Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 393. A sermon reflecting your devotion
14 If possible, I try not to write out ray speeches. I normally speak without a script. If you speak from a script, Heaven may not be able to work fully. Hence, even if you write a script, you should not memorize what you write. You should not recite it line by line. Only by speaking from your heart can you enter the realm of resonance with God. Then your mind and body can unite in the atmosphere of God’s grace, in an environment where Heaven can relate to you. In such a state, you cannot have your own opinions. Sometimes I stand in the position of an object partner and sometimes in the position of a subject partner. If I stand as a subject when I should be in the object position, I ruin the atmosphere. That is why I need to pray. When I appear at the podium with a heart of tears, I immediately know how to reach those at all levels, and what to talk about that day.( 231-202,19920602)
15 After you have given a sermon, you should struggle with an unbearable feeling of shame. That is how you can develop. If you stand at the pulpit and give the same habitual sermons you have given for ten to twenty years, you will run dry. Do not just speak your own words. For ten to twenty years you may have based your sermons on your notebook, but you cannot generate life from that. That is why I tell you, do not speak your own words but always cultivate new words, the Word of Heaven. Even if it includes content that others already know, you should always speak the Word of Heaven. That is why you should forget about the script. Exercising this kind of spirituality is crucial. So when I get an inspiration at midnight, or even at 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the morning, how can I sleep? My sleepiness dissipates instantly. Resonance, or stimulation from the spirit world, transcends sleep. It goes far beyond the world of sleep.( 231-203,19920602)
16 When Unification Church leaders give sermons, you need to be motivated to invest all your heart and body. You have to move and inspire heaven and earth, audiences who are beyond the past, present and future. If you lose that motivation, you will end up just following current trends. You will become more and more secularized. Therefore, you should speak representing Heaven. Further, do not conduct research in books for your Sunday sermon. Rather, select the title through deep prayer. When you pray to find the title, you should be moved as if you have regained new life. In such a state, you should feel a sense of urgency, as if you are about to make a decisive proclamation that will determine the future of the nation, whether it rises or falls into ruin. In other words, you must speak as if you are making your final proclamation at the execution ground. Speak as if it will determine success or failure. It is the same with prayer. Have the seriousness of a criminal who is going to the gallows. When singing a hymn, although everyone knows the lyrics and the melody as well as you do, to move the hearts of people you should thoroughly understand what the hymn means. Then sing to convey its deep content. Resonate like an echo! Sing with an expansive and resounding voice that touches people's hearts and changes their attitudes. You have to sing hymns like that in order to move the public.(286-053,19970723)
17 When giving a sermon or a lecture, you need to present something new. You have to stimulate your audience. Through prayer, you need to supplement what is lacking, even placing your life on the line to close the gap. Even when you are just walking along, have a mind to seek for something new. For instance, do not just go to the church, but have a heart to learn something new, to make a new atmosphere. Do not always take the direct route to church; try going a roundabout way. Although you may need to head south, try a route to the north. Why? It is to find a new path. If you are not too excited about doing that, try rearranging the furniture in your home. After many months have passed, do not just leave things as they are; try to move things around. Then new ideas will come to you. We definitely need to do things like that. Vary your prayers as well. Depending on where you pray, whether in front of the pulpit or way in the back of the church, the feeling is totally different. The feeling is also different when you pray in the midst of the congregation. Therefore, seek to make changes in the environment.( 030-127,19700321)
18 When giving a sermon, if you repeat the same one, the members will take notice and feel upset. Likewise, when you give lectures on the Divine Principle, people will be annoyed if you always lecture in the same old way. It is because people feel the changes of the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn and winter—depending on the season you are in. People are not always in a good mood just because it is morning. Even if they do not have any worries, there are days when they are unusually depressed. In spite of the bright sunlight and crisp weather, there are times when you yourself may feel depressed. At those times, how can you uplift your spirit? If you do not find anything stimulating to change it, you might descend to a state of even greater despair. Therefore, you have to either stimulate yourself from an opposite direction or find something stimulating and overcome your depression. You need to find ways to be in control of your life every day. Otherwise, in the future, you will not be able to guide the numerous souls that are lost.( 030-129,19700321)
19 We human beings were created through the Word, flesh and spirit. Hence, we should first align with the Word, next cultivate our character, and then do spiritual work. That is the correct order. If we put spiritual work first, we would have to pay great indemnity because the first stages were skipped. You should be moved by your own sermon. You need to be moved by your own prayer. You should give the sermon in a state where you receive God's mercy and grace. You can enter a state of grace by appealing to God about the pitiful situations of the people, who have to connect through someone like you to receive life and grace. To arrive at such a state of grace you must repent and, through suffering, seek the path of Heaven. In walking that path, you should not have any enemies.( 011-278,19620101)
20 In giving a sermon, do not give your devotion to everyone at the same time. Do not think that you have the public in front of you and are delivering the sermon to them. Rather, think that you are giving the sermon to one person. If that one person receives grace and sheds tears, that grace will spread to the whole. Your church could not develop until now because you have been giving sermons that floated in the air, with no roots. Since there is no base to absorb your sermons, there is no way for witnessing to be successful. To gain a foothold, a church leader should cultivate his personal foundation. When I give you a certain direction, the members will move only if the church leader sets the example by moving, even at the risk of his or her life.( 042-159,19710304)
21 Everything in the world can be material for your sermons. If you suffered many ordeals, you can explain in your sermon what you did in those days. Therefore, a church leader should have experienced many difficulties. He or she should have gone through a lot of life training. He or she needs to have experienced times as a poor laborer, a beggar, or a high official holding a position in the circles of authority. Then when you share your actual experiences in those circumstances, especially the trials you experienced while serving in a public position, people can feel them as very real.( 160-196,19690512)
22 When giving a sermon or a lecture, rather than preparing for it by reading the Divine Principle many times, once you have reached a certain level of understanding of the Principle, you should be immersed in the Word. That is, you should experience how profound that teaching is and what an incredible course of sacrifice I had to go through to discover it. If you can really feel it, you are bound to shed tears. Once you enter the realm of God's deep heart of restoration, you will discover the root of unspeakable situations. Without realizing it, you will be pulled into a fog through which you may have to tumble and struggle alone. That is when you have to firmly secure your position as a subject partner representing God. From that point on, you can become a subject partner and God's work can begin. It does not happen without a foundation of cooperation from the spirit world. If you are unable to enter that state, you must pray. You have to offer devotion for that to happen.( 198-010,19900120)
23 When lecturing, unless you know the Principle thoroughly, you cannot have the foundation of heart to influence your audience. To have that heart, pray ahead of time, "Father, today I will lecture on this title." Then, as you lecture with a prayerful heart, you need to feel the kind of heart that God would feel. Discuss with God as you lecture, saying, "Whom do You want to resurrect today through your Word, as the object partner You need? If there is a person here whom You have long awaited to meet, I will do my utmost not to lose that person." If you think, “I’ll just lecture as I have always done”, you can convey the content but you cannot resurrect people. You can never revive them.( 068-098,19730723)
24 When you stand at the pulpit in front of the public, your heart must feel as though you are going to an execution. It should be similar to the heart of a man who stands before the judge in a court of law, solemnly waiting for him to render his verdict. Therefore, when you stand at the pulpit, you are like a sacrificial offering, responsible for many people’s lives. If you speak well you can save their lives, but if you utter a wrong word you could kill them. To utter a wrong word is the same as a doctor who gives a wrong injection; it can take a life. Thus, standing at the pulpit is the most daunting position. Heaven is present in that position.( 058-302,19720625)
25 When you lecture, do not think that you are just speaking the words of the Principle. You are telling my history and God's history. It means that ultimately you are speaking in order to inherit that history and become one with it. If you lecture the Principle ten times, you will become ten times deeper. More than saving others, you are meant to become closer to God's history and my history. That is, if you lecture ten times, each of those ten times brings your heart that much closer to God and to me, and each of those ten times makes your heart that much deeper. The same goes for prayer: the more you pray, the more your heart will grow deep and wide. You will become higher by the same degree. The higher you become, the more you will develop your heart, and the more you will be given opportunities to grow in oneness of heart with God and with me. Conveying the Word and teaching church members gives you such an opportunity.( 157-254,19670410)
26 I used to pray until I had calluses on my knees. I would pray for more than twelve hours a day. I would bring up issues and then pray to resolve them, as if in a showdown with God. I had these experiences so often that it became like a habit. As soon as I faced an issue, I would already know what the outcome would be. I could feel it. You should not give sermons by reading books. The spirit world, the original world, is not meant to be mobilized based on books. The basic principle is that the spirit world is governed by love. And restoration refers to the perfection of character based on love. We are moved, and our character is engrafted to Heaven's side, when love occupies the central position. It does not happen by knowledge. Therefore, do not read books to find something to speak about. If you give a sermon that way, you cannot resurrect people.( 198-010,19900120)
27 You need to struggle to decide on the title of your sermon. It is a serious fight. If you decide on the title by going over a book one week before giving the sermon, Heaven cannot work through you. That has nothing to do with you. That is why it will never work. Therefore, you should regard the process of selecting the title for your sermon as a life-or-death matter. When you stand at the pulpit, search among the audience for a person whom Heaven needs to separate from a life-or-death problem. You should know in advance who will come for this purpose. If you get it right, the spirit world will be open to you. I never select the title of my sermon days in advance. I usually decide on the sermon title less than ten minutes before coming out to begin the service. I should feel resurrected by the content of my sermon first. Only when I have that experience can I stand in a position of confidence. Thus when I stand before the congregation, I will have secured my posture. Then I can begin to communicate with the congregation. I cannot do so with everyone at once. At first I connect to one or two people. If one person can be moved by that connection, everything can be turned around; then it expands to everyone in the congregation.( 198-010,19900120) |