. I definitely feel that hope and confidence through the all-night prayer vigils being held at Cheon Shim Won daily. What’s more, with this precious Cheon Shim Won, which is True Father’s spiritual “office” and True Mother’s womb, we feel all the more closer. I know as soon as I come, even Heaven is ready to shower down amazing grace like a waterfall. If I don’t care and don’t attend as if it were someone else’s business, in spite of Rev. Lee Ki-Seong urging me to attend, I feel I will become increasingly distant from this center of providence, and I may miss out completely.
I have seen countless times that if we do not become one with the center and become distant, we end up going to the wrong place. This is because you cannot be spiritually protected if you are far away from the center of Providence, where Heavenly Parent works and True Parents have deep concern. Even if you hold on tightly to heaven, there are many cases where you get caught in Satan’s temptations and fall. If you walk the path of faith casually, you will not be able to remain till the end. Therefore, please always take deep interest in church affairs so as not to stray away from the center of the providence.
If you follow a lackadaisical path of faith without even paying attention to what the church is emphasizing or where to focus your faith, you can easily become a target of Satan and be tested. Then you can easily fall away. Please keep in mind that you must follow the path of faith with a serious mind, anxious whether you will ultimately keep holding on to the eternal lifeline with Heavenly Parent until the end, or whether you might fail to hold on and fall away. What would happen if the rope holding my life up on a thousand-mile-high precipice were to break? The conclusion is we must not be lazy, indifferent, or negligent in following this path of faith that protects our eternal lifeline.
Now, the center of providence is the Cheon Shim Won all-night prayer vigil. True Mother appointed Director Lee Ki-seong three years ago and directed him to strengthen the midnight prayer vigil at Cheon Shim Won. He always shows deep interest and indefatigable devotion. How many times did True Father emphasize that God’s will cannot be accomplished without mobilizing the enormous power of the limitless spiritual world?
Here’s what True Parents say on p. 1027 of the Cheon Seong Gyeong [Korean]:
“We must know how imposing is prayer, and how invincible is the power of prayer. Even if I was the only one who prayed here, what’s significant is that it is a relationship that can mobilize the three-dimensional spirit world and the infinite world beyond. That is why fervent prayer acts the way it does. Prayer has power, so if you make up your mind and pray 24 hours a day, convinced and believing absolutely ‘It will happen!’ then you will see it happen. That is why the Bible affirms, ‘Where two or three pray, I will be with them.’ If just three people join together to pray, great power can be mobilized.” Aju!
How truly amazing this is! Heaven’s providence has even been able to achieve such amazing miracles up to now thanks to the prayer devotion of True Parents alone.
Centering on Director Lee Ki-seong, numerous members across the nation and throughout the world have invested their utmost sincerity [jeongseong] over the last three and a half years, and now the results are beginning to tell. Moreover, True Mother instructed him to conduct special training to raise the 2nd and 3rd generation members as spiritual leaders for the future. The 40-day spiritual workshop began just last year and is now finishing its 6th round. The 40-day spiritual training program is in full swing. Our 2nd and 3rd generation are coming back to us in droves. Currently, over 700 people are receiving training at the Cheonju Cheonbo Training Center, including general 40-day attendees, spiritual 40-day trainees, and 21-day workshop participants.
What is even more surprising is how amazingly our 2nd and 3rd generation progeny have truly changed and grown through this short 21-day or 40-day training. Hearing the testimonies of each and every one of them at the Cheon Shim Won nightly prayer vigil, we witness firsthand the amazing transformation of our kids before our eyes. I can’t help but recognize bona fide miracles are taking place.
What I feel each time listening to their testimonies is that even though their first-generation parents have walked the path of faith their whole lives, their fallen nature has not been wiped away, so it is not easy for them to resonate with the shimjeong of Heavenly Parent and True Parents. Yet, because they were born with a bloodline as clear and pure as crystal, no matter how far away they drifted from the church, even as inactive 2nd-generation youngsters, if they just concentrate a little and offer devotion, they can soon empathize with Heavenly Parent’s heart and we see them shedding tears like a waterfall. If they truly offer repentance prayer at Cheon Shim Won, you will be hearing testimonies of something amazing happening. They’ll be hearing Heavenly Parent’s voice: “My beloved son! My beloved daughter!” This is truly amazing.
In fact, after graduating from SunMoon University three years ago, my daughter was planning to attend a 40-day workshop before starting her working life, but coronavirus suddenly broke out and all training was canceled, so she had no choice but to begin working straight away. Hearing the testimonies of such amazing changes through the 40-day training, even 2nd-gen people are saying it’s amazing. So if it’s amazing to our 2nd generation, we as parents, the 1st generation, can’t help but see it as a miracle.
Dear family, what else is this if not a bright hope for the future of our Unification community? So don’t worry too much: you can have hope. Our 2nd and 3rd generation sons and daughters are now reawakening in their faith. Just imagining how many more amazing things are waiting for us in the future fills me with overwhelming joy.
Didn’t something like this happen in Christian history? After Jesus was nailed to the cross and ascended, in the eyes of his disciples and the Jews of the time, literally everything about Jesus that had caused such a stir in the world disappeared like a mirage. There was no hope or joy to be found anymore—only despair. Even the 12 disciples thought it was all over and they went back to their hometowns and carried on as they had before. If it were not for the spiritual works of Jesus’ spiritual resurrection and the miraculous conversion of Apostle Paul, how could Christianity exist today?
Now, in our church as well, we are seeing amazing works begin to take place as the level of devotional offering (jeongseong) increases with the total investment taking place at Cheon Shim Won. That’s why True Mother has asked us to find righteous people like the Apostle Paul who can play the role of salt. I believe that such righteous people will definitely appear in the near future, and that even more amazing works will happen through our second and third generation members!
Those of you who heard the testimony of a Christian pastor at one Cheon Shim Won prayer vigil not long ago will know that for three days in a row, the pastor dreamed, “We are the True Parents. Follow us. We will use you.” After receiving this revelation, didn’t he come by himself to the main gate of Cheon Jeong Gung in our Cheonwon Complex? Now he is participating in 40-day training for the second time. Please give him a big round of applause..
Lastly, as stated in today’s bulletin, True Mother has recently become concerned that inter-Korean relations are worsening as North Korea’s missile provocations and hostile attitude toward South Korea have intensified since the beginning of this year. We cannot know what kind of provocations Chairman Kim Jong-un will carry out in the future, so Mother has asked us to offer special jeongseong conditions for North Korea. At the same time, Mother asked us to quickly gather and unite all our members’ devotions and to hold a “Special Liberation Ceremony for the North Korean People’s Central Spirits to Pray for the Unification of North and South Korea.”
Therefore, our headquarters decided to focus on Kim Il Sung’s family and the North Korean leadership, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Seol Ju. We set a goal of liberating a total of 1,200 central spirits and decided to do it by combining the effort of all churches and members throughout the nation. Therefore, while we are committed to make our devotional offering for the commemoration of True Parents’ Birthday, we also ask you to actively participate in the effort for the special liberation of central spirits for the sake of the security of our nation.
You can freely decide the amount you can offer. In other words, you can offer 10,000 won, or preferably 120,000 won, the basic amount to liberate one central spirit. I believe it’s meaningful for us all to combine our devotions for the sake of North Korea.
I would like to introduce this poem because it was featured in a full-page advertisement in Segye Times a few days ago. The poem, titled “Long Road”, was written by the poet Na Tae-ju.
“Let’s take this long road together. With you, even if it’s far, it’s not so far, and even if it’s not beautiful, it’s beautiful. I want to become a tree along that road; I want to be gentle breeze for you.”
If we all become one with True Mother at the center, no matter how long the road may be, we will feel closer. Even if it is not a beautiful road, even if it is a difficult road, if we go with a grateful heart, it will seem beautiful. We can become steadfast trees that family members can rely on while encouraging one another, and gentle breezes that can warmly embrace each other. Furthermore, let us create a happy family community and wish for new hope to be revealed through the passion and faith of our second and third generation sons and daughters, led by Shin-cheol nim and Shin-heung nim, who have matured with dignity.
Thank you. Let us pray together.