Man must pass through good times and bad times. What determines whether one's experiences will be good or bad, and where do they originate?
The majority of cases are concerned with human relationships. Another possible area is our life in the spirit world, whether God will accept you or not, face you or not face you.
01When you meet the worst, how do you overcome it?
When you meet bad people or have a bad relationship with somebody, you are really in bad shape. In contrast, if you have relationships with good people, you have the best or happiest life.
When you look at reality in this sinful society, you see that in most human relationships, one can be destroyed or used.
The majority are not in your favor. The problem is how you are going to select the person to bring you the highest degree of happiness. Spiritual people can sense within themselves whether bad relationships or good relationships are coming, just like you sense the weather—if it's cloudy, sunny, or gloomy.
You may, within your daily cycle, have this kind of experience. Not only do we confront such situations daily, but you have to look at your whole life. You have to determine how to make your life happy. What can one do? Do not follow your own will; do not follow your own desire. That's the secret.
The best way to overcome any trouble is to go to your parents if they are living, to your best teachers, or to your best friend. In this sinful world, there is nobody we can trust except the most loving parents, the most loving teachers, and the most loving friends. There is no other person you can trust.
Even though you may consult these three kinds of people, they are in the same situation as you, sometimes at their best, sometimes at their worst. Of course, you have to consult these three categories of people when you are in trouble. But when you talk to your loving parents, sometimes they are deeper in trouble or more depressed. And the same thing goes, too, for your teachers and your friends. When you cannot get help even from these people, what can you do? You are at a loss.
Even in this kind of situation, if you set up a clear goal for your life and can say why you are living, then you will be a better or happier person, even in this sinful world. The categories of purpose can be said to be personal purpose and national purpose.
You can become a successful man on the individual level or the national level. If you stick to only an individual purpose, you are an individually purposeful, successful man. But when you are on the national level, you become a national success. So it is correct to say, rationally, that man should have a proper view of life.
When you have ups and downs, the time when you fulfill your purpose will automatically be postponed. Of course, you would like to proceed directly so that in a short period of time, you would accomplish your purpose. But when people zigzag and go through suffering, they have the benefit of accumulating more experiences.
In other words, in having ups and downs, you will experience people of character types A, B, C, D, and so forth. To some extent, a man is pitiful because he worked so hard to reach his goal.
If we compare these two categories of people—those who go directly and those who zigzag—we will find the same thing as you find in the classroom: those who master the textbook and know only that part, and those who use lots of reference books and thus obtain more knowledge.
Eventually, the person going through ups and downs and having many experiences will be an experienced leader of others. In the past, all righteous saints and prophets trod the road going through ups and downs, hardship, and persecution, so they are the ones who belong to this category.
In the worldly sense, we might say this is ridiculous: "This foolish person!" But eventually, he is the happiest, most successful person. Most religious people and most conscientious people belong to that category.
Even if there is a God, is He sad or happy? If people are always happy, he will feel happy. But the majority have problems, so even God Himself thinks, "How can I put up with the worst and most miserable things on earth in the relationships of fallen men?"
God cannot be happy when He is confronted with that kind of relationship. From God's point of view, when He sees man under the worst conditions and most tragic situations still happy, then God will be proud of His creation.
That means we must overcome that situation because God will be glad to see us overcome a bad situation and turn tragedy into happiness. The evidence is in the Bible.
On the cross, Jesus said, "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
That means in the minute of death, he was talking about God's will and his will as the same. Jesus prayed for his enemies; from a secular point of view, that cannot be understood. But in the worst of situations, he made that statement to God.
What kind of a lesson can we find in all this?
To overcome bad situations, the Unification Church pays indemnity. We overcome difficult situations through paying indemnity. After the price is paid, the worst thing becomes valuable, and the worst unhappiness turns into happiness.
Through this indemnity process, utilizing that adverse condition, we can multiply progress on this foundation. In the Unification Family, if we adopted and applied this, then we would make unhappiness into happiness, and we would be successful.
By paying indemnity weekly, monthly, and yearly, you will fill that dungeon of the valley and climb up to the heights. The indemnity periods differ according to individual background... sometimes 100 years, sometimes a thousand years. The Israeli people spent 2,000 years after Jesus' crucifixion in a period of indemnity.
You are in a short period of one generation, but you have to look at the thousands or hundreds of thousands of years you have to pay.
Even if you spend 1,000 years paying indemnity, after 1,000 years, only one person can climb up to the Kingdom of Heaven. We don't know who will be the one person to be selected. A person in trouble may be the one chosen. Who knows?
In this worst condition, he has to hope that after this is over, he will go to his original destiny in the Kingdom of Heaven. The same thing is happening with the destiny of America. It is declining right now. But in this situation, one person will turn this destiny of destruction into a destiny of happiness.
One person can lift this situation to Heaven. Whether it's on the level of the individual or whether it occurs in one generation or in a hundred thousand years, the same law of indemnity applies.
Adam fell.
What does it mean?
When Adam's sister fell, he went to the dungeon of hell. To restore the situation, another person, another Adam, must come here, go through the dungeon, and climb up.
The same law applies on the individual level, national level, or world level. The problem is, where did sorrow and happiness start—where is the starting point of these two extremes?
The starting point is a man and a woman. They started following their own desire. Number two, they followed another master. Because of this, mankind fell into the dungeon. To climb up, we have to go the opposite way; we have to restore. Adam and Eve fell, centered on their own desire. This time, we must obey God's desire, not our desire.
You have to change it. That's simple: follow His desire, His wishes. God is your master. Not your will, but His will. Cling to Him, grab Him. Religion teaches absolute faith, not half faith. You are working for God; you are fulfilling His will, so you are not your own person; you are His.
When you are trying to climb up, some forces appear to pull you down, to turn you away. That's a problem. Satan is right there, waiting for you. Even your mother and father will pull you; your nation will pull you down; your friends will pull you down.
That's why Jesus clearly said, "If you love your mother and father and your sons and daughters more than you love me, you are not worthy to be my disciples."
There is a simple formula to overcome all this. If you stick to the idea that "I am living for Him, I am doing for Him, I am dying for Him," that's all you can do. So even in adverse conditions, you don't have to be sad. You don't have to feel unhappy; you can feel good.
If God is happy, I will be happy. If he's unhappy, I will be unhappy. I am responsible for making Him happy. You should have that kind of thinking.
What is the mission of a Messiah when he comes to earth?
The new definition of Messiah is the person who goes through the worst conditions and then very soon climbs up to reach Heaven.
That kind of person is the Messiah. Then if the Messiah falls into an adverse country and he cannot get out, he's not the Messiah. He has to get out. Any kind of historical confrontation never even upsets him. That is a Messiah's qualification.
The Messiah is the person who must have fought in the worst conditions in hell and stood firm, just like a rising sun in the East. The Messiah must have overcome and controlled all situations in the spirit world.
This Messiah should fulfill individual restoration. The individual level is not enough to restore the whole world. He has to restore the family. Sometimes at the family level, he has the same persecution.
He has to stand firm and climb up. If this Messiah on the family level says, "I will retire; I cannot cope with all that; forget it," then he's not the Messiah. At the bottom of the dungeon of family persecution, he has to stand firm. He has to overcome it on the tribal level, also. On the national level, he has to stand firm. On the world level, this Messiah should overcome and stand firm.
That kind of messiah should not pray to God, "Help me, I'm in trouble." He must not say that! If he does, he disqualifies himself as a Messiah. In the middle of a boxing or wrestling match, can you say, "Help me!
Somebody come here, referee, come here!" No, you can't do that! Messiahship is overcoming evil by oneself, for God.
This is the reason why Jesus Christ, in thirty-three years, including his three years of public ministry, never said to God, "God, curse them, persecute them, destroy them." If he did, he would lose his Messiah championship right there. In the first round, he will be knocked out.
Now let's talk about the Unification Church and Reverend Moon. Persecution on the national level by the Republic of Korea has been overcome; now, America is going to give me a bad time.
Now, suddenly, I have to pay another level of indemnity. Also, all Communist countries will be against me. I know that's coming. Are you ready to follow?
So, you become a good person because you've become one with me. Because I am a good person, you automatically become a good person. You are working for me, but I'm working for God.
So, I'm a participant in the heavenly dispensation. You have a good investment because, if I win the victory on the national level in America, you are automatically engrafted to me. You jump from the individual to the family to the tribal level, equivalent to my level.
By now, you know which road is the happiest and which road is miserable. Then, if you are in your worst condition, you say, "I will overcome by myself."
Through indemnity, you have to overcome it. That's the strategy you have to use. Then, when you come to the happiest thing, glorify God, thank God. Glorify Father and the True Parents first, then glorify yourself next.
Whenever you are having trouble, say, "I am in the indemnity period. I have to overcome." Stand firm, overcome that situation, and you will get out of it. When you cannot overcome, you still have to fight within yourself: "Still in my blood, in my body, the seed of Satan is right there. I have to overcome it. You get out of my body!" You have to fight back. By doing so, we turn the unhappy into the happy. And you will be the happiest person in this life.
It is hot, isn't it?
When you have no fan or no cooling system, when you feel unbearably hot, think of the primitive people in Africa. You think on behalf of the whole African continent, you stand firm, and you climb up.
You overcome the heat of the world, and you will feel cool from that moment. This is the indemnity method, a very precious law we found. This indemnity law is a fact.
The conclusion is that we have in front of us a mountain to overcome, a sorrowful, tragic mountain. But we can overcome it through the law of indemnity.
Make it the happiest situation so everyone can pass through. I want you to be a victor in this troubled time. Through this law, you will be a successful heir of the Unification Movement. That is our direction.
END OF SERMON