Sunday Service on January 28, 2024

Triangle Family Church Sunday Service on January 21, 2024

Musical Offering - “As the Deer”

“As the Deer” captures in figurative language the desperation the author of Psalm 42 felt in their soul when longing for the refuge found in the presence of the Lord in a time of trouble.

Sermon

The sermon discusses the importance of belief versus faith and shares personal experiences related to the Danbury situation. It also emphasizes the need to have faith in the new era and compares believers to Banyan trees.

Key Insights

• The sermon explores the difference between belief and faith, highlighting that while belief may involve intellectual ascent, faith requires trust and confidence in times of trouble and uncertainty. This insight challenges listeners to reflect on their own level of faith.
• Personal experiences during the Danbury situation are shared, revealing a lack of understanding and urgency at the time. This insight serves as a reminder that individuals may not always grasp the full significance of challenging circumstances until later reflection.
• The sermon emphasizes the importance of having faith in the new era, highlighting the need to believe in and embrace the spiritual reality of living in the era of Cheon Il Guk. This insight encourages listeners to examine their own level of faith in this new era.
• The Banyan tree analogy is introduced, symbolizing the strength and expansion of believers' roots of love. This insight invites listeners to reflect on the potential for their own growth and resilience as they deepen their faith and commitment.
• True Mother's quote about Banyan trees highlights the lessons that can be learned from nature and the potential for believers to become like these strong and expansive trees. This insight serves as a source of inspiration and motivation for listeners to strive for greater faith and commitment.
• The sermon concludes by emphasizing the need to support and love one another, embodying the era of Cheon Il Guk. This insight reminds listeners of the importance of unity and collective effort in realizing the vision of the new era.
• The prayer offered in the sermon expresses the desire for stronger faith and a community of love that embodies the era of Cheon Il Guk. This insight highlights the importance of collective support and unity in deepening one's faith and fulfilling the mission of building the Kingdom of Heaven.

Sermon text  Japanese translation

It's still January, so I think it's appropriate to say happy New Year and to reflect on what January means. I thought about what the future will bring and how I can listen to my inner compass. We all have one, and we may all share a common vision or goal, but each of us has our own way of getting there, our own duties, our own journey. I wanted to share something meaningful with you this morning, and I was inspired by the morning devotions.

Last Friday, our brother Levi gave a very meaningful message and insight. He read from True Mother's Memoir about the Danbury situation. I wondered how many of us witnessed the Danbury course. Not all of us, but some of us did. Levi will mention it and I want to play that part of his message, which is about 10 minutes long.

He thinks that it is important but he only mentions a few points and one of them is that children do not really understand their parents' situation when they observe them. They see their parents work hard every day and face some challenges but they do not grasp the whole picture. That is something that Levi talks about in his message and I can relate to that because I was not fully aware of how serious and traumatic the Danbury court case was for the True Family, America, and the whole world when I was there. I think I was in the seminary at some point and we were asked to attend one of the court sessions. I was there and I acted as a spectator of the situation but I did not feel emotionally involved or realize the urgency of the matter.

When I was in New Hampshire for my mission, our Korean leader asked us to come down to East Garden and pray at the Holy Ground there, and meet True Mother. We followed the direction and joined the event, but I didn't really feel how traumatic and urgent the situation was. We had the prayer meeting, and then the next morning we met True Mother at the dining table there. I can't describe her character or demeanor at that time. She said she didn't want to be here having breakfast with us at all. She wasn't saying it in a mean or bitter way, but very honestly. She said she was following Father's example, who always thought of others in the most difficult, stressful, and traumatic situations. So she invited us to have breakfast with her, when she really wanted to be with Father. She was leaving right after that to go to Danbury to see Father. 

When you are working with True Parents, God's own daughter and son, God's Own Divine family that was set aside for this time waiting 6,000 years for the final moment to come and when you think the final moment is here and everything is going well then Satan strikes and not just lightly severely.

Over the years, I saw that they got strength from somewhere higher than themselves and they always overcame the situation. So when mother started to take the lead role in our movement for the first time, we were all wondering what was going on. And she would tell us every day what was happening in Danbury as she heard it from father. But the main thing was that we had to go home. I also remember clearly that the civil rights leaders supported us at that time. And when we heard that Dr. Park was kidnapped, we couldn't believe it. How could that happen? We didn't know how serious our problem with the Communist party was, because we were all busy with different things, like fundraising, witnessing, working on different projects. And we didn't know all the details of what was going on behind the scenes.

We went to the White House and marched peacefully and lit candles and handcuffed ourselves to the railings and prayed that our hearts would reach of the black church in the country in a strong way and they supported Father and Mother appointed In Jin to speak when she could not speak for herself in many situations.

I want to end on this note by saying that faith is often more important than belief. We believe in Father, we believe that he is a true parent, we believe that he is the Messiah, or whatever we believe, but if we don't have faith in times of trouble, when things are dark and we can't see our way, and the leaders that we relied on are now imprisoned, and our great leader Father is now unable to help us, what do we do? We have to learn how to work together in faith, never look back, never doubt, never wonder, just keep moving forward. 

The eagle is our national symbol, but I often wondered if we should have picked the buffalo instead. The buffalo is very American in its way of life and its traits. When a storm approaches, the buffalo protect their young and their mates by forming a circle around them. Then they face the storm head-on, lowering their heads and moving forward until they get through it. They never flee from the storm.

There are times in our lives when we face challenges like Father being in Danbury and Mother having to deal with a situation where she has to take charge of everything here that she didn't have the authority or need to do before. Now she has to stand and complete this work. That's the trait of the American.

I want to say that we may face hard times again, but our duty is to follow God's will and not give up. We should witness not to get a spiritual child, but to save the world, because if we don't, our True Parents become exposed to danger again. I want to say that this morning's reading reminded me of many memories of working with ministers and civic leaders, waiting for guidance from our true parents on what to do next. Let's keep moving forward, brothers and sisters. We have to build the kingdom.

That video gave me a lot to think about. I was especially interested in what Levi said about the difference between belief and faith. I used to think the opposite, but when I looked up belief and faith online, I learned that belief usually means agreeing with something intellectually, while faith means trusting or relying on something. For example, someone who had believed in someone else's persuasion, but later developed faith in them. So I wonder how that applies to my own life or belief. For instance, we are told that we are living in the Cheon Il Guk era. Do I believe that or do I have faith in that? That's a big question for me. Do I have faith that we are in a new era, that we are living according to a new spiritual reality? It's a big question. There are many things that I believe in, like True Parents. 

Jesus rebuked them when they said they trusted him and followed him. He said to them, you know, you left me alone when I needed you the most. You saw what I did with the miracles, you accepted what I said about myself, but did you really trust that God was working through me? Did you have enough trust to stay with me when I asked you to pray all night? No, you didn't. You believed, but you didn't trust. This is very meaningful to me, and I appreciated that Levi mentioned it. I want to end with a quote that I found from True Mother, because it can help us have a more hopeful and positive outlook.

A valuable image that True Mother shares in the Anthology Book number one is about Banyan trees in Hawaii. They are huge and leafy, and they offer shade from the intense sun. People can relax under their branches. This tree does not grow up toward the sky, but its branches grow down to the ground. It produces many roots that spread out more and more horizontally. The tree becomes bigger and bigger. The branches go down to the ground like roots to help the tree be stable. I have self-realizations when I look at the natural world that our Heavenly parent created. True father went to wild and remote areas around the world, and he extended his roots of love with many conditions of devotion.

He acted as the True Parent and established a basis for success for humanity for the first time in 6,000 years but when we observe the world in general we still notice that there's so much more that requires our devotions. 

When we see creation as Mother teaches us, we can learn a lot of things from it and hopefully if we really use our faith we can grow into strong trees like Banyan so with that I'd like to end if you could pray with me. 

Our precious Heavenly parents and our true parents of Heaven Earth and humankind, 

It is a remarkable era that we're living in and even though we have certain conceptual or intellectual understanding because of our life of faith with together with our true parents and understanding of divine principles.

But I think our hearts are often weak in our faith life and that if we sincerely trusted the valuable words that are given to us and that have been taught to us for many years then we could really become the Banyan trees that our true mother talks about Heavenly parents so I pray that we can help each other love each other and build a community of love that can grow its roots Heavenly parents and become more of the reality of this era that we call the era of Cheon Il Guk. Thank you and I report this prayer together with brothers and sisters.

Sunday School: Bible Study - Solomon Asks For Wisdom

• Solomon asked for God's wisdom to know what is right and wrong, and his focus was God-centered.
• God’s wisdom is available to all who ask for it, and we will experience great blessing if we live a life using Godly wisdom.
• We have to stay close to Jesus and True Parents because they are our life source.