Building a God-Centered World

On February 8, 2015, Dr. Ki Hoon Kim gave a Sunday sermon at the Honolulu Family Church on the occasion of the end of the Hawaii outreach initiative. Below is the full speech in which Dr. Kim describes the three-week outreach experience and highlights the importance of action for God’s providence.

The weekly update goes out worldwide, so everyone now knows about the Hawaii and Las Vegas outreach activities.

On Friday I met your guests and also yesterday I invited those who had come from the Mainland states, around 25 sisters and brothers and Unificationist-born young adults, and shared True Mother’s message with them.

Yesterday I had dinner with True Mother, and I said that today would be the last day of the 21-day special outreach mobilization on the University of Hawaii campus and Waikiki Beach. Because the outreach participants had reached out to more than 300 people—students and visitors and local people—I told True Mother that I would like to treat them tonight to a bulgogi dinner at a Korean restaurant. True Mother told me: “Go ahead! I will pay for dinner!” True Mother was very happy talking about how much these brothers and sisters had done, coming to Hawaii in support of the Will of Heavenly Parent and True Parents, which is nothing less than saving the 7 billion people on the earth.

Let’s Build a God-Centered Country

These last 21 days we have looked for guests and thought of how we could educate them to become sons and daughters before Heavenly Parent and True Parents. This is our mission. Our goal. The purpose of life. God did not create us as objects of beauty just for His sake, but so that we can represent the beauty and goodness of God. When we understand and practice God’s ideals and live those ideals, at that moment we become the objects of beauty. Without action, we have no meaning. So we must awaken ourselves to understand: “Why am I here today? What is our family goal today?” Let us go back 239 years to when this country was founded by the spirit of Puritans. What did they have in mind? Why did they risk their lives and come all the way to the New World? For only one purpose: They really wanted to build a nation with freedom of religion, faith in God. One purpose. They risked their lives and lost their children and families, finally arriving in New England with that one purpose: to build a God-centered country. They built the church first, then the school, then their homes and then they built their family as well. This was the spirit of the Founding Fathers. With that kind of fundamental ideal they founded this country. But nearly 240 years later, do you really think this country is centered on God? Everybody says, “No! I can’t find God in the schools, the hospitals, in the homes or any place.” This is the situation after 240 years—even though our Founding Fathers had only one goal, one ideal: to build this country centering on God.

Acting Upon Our Deepest Desires

I heard that the Honolulu Family Church is looking for a new location. How much are you praying together: “Heavenly Parent, True Parents, we are looking, for the sake of God and for the sake of True Parents, for the sake of the Honolulu Family Church and for the sake of our coming generations, for a new location. Please show us. We want to take this location for the sake of God, for the sake of True Parents, for the sake of our coming generations, and we offer the city of Honolulu.” Is this how you pray. How seriously do you act upon this desire?  If my Heavenly Parent is with me and is listening to my prayer, and every day I am looking on the Internet for a place, a church, and I pray, “Heavenly Parent, show me. I, and my family and my congregation really need a new church,” God will hear me.  We need that kind of action. I really want my Heavenly Parent to hear me. However, if I don’t have a condition to communicate with my Heavenly Parent, it will be very hard to communicate. If we really lay down a foundation for communication with our Heavenly Parent and True Parents in spirit, I believe that Heavenly Parent and True Parents will give a clear and precise location.  

Everything takes time and investment. Do you know how old this island of O’ahu is? How about Rev. Ho—how old is it?  [3 million years old.] Some scholars say that this island has existed for 4 million years. Four million years ago God prepared this island for each one of us today. Many Unificationist-born young adults who came to Hawaii from the Mainland now are saying that they don’t want to go back to their states—New York and New Jersey.  I’ve heard that Oregon is one of the best states to live in, but one young sister said she would rather stay in Hawaii.  So this 4 million-year-old island of O’ahu is divided into four parts. It wasn’t an island right away. It took five stages for that to happen. The newest portion of this island came to exist 40,000 years ago. And the island is still growing.

The Meaning of True Ownership

I’ve been to many churches. You know, True Father bought big buildings. But if we don’t have ownership of these buildings, we will encounter problems. Think about the way you live: Do you have a rental house or do you have your own house? There’s a big difference. Taking ownership—an owner acts in a different way. The employer and the employees have totally different mindsets. What is our motto? “Let us become the True Owner of True Love.” This is our motto until Vision 2020. Be a True Owner.

I don’t think you are the owners of Cheon Il Guk yet. We have to give everything to build Cheon Il Guk. Are you the owner? Or are you just waiting your turn to come and step in? “Where is my house? Where is my place in Cheon Il Guk?” True Mother said: Don’t wait. Don’t wait for people to come to church. Don’t just stand waiting for whoever to come to your church and give lectures. This is why True Mother has initiated outreach mobilization. True Mother invited an outreach team with 40 people from Korea to come to Las Vegas. They don’t have any experience, and True Mother told them, “Come to Las Vegas and go to the University of Nevada and reach out.” They didn’t speak English so well, but these 40 people within one week had talked to more than 700 students and people around campus. Amazing.

The Key Element is Action

So the only thing we are missing today is action! Action is missing on our part, and that’s why we are not moving. You know, when True Father came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1965, he was most impressed not by the night view or by the big hotels, but by the Hoover Dam. He went down inside Hoover Dam, and there was a big turbine engine, woooooong, and this engine made today’s city of Las Vegas. If this engine stops, all of Las Vegas stops. So we need to be like this turbine engine, constantly moving. God and True Parents want us move, none-stop, like this engine, 24 hours a day. This is the mission of the new tribal messiah.

As I mentioned last time, last year True Mother told the American church leaders, be miracle makers. Early this year, I spoke with the National Ministry Team at headquarters and with Unificationists and community leaders in the New York area and told them, let us become miracle makers. This one engine is making Las Vegas live! Forty million people come to Las Vegas every year, and most of them also visit Hoover Dam. After 40 years, still this engine is running 24 hours a day. After 40 years, still the Hoover Dam is roaring. There are some elders Unificationists who say, “Oh, I’ve been active in this movement for 40 years; my engine already stopped. It ran out of power.” Does anybody here feel like that? Oh, nobody here. So we must already feel like the Hoover Dam engine running on True Parents’ spirit. We are building this country America into a God-centered nation and rebuilding this whole world into Cheon Il Guk, a God-centered nation.

So please, within the coming months, don’t feel, “Oh, we ran out of gas or energy after the outreach teams left Honolulu.” Don’t feel like that. True Mother really wants us to continue running like an engine. Next week I would like to bring this engine to Dallas. They’re preparing another two weeks of outreach activities, and then I will bring this engine to San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and New York. This is my mission, my goal, and your mission and your goal, your family mission and your family goal.

So be an owner of Cheon Il Guk. Don’t just wait around and say, “Oh, where is my home? Did you prepare my house?” Cheon Il Guk does not belong to somebody else. We have to make it our own house, our own family.

I’d like to give you just one line of scripture to take back home today. Please turn to the Bible verse, Luke 17:21-26. Please write down and memorize this verse. Don’t look around and wonder where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Cheon Il Guk is already here! You have to wake up, you have to stand up, and you have to make it! This is your mission. Okay? Once again, thank you so much for listening and thank you so much for coming. Let us pray for the sake of our mission, for True Parents, and a good place to revive this city of Honolulu and take care of the beautiful nature here. We are very proud to become members of the Honolulu Family Church. Once again, thank you and God bless you.