Sermons of Rev Moon - June 13, 1982 - Analysis of the Present Time and the Blessing [Part 2]

[대태양/김현수]

True Parents Words from 1982

Analysis of the Present Time and the Blessing [Part 2]

Sun Myung Moon
June 13, 1982
Belvedere

I always dress in a humble, inconspicuous way. Wherever I go, I try to participate in the activities around me, wanting to help however I can. By practicing this way of life every place I have lived, I learned all the secrets of the people around me within a few months. What about you? Would you like to unburden your secrets to me, too? Yes, because you know you can trust me. I learned the secrets of many people who later became my enemies but I will never use those secrets against them. Once someone has trusted me like that, I will never betray him.

Some People have left the church after having told me everything about themselves. Now they are adversaries of the Unification Church and are doing many against us. But as soon as that person sees me, he has no strength  to even look me in the eyes. He knows deep within himself that I am righteously keeping his personal secrets, no matter what

Do you think my teaching has been correct or not? Suppose I tried to kick you out of the Unification Church what would you do? Would you pack your luggage and go out the front door, but then sneak in through the back door?

You know that Satan hates Reverend Moon because Reverend Moon knows his every secret, so he is helpless in front of me. It is as if I am poking Satan's eyes, plugging up his ears, zipping up his mouth, stopping his nose, and binding his arms and legs. The ironic thing is that by opposing me so much, Satan is actually helping me. I devised the strategy by which I cannot lose. As I already mentioned, it doesn't matter who kicks the ball -- whether it is Satan or God -- it will always go to the goal. Now Satan is in a dilemma.

Did you make the right decision by leaving the secular world and joining the Unification Church? What kind of a group are you in -- a very dramatic and joyful one? You can find everything you could want in the Unification Church. If you are looking for excitement, here it is. If you want to satisfy all your curiosity, you can do it here. When people first join the Unification Church, this way of life appears to be complicated and confusing. But once you penetrate into the heart of this life-style, you discover that the truth is very simple. We are simply striving to live sacrificially for the sake of others; period.

The satanic world cannot survive in the face of these tactics. I want you to understand that we are living in the midst of hostile territory known as the secular world. Our mission is like that of high-level spies for Heaven. There are other spies in this land, but they have a different method and goal. They seek to corrupt and ultimately destroy the country. But the Heavenly spy goes into the hostile land for a different purpose-to save it. Satan is saying that Reverend Moon is an intruder in this country, trying to hurt and deprive this country, eventually to destroy it. But actually I have come like a Heavenly spy with the mission of saving this nation. I did not come here to mislead young people but to direct them to the way of ultimate life.

Why is it that Reverend Moon and the Unification Church's ideology will ultimately succeed, while the communist ideology, which is so powerful today, will ultimately crumble? It is because the communists are talking about a different Utopia. They say that the individual must reject his family, his society and nation and struggle against them. But Reverend Moon is talking about a Utopia that is centered upon God. In order to achieve it, the individual does not reject anyone. Instead he must become a restored individual and work to restore his family, tribe, nation and world with love. On every level, you must intensify your love. More than your family, you must serve and love your tribe; more than your tribe, you must love your nation. Rather than rejecting them, you must make them whole. This is truly an ideology of building, not destroying.

When a person accepts a certain system, such as democracy, he normally rejects any other, including the aristocratic or monarchic systems. But the Unification Church does not reject or deny the validity of any of these. We can appreciate the good points of every system. We can even accept communism, as long as God is placed at the center. This is a truly dramatic way of life.

We are climbing the ladder to restoration. At each higher rung, we must intensify our love. Love your neighbors and your family; then love your country more than that; love your world more than your country Love God more than your world. That is the way.

According to your culture, you may enjoy eating bread, butter, and cheese, while Korean people enjoy rice, hot pepper paste and kimchee. Do you like kimchee? Can you believe that true love can come out of the kimchee and rice culture? Or must it arise from the cheese, bread and butter culture? True love is the same in any culture.

Perhaps there are ten different nationalities and cultures represented within a single household. Then the cook would have to cook ten different meals for them. But every one of them will appreciate and respond to the same true love. The cook would be motivated by true love and thus would feel joyful to work so hard for others.

Is true love a different experience for white people than for black people? No, it is the same. The Unification Church is a collection of all different cultures. I would enjoy seeing the Japanese members come to Belvedere dressed in their native costumes, likewise, the members from India and other countries. That is fine. The important common element that we share is true love. True love transcends all the aspects of culture, such as eating habits and customs. True love will unite the world.

If you American people love your country with true love, you will become known as a true patriot. Often those people who embrace a worldwide ideology will deny the value of the nation, but we do not do that. We want to embrace all nationalities and in that way achieve harmony of the world. When we pray, we all pray in our different languages, but we are praying with the same common love. Thus we are all praying about the same thing.

There is no other way to break down the barriers of the fallen world except through true love. By behaving in a sacrificial, serving way, the end result will be the unification of the world.

Isn't God smart to come up with this plan? Think about it -- can you imagine any other way to unite the world except by true love? I thought about it, pondering whether there was any other way But the universe is centered upon the truth of the parent/child relationship -- God and mankind. When you live this way, doing Home Church and serving other people, you are taking the parental position to your tribe.

Once the unification of the world has come, those who helped to bring it about will be in the parental positions. That is the most holy position. You must be able to demonstrate how true parents' life. Such parents are the epitome of the God-centered way of life; they are the ones who love the children with truly unselfish hearts. You will know you are doing the right thing when people consider you to be like a parent to them.

Reverend Moon looks at America in the role of parent. Every effort I am making in this country is motivated out of the parental heart. Therefore, whatever happens to this nation, the bond of Father/child cannot be broken between us. The True Parents are the parents of restored true love. They are loved and embraced by the family and, likewise, they are received and loved by the tribe. They are also received by the nation and the world. Ultimately they are connected with the heart of God, winch creates the vertical line of connection with the rest of the universe. Thus the True Parents become the axis of the restored world, from the heart of God all the way down to the individual. Every level of the world has the same center.

The God-centered parents become the center of the family, tribe, nation, world, cosmos, and the entire spirit world. What is Home Church? It is actually the microcosm of the world. Whatever you do on the tribal level of your Home Church area, you have the qualification to see it on the level of the world.

Your Home Church area is the tribal level where you can practice your own parenthood. It is like your school to learn how to be a good parent. If you want to progress to the national level, you must establish your parental position on the tribal level. You will form your own tribes -- the Smiths, the Michaels, the Thomases. To form a nation, all the tribes will come together and the perfected, parental tribes will join together as the foundation for the nation.

As an example, let's look at Korea with a population of 40 million. If every tribe had its own perfected parent, then the restoration of the nation would already be accomplished. When you are successful in the creation of your Abel tribe, the Cain tribe will be restored automatically. For example, when we restore the free world, the restoration of the communist world will come about automatically.

What must be the center or the backbone of these things? It is the parental tradition, centered upon sacrificially living for the sake of others. At each stage, centered upon the parents, your scope becomes wider and wider, representing your growth. Parental love should be expanded from the family level to the tribal level, the tribal to the national level, and so forth, so that a horizontal base can be achieved, not just a vertical one.

In the spiritual center of America are the True Parents and their family; surrounding them is the Unification Church the Abel layer, and finally there is the rest of society. Those three layers must become united into one. The Cain world should unite with Abel; the Abel world should unite with the True Parents' family; in this way all three layers become united.

Also, the three different ages in the vertical relationship must become united -- that is, the Old Testament era, the New Testament era, and the Completed Testament era. Thus we will have both the vertical and the horizontal lines united.

In order for those lines to be fulfilled, they must consist of subject and object pairs. That is why we need marriage. We could say that on the left side of the central fine is the men's world; but if we only have the men's world, then we are crippled. We need both sides. Therefore, we need the women's world on the right side. Do you think that men and women need only each other? No, they each need to fulfill their relationship with every level of existence, on both the horizontal and vertical level. Otherwise, they do not make room for their restoration.

Some couples claim that they don't want to worry about the rest of the world but only each other. They just want to enjoy each other's company, but that will never work. Why not? God's goal is to link together every level of human society, so He wants people to inherit His tradition on the worldwide basis, not just on the level of the couple. The isolated couple does not interest God at all.

How about you? Do you only care about your own couple? No, our marriages are not just for the benefit of one man and one woman. Our marriages are for the sake of the entire world. Why do you come to me and say, "Father, I want you to find my mate for me"? You could go out and marry anyone you wanted and do whatever you want, yet you come to me. You could say, "I want to make my own decisions and rule my own fife. My spiritual adviser isn't going to do that for me." Why don't you say that to me? You want to receive the inheritance on every level.

The True Parents have won the battle on every level, knocking down all barriers and gaining total freedom. When you inherit that tradition, you can also inherit that freedom. Within the Unification Church there are people from virtually every religion -- Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Moslem. We have a woman here today who is a Buddhist monk and has come to join us in our worship service. We are bringing together all different ethnic and cultural groups.

We are even melting enemies into unity The relationship between many French and German people a like cats and dogs. Do you think such people would even think of marrying each other? For many French and German people, marrying each other would just be impossible, but within the Unification Church it happens. We are bringing together religions, races, and enemy nations. Do you think this is something Reverend Moon is going to do, or haven't I already done it? I have also opened up the doors between Korea, Japan, and the United States.

The most fundamental problems of life me being solved through our marriages. When black parents who hate white people see their son marrying a white girl, they may be stunned and feel that the worst possible thing has happened! The same is true with some white parents. But once those parents observe that white and black couple loving each other, having children and creating a beautiful family, they start to change. They my not completely change and forgive their children within their lifetimes, but at the moment of their deaths, when they are facing spirit world, they will forgive you! They will forget everything but their love for you.

You know that the True Parents have the ability to unite races, religions, and enemies, and you want to inherit their total tradition. In order to do that, you must link yourself to the True Parents. What better way is there to do that than to have them pick your marriage partner for you? When I give you the Blessing, I am giving it on the worldwide foundation; thus you inherit that foundation. You gain freedom from all the barriers in just one stroke. You don't have to break down all those barriers on your own because True Parents have already done it.

Within your own lifetime, all you have to do is expand this vertical foundation to the horizontal level. The individual becomes a family, the family becomes a tribe, the tribe becomes a nation, and a nation becomes the world. Your mission is to do this during this second three seven-year course. You receive the True Parent's spirit and then you expand it horizontally. That is why we have the dispensation of Home Church as our method to accomplish that expansion.

Within the Home Church, you have the individual, family, tribe, Cain and Abel, and all the different stages that must be restored on the horizontal level. When you are successful on the tribal level, that would link you to the nation; you would be linked to the world automatically.

During these three seven-year courses, we must expand the vertical dispensation to the horizontal level. Without the fall of Adam and Eve, there would not have been any barriers at all. People would have been able to grow naturally to every level, from tribe, nation, to the world. They would have created the circuit between the individual to the world, and everything would have flowed smoothly. That was how it was supposed to be.

Since we do not have this kind of world, we must talk about restoration. This world needs True Parents in order to be restored into that original world. In order to move from the fallen world into the restored one, our methods must be exactly opposite from satanic methods. Whatever Satan will not do, God's people will do. That is what we call restoration by indemnity.

Have you paid the indemnity for all the different levels? No, but the True Father has done that. I have cut through the jungle and built for you a superhighway. All you have to do is inherit that victory. Therefore, every husband and wife must be totally united with the True Parents. The original fall occurred when Adam and Eve did not obey their parent, God. So today, in order to restore that fall, husband and wife must obey the True Parents. God has been working through the True Parents, putting together the broken pieces of this world, like a Heavenly welder.

Each man must become a branch of True Father and each woman must become a branch of True Mother. Would you ever think of trying to prevent God from coming into you? Wouldn't you want to totally demolish all barriers between you and God? God wants to come to you in order to love you, not to take anything away from you. The same is true of the True Parents. They come to you to love and serve you; they come in God's heart. The True Parents are bringing God's inheritance to you; thus how could you ever try to prevent them from coming to you?

If you say, "Don't touch me!" to True Parents, you are resisting God Himself. Parents with a new baby will touch him everywhere; that baby doesn't resist them. Parents are entitled to touch, not only the baby's physical body but also the mind and heart of that baby. There is no barrier between them.

Imagine if True Parents knocked on your door at midnight and you and your spouse were in bed together. Would you shout, "Please come back tomorrow morning!"? The appropriate response would be to run and open the door, even if you were completely unprepared, and just welcome your Parents. When a person is totally joyful, he will forget about himself. That is the relationship between you and the True Parents-there are no barriers.

The relationship between you and the True Parents should be intimate and limitless; you can share everything and you can be absolutely one. You must appreciate the Parents. They have brought a great gift to you; everything has been given as your inheritance. This is your heritage and your prestige. Then how can you complain about the spouse the True Parents gave to you? Can you say, "I would rather disregard your decision and make my own"?

Some people might feel, "I have the right to choose my own mate and that is what I intend to do; so, Father, please stay out of it." Is that the right or wrong frame of mind? After all, you were matched on the authority of True Parents, but you each had the right to accept or not. I gave you the chance to make your decision. But can you now say, "I didn't think about it clearly and now I want to be re-matched"? That means you are denying your own judgment, denying your partner.

How can you ask to be re-matched? It is impossible. That lies outside the realm of Principle. You each had the chance to refuse your match, but once you accepted it, you made a covenant between God, the True Parents, and yourself. Can you imagine God changing His mind every day? Once you have made a decision, based on God's recommendation, even if you think it turned out to be a mistake, it could not be a mistake.

You may not live a particularly happy married life, for one reason or another, but you should not worry. God has ample ways of repaying you. God is limitless and almighty. There are millions of ways God can reward you, for instance through your children, because God rules the realm of heart. If you are matched two or more times by True Parents and reject it, then you will feel ashamed before them. Acceptance of your spouse is an act of faith more than anything else.

Without your doing anything, you have been brought up to the top of the pyramid of the restored world by the True Parents and have been given the Blessing. The Home Church is like one little horizontal dot that represents the entire pyramid. You are setting the condition in your Home Church to claim the rest of the pyramid. God can accept that condition to give you the rest of the pyramid.

Some people say, "I don't like Home Church so I'm not going to do it" They are not actually denying Home Church itself; they are denying the basic, fundamental principle behind it. They are actually denying the True Parents.

Your goal is to stand at the top of the pyramid and receive the Blessing. In order to get there, you must do Home Church. You will become true parents yourselves in your Home Church area. I have pioneered the worldwide level and I have experienced worldwide persecution; still I have succeeded. In your time, you will find that people will welcome you because the persecution has been so greatly diminished. Compared to what I endured, the persecution you will receive will be like nothing. Soon the people will completely welcome you.

From the point of victory in Home Church, you will be able to leap into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the place of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, but you are not just in such a simple place. You have a huge "tail" or foundation, which will give you the boost to go to the top. It will not drag you down but will push you up. In order to be pushed up, you must take the position of parent, loving others with A parental heart.

That is why I said that Home Church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just like launching the Apollo rocket, you must have a launching pad-your Home Church-to be launched into the Kingdom of Heaven.

When you go out to lay the foundation of your tribe, look at Jesus' example. He had twelve apostles. Also there were two families -- Joseph's and Zechariah's. Then there were seventy main disciples. That equals eighty-four altogether. Thus you need eighty-four people to form your own tribe. In order to accomplish eighty-four in the next seven years, you need to bring in one person every month; that is twelve spiritual children per year. Jesus' crucifixion came because there was no unity between the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples. Strictly speaking, you should fulfill the eighty-four spiritual children in order to be eligible to receive the Blessing.

According to the Principle, Noah had three sons. Together with their wives, including Noah and his wife, there were eight family members. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were three generations; Jacob had twelve sons who created twelve tribes. There the tribal center was begun. Moses had seventy-two elders who represented the people on a national foundation. The number three is included within twelve; twelve is included within seventy-two. The numbers are all parallel.

Jesus had three major disciples -- in the position of Noah's three sons. That was the restoration of the Adam family in Jesus' time. He gained twelve apostles in all, including the three, but at the same time Jesus suffered the Crucifixion due to the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Thus Jesus could not fully establish the number seventy-two. However, after the Crucifixion, the 120 disciples gathered in Mark's upper room to pray and they experienced the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down and the true beginning point of Christianity occurred. This was on the spiritual national level.

The number 120 is significant. After World War II, when the number of predominantly Christian nations had grown to more than 120, it signified that the last days were here. The Messiah comes upon the foundation of 120 Christian nations. The number 360 is a multiple of 120. With each stage of formation, growth and perfection represented by 120, that equals 360.

The role of the Lord of the Second Advent is to consummate the perfection of the three Adams. First of all, he comes to restore the original Adam who fell in the Garden of Eden; secondly, to restore the position of Jesus, who came as the second Adam; and thirdly, to fulfill the perfection of the third Adam in the position of the second Messiah.

Jesus' suffering and crucifixion had to be duplicated and paid for by the Christians. By the same token, when the second Messiah came and physically suffered through persecution, although he was triumphant in laying the foundation, certain conditions have to be paid by all the members of the Unification Church. By sharing in tribulations, you are inheriting Adam's blessings.

First of all, you must be courageous enough to declare, "I will not be like the first Adam and lose my vision and faith. I will be better than Adam. I will maintain my dignity as a man. If any woman tries to tempt me to eat of the fruit, I will not do it. I will never be the same as Adam in the Garden of Eden."

You women must declare, I will not be like Eve in the Garden of Eden. No matter who comes to me, no matter how attractive like the archangel, I will not listen to him. I will be smarter than that."

Once Adam and Eve get married, can they possibly divorce and marry again? No, there is no possibility of that. You must determine, "I will never change my partner, no matter what. He/she is my only, God-given partner."

From the experience of the first Adam, you are learning the necessity of absolute purity. Is that correct? From Jesus' life, you are learning the necessity of absolute faith. Jesus never had any qualms about obeying the order of God; he was not the slightest bit weak and he never complained. From the third Adam, you are learning the necessity of absolute heart and devotion to God.

Centering upon true love, you must be meek and humble, giving your life in service to others. Jesus' first teaching was, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Repentance requires a lot of faith, and through that condition you can be forgiven by God. Then forgiveness brings about your restoration. So the first requirement for absolute faith is repentance. Then, once forgiveness has been given, your salvation begins. That is the process.

You are given forgiveness by the third Adam. That means you are inheriting forgiveness for the sin of the first Adam; also, you are inheriting the foundation of the second Adam. Therefore, you inherit the ability to gain the true heart from God. The entire world must be brought into the realm of God through the heart of the True Parents. You must live in their heart. You must look at the entire world from the parental point of view. That is what you inherit from the third Adam.

That is why you can go all the way up to the pure Adam and Eve's position. By learning absolute purity, absolute faith, and absolute heart, you can stand in the position of pure Adam and Eve and receive the Blessing.

If there had been no fall, there would still be at least 120 nations in the world, but they would all be living in harmony. Jesus came to fulfill the dispensation of a world community of at least 120 nations, centering upon the Roman Empire. At the time of the Second Advent, there is a foundation of 120 Christian nations. The 120 nations of each era equal 360; therefore, Home Church represents the entire dispensation.

What would you teach people in your Home Church? There are three basic elements to teach -- absolute purity, absolute faith, and absolute heart. The result would be unification -- not by purity or by faith alone, but by heart. Heart can unite them all. Thus you must set all the conditions and pass through all these three stages. Where must you do it? Within the realm of your 360 homes.

You will live through the entire history of the Bible in your Home Church. Therefore, you must receive Old Testament type persecution, New Testament-type persecution and Completed Testament-type. That is inevitable. The best way to unite your area is to pursue those people who oppose you the most. Love them and gain their acceptance; overcome their opposition and then you have won. If you just go to those homes which welcome you, that is the wrong path. You must go where people persecute you and tame them with the power of love.

Each couple, a man and woman, has 360 homes apiece, which totals 720, a multiple of seventy-two. The worldwide level is represented by seventy. The dispensation in Jesus' time was on the national level, but at this time of the Second Advent, it is on the level of the world. Husband and wife have this job to do. If you are worrying about supporting your family, this is the way.

Every dispensational number is contained within 360 -- three, twelve, seventy-two, and 120. Of course, if you really don't want to do it, then it's up to you. But if you know the truth and you know that the truth shall make your free, then you will want to act. You have that freedom.

I want you to understand that you are able to move forward to the Blessing because you are superior to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Your inheritance is superior to that of Jesus Christ's of 2,000 years ago. Your inheritance is from the True Parents on the worldwide level; therefore, you can begin your own tribe in the Home Church. Even Jesus couldn't do that because he didn't have the foundation of True Parents. So your first great privilege is to have the True Parents.

Your second privilege is that you are ready to inherit the base of the tribe, nation, and world, as well as the ideal of the Heavenly Kingdom. This inheritance is something that even Jesus did not have. Furthermore, the time of persecution will soon be over, particularly once the legal battle is finished.

Don't you think that I will win over all the persecution within my own lifetime? America and the free world are beginning to feel that they have been too cruel to Reverend Moon; their original minds are beginning to prick them. One side benefit of the recent court appearance was the headlines in the major papers: "Reverend Moon Met Jesus, Buddha, and Moses." That clearly shows that Reverend Moon keeps good company! This particular publicity is showing people that Reverend Moon has the capacity to unite the different religions. Perhaps someone would say, "I think Reverend Moon was lying about meeting those people," and you can say, "Not at all That was his sworn testimony under oath!"

Now the Jewish people, the Christians and the Buddhists of the world have to look at Reverend Moon differently. The other day, a couple of Moslem believers came to the Church headquarters and asked, "Did Reverend Moon meet Mohammed, too?" When they heard that he had, they were very comforted. This is amazing testimony which gives us great joy. But I want you to realize that this is also very serious testimony; it is upon a long and serious background that these kinds of things can be said.

We have initiated many different activities, such as the Religious Congress, the Professors World Peace Academy, the Science Conference, the Minority Alliance International. All these things are happening; they are beyond the realm of thought.

Our topic today has been Analysis of the Present Time and the Blessing. Our basic conclusion is that without accomplishing in Home Church, everything else you do win be in vain. Even after my life on earth is finished, you can continue to be successful and accomplish in your Home Church base. Eventually our ideology, centered upon God's true love, will be the power that unites the world.

The forthcoming Blessing has this great significance. You are going to inherit the dignity and authority of Adam and Eve. I am giving you that position, so you must be worthy of receiving it. You cannot go to Heaven alone; you must have your mate. Husband and wife represent two legs walking together toward the Kingdom of Heaven. You must be well balanced so that you can walk smoothly. If something is wrong with your marriage, and you are not realizing this ideal within your home, you will be like a cripple; you will not be able to move forward. That will also bring shame to your posterity.

All this is what we call the Blessing. What more could you want? You can own everything by going this way. You win possess Heaven and earth, the True Parents, their inheritance, true love-everything. There is no better word than "Blessing" to describe this. The day of Blessing is the day when your entire self becomes expanded-your eyes should open wide. What will you see? You will see love.

Even your nose will jump with the joy of love. For the first time, you will be able to experience the world of the opposite sex-the sounds, the smells, the sights. You will be supersensitive, emotional and joyful on that day. You must appreciate and be grateful to each other, saying, "Because of you, this Blessing has come to me." When you do your three cheers of Mansei, it should be extraordinary. You should jump about six feet in joy. If we blow the roof off Madison Square Garden with our cheers, that's OK, too.

That exciting and glorious day of July 1 causes your heart to beat faster just to think of it. Perhaps you are panting in anticipation. Are you that excited? If you don't feel excited, you should move out! You women, no matter how ugly your husband may be, he is still a man; that's for sure. I can guarantee you at least that one thing -- women will get men and men will get women!

What could you women want more than a man, anyway? He can love you, he can kiss you, he can talk to you. Furthermore, he will not be a fake. I have given you a man of genuine breed. Do you think the ideal couple must be good-looking? How about a rough-looking man and a homely woman? Which would be more likely to be genuine? The more beautiful-looking person will probably be more bland and boring, less genuine.

Don't be too worried or serious about the coming of July 1. Rather, you should be joyful and think about my words. Just be serious within the context of the truth.

Can you find anyone in the rest of the world who lives according to this philosophy? Only within our movement can you find people of such value. No matter how much money they might have, how good-looking they may be, or how much education they may have, others do not have this philosophy. If you women marry good-looking men from the secular world, they might take everything from you and eventually run away. But these ugly men here-they win give everything to you. They could cut off their own noses, arms, even their hearts to give to you.

You can make your own analysis and it would have to agree with mine-Moonies have to marry Moonies, period. There are two kinds of people-superior and inferior. What is the standard to determine this? The secular world judges according to external standards such as appearance and money, but we decide according to internal standards and values. Thus a person may not have a perfect appearance but his value will continue to grow.

Put yourself in God's position. He might observe one unattractive-looking couple who are loving each other and creating beautiful harmony. Then, another couple might be very superior looking and also making beautiful harmony. Where would God's heart be more drawn? Toward the less attractive couple. He would give that couple some great bonus-perhaps He would give them superior sons and daughters. God wants to give the child that most resembles Him to that kind of couple, not to those couples who spend hours on their appearance. God loves those people who love one another unselfishly and without thinking of themselves.

That is the standard I look for when I think of choosing my sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. I want to find truly genuine and trustworthy people. I can predict this: most good looking couples will fight more, while the less attractive couples will not fight so much because they tend to be more humble. Good-looking people can more easily become very stubborn and arrogant. Those who are focused on their good appearance cannot be completely trustworthy and will always have more room for selfishness to creep in. But unassuming, less attractive people rely more upon their hearts, not their looks. Good-looking couples in the secular world will divorce more often because they are restless.

How dramatic it is when a man who is sought after by lots of women marries a humble, lowly person, and loves her more than anybody else under the sun. That is the number one couple in the sight of God. That kind of dramatic couple would not be created, normally, out of a handsome man and a beautiful woman, but from a handsome man and an ugly woman, or vice-versa. However, I did not match you according to those categories. I matched you according to superior standards.

You tend to look at your marriage as just "yours;' and only related to your own personal future, but I look at marriage as, first of all, an offering to God and an offering to the world. Marriage is the most sacred offering we can make on the altar of God.

Do you have any complaints? You really are glad to obey God's direction? That means I gave you a good sermon this morning! Those who say, "Father, I will become the ideal spouse," please raise your hands. Thank you.