A. Choosing a Title

A sermon for a gathering is not something that I make up as I go along, but something I receive the meaning for and do under the permission of Heaven. That is a true sermon. That condition of the heart... Do you understand? Therefore, everyone who goes up to the sermon podium with a proud posture may not be God's leader. You must go with the attitude of an offering as if you were going to the place of execution. When a judge in a court lays down a sentence of execution, it is a moment of extreme tension, correct? People who have not experienced this do not know. Standing at the podium is a more tense situation. It is a scary thing. Wasn't it scary in front the Ten Commandments a long time ago? That is the kind of position it is.

For people who have not had that kind of experience but just go home to live and eat, it doesn't matter whether they are asleep or awake. Therefore, a minister has to deal with the problem of how to adjust to that life and environment.

When you give a sermon, you shouldn't go having absolutely decided on a topic. Rather, you should pray and receive the topic during prayer. With a prepared topic, there is no way you can move the people. If you always prepare... If you want to make others cry, you must first shed tears during your sermon preparation and prayer. While thinking about all sorts of different people, begin thinking of Korea's current situation and think about the kind of person who will come to hear you. You shed tears about this and go to the podium in order to give the audience the grace of having them cry. Even with a script, it must be a script that you wrote with tears, in order to have your recipient shed tears. In the same way, you must become the motive... Without this, it is a lie if you say that the recipient cries. Isn't that right?

Therefore, when you stand before the podium, you must know that the podium is a judge. Then, although you expected to do better than last time, when you haven't done better you must repent. If you gave a sermon for one hour without giving any grace, you have to repent for three hours. If you give a bad presentation and you don't give them any grace, you have to apologize in excess of three times. For a plant, you must give it the water of life and take care of it. But if you didn't give it water, and take away water instead and ruin the soil, you must be responsible for that. Even after the audience has left, you must spread grace, centering on the day's speech.

B. The Right Heart

When you give sermons on Sunday, you must be serious. If I were you, I wouldn't get any sleep. How could one sleep? Giving a sermon is like giving an injection in order to save other's lives. It is the same as giving a rejuvenation shot. We need to give members one week's worth of medication and then give them a rejuvenation shot. You must lead from the serious position of a doctor who gives a shot to a patient who is on the brink. That is why when you go before the podium, it is like going to the place of execution.

This is true for me. I have led a lot of people, and there are rumors about me within the public. I feel the same with people that I do not know as well. The first time you depart and the last time you return is the same. The more you do... It is more difficult. If the more you lecture, the more words flow out of your mouth and the more automatic it becomes, that is not good. The more you do it, the harder it should be. It is more difficult. That is why the audience is moved. Because it is new.

So, when you eat morning rice, you eat new rice, right? Is it new rice or old rice? [New rice.] It seems like new rice, right? [Yes.] There must be some new flavor. In the same way, you must give new things. So, when you give Principle lectures, you must also give new things.

From the spiritual aspect, we should supply a new something, like a health medicine, and add to it. If we don't, there will be a sour taste, a salty taste, or a bitter taste.

When you give a sermon on Sunday, you must speak from the position of feeling the pain a woman feels when giving birth to a child. You must apply all of your concentration there. When you stand before the podium, you must have the feeling of a pregnant woman going to the birthing room. I've tried to enter that level. If you enter that level, you need no preparation. The content of your sermon is not a problem and speaking is not a problem. So, the problem is whether your heart is ready or not.

You have all seen those Russian tight-rope walkers, right? It must be that kind of feeling. The feeling that a tight-rope woman feels. When standing at the podium, it is that kind of feeling. Do you understand?

Even I feel the same way.... You think giving sermons is easy, right? If you shed tears while preparing, your audience will also cry. That is why when you offer a prayer at the podium, you get all choked up. You must stand at the podium with that kind of heart. If you cannot control it while you speak, you will end up wailing. Regardless of whether or not you'll lose face, the heart of crying out will come to a boil. If you want to feed people hot gruel, you must pour and give out hot gruel. It is the same thing. Whether you are preparing for a sermon, or pouring gruel, if you make a mistake, it will seem like it is dark. Do you understand? In order to prepare for a sermon, you must use discretion in what you eat and use discretion in having relations with your spouse. You have to know that there are those kinds of situations.

The time that you give a sermon has to become the line between going to heaven and hell for someone. If someone says, "I have always wondered about the Unification Church, I think I'll go and see," and goes to the Washington church, and that person leaves saying, "What was that all about?" it is the same as if you cut off their head. The position that is more serious than when a judge gives a sentence in the courtroom is the position of giving a sermon. You must know that tens and hundreds of people stand in that position.

Moreover, if you are responsible for one person in the church and that person falls away, you have failed the one person you were responsible for... have you thought of that?

A leader mustn't take his responsibility lightly and make his followers come to dislike him. We must try to make sure that no one is like that. It is difficult to be a leader. You must know that being in the position of revealing your original self is an extremely scary and fearful position.

You must feel this through giving sermons. If you give an ill-prepared sermon and no one receives any grace from it, if you give all your strength and there still is no result, you must come back and spend some time wailing regretfully. It is a shameful thing. You must know your own shame. That is how you develop.

C. Things to Look Out For when Giving a Sermon

Dedication is not something you give just once. When you give a sermon, do not think that you are giving a sermon in front of many people, but think that you are giving a sermon to just one person. If one person is inspired and sheds tears, that will spread throughout the audience. Up till now, the reason that district and regional leaders have not been able to make progress with their churches is that they have given sermons which were not rooted and seemed to just float around in the air. If there is no foundation for it to be absorbed, who can witness successfully? The district leader himself must clean his own foot stool. If I give some direction, the district leader must risk his life to accomplish it in order to set a standard for the members.

You must always be aware of what direction I am taking. If you fall into step with me, it will be the most effective thing for your sermons. It becomes a motive for you to give inspiration. The problem is trying to find out what I am doing a certain thing for. In order to meet my heartistic level, you must bring up your heart and think about how you will go in my place and represent me. If all of you in this nation move in unison as an object to me, then heavenly fortune will come to us.

D. Preacher should give New Inspiration Every Time

It's true for local pastors. If one lectures in one's own district, people say, "Oh, that district leader is giving the Principle lecture. He will say this after this," and they know it all. So you can't give the same lecture as three years ago.

You lectured this way in past, but you should be able to add branches of new explanation and contents to it now. In contents, you should give necessary testimonies for spiritual growth. You need to give lectures appropriate to the particular atmosphere. If you've been a preacher for three years, you have to give testimonies which will give inspirations to listeners. If a member doesn't get that kind of inspiration, he or she doesn't attend the weekly service well. In this aspect, you know that you've been negligent in giving lectures until now. Therefore, from now on, you need to give something new. You have to inspire them somehow. Supplement with prayer if necessary. If that still can't do it, you should risk your life and make a difference.

Even when you are walking on a road, you should go trying to find something new. Also, when you go to church, don't just go. Only if you go thinking that you will be in a new position and go into new environment, will something new be there for you. In going to church, don't always go in a straight path, but sometimes go around. You are supposed to go south, but try north. It is to find a new path.

Again, if you can't feel that way, try rearranging all your house furniture. Don't let things sit there for several months. Change them completely. Then your thoughts change. This is absolutely needed.

When you give a sermon, if the members know that you already gave a sermon with that title, they don't like it. When you lecture on the Principle, people don't like it when done in the old way. It is like people being in different moods with changes of seasons. People are not always happy just because it's morning. There are days of depression even when there are not many worries. Even though it's such a fine and exhilarating day, you can get very melancholy. Then what do you do? If there isn't any stimulus to change this suddenly, go find an even more melancholy place.

Give an opposite new stimulus or find a new direct stimulus to overcome that feeling. If you can't find a solution and manage your everyday life, you won't be able to guide many human spirits. Preachers must always replenish their sermon, and supply whatever members need.

E. Sermon should be Inspired

Your lectures don't have composure because you lecture with the book. In order to have composure, you should go on whenever your mouth is open. To influence and inspire, you should have drive in your own inspiration. Push it hard. Sometimes lecture in a cold room and sweat... That's what we need. Drum on a desk at times, the whole... When you get an inspiration and are about to shed tears, jab your eyes and let tears out.

If the preacher shows tears, then everyone soon shed tears. If the preacher sheds tears with a few other people and preaches, the whole place changes. It becomes an ocean of tears. Then you should feel, "How much suffering and pain had they gone through in order to cry at my lecture." If you think that, you feel pity for them. With that you have the same heart and feel the joy of a soul resurrecting. You cry first, then... That's what we need. Once you cry like that, even a murderer can't oppose you. That's what we need.

Just as a heater should heat the environment and a cooler should cool it, ultimately the problem is the person in charge. The leader should report, "Father, I'm going to lecture now," every time he goes to preach. This needs to be a habit. You should wish that today no one gets hurt or digresses because of what you say... Then, if the lecture went well, be grateful and report that. Also, when you give the lectures, even if you know it all be sure to read page by page with a praying heart clinging to the Divine Principle book.

Giving a sermon or standing in front of masses is serious matter. If you read the book, God gives an inspiring phrase or you get to have something like that. You need to be trained like that. Also, if you have something unpleasant in your mind, you need to forget about it for that moment completely. Even if my wife is sick or said this and that, some unpleasant letter came, you have to wash those thoughts off when you are on the platform.

When giving a sermon, you have to be inspired first. Your prayer needs to inspire yourself. A sermon should be done in a position to be pitied. Stand in a position where you beg God to pity those poor people who can be connected to Him only through you.

That is a solemn position. It's the heavenly law to offer a bow in front of offerings. Okay? [Yes.] That offering is taken by God. Only when you offer all your passion and might and effort, and when you open your mouth with your best sincerity, will God help. Understand? An offering is presented very seriously.

Therefore, if you always have a heart, saying, "I am an offering to God, use it as you please," God will always be with you. Then, due to making an appropriate offering, you can say appropriate words for people to be redeemed and inspired. Do you know what I mean? You will already know. You will know when you open your mouth.

If you live that kind of life, your relationship with God becomes self-evident. After that, the places you go can improve. Do you understand? [Yes.] The number of people who were inspired by your sincere sermon is an important matter. There shouldn't be none. It would be good to have three at least, you think, but it will be ten times, several hundred times more with God. It multiplies like that. This is scientific phenomenon. Data are recorded and God works on His providence in specific proportion. Do you understand? [Yes.] That's why we make heartistic efforts. In delivering God's words to someone, it's crucial how much God aids and supports. If you deliver His words seriously, those words become a representation of God Himself. Understand? [Yes.]

If you receive grace, you should praise and show gratitude towards Heaven. This should be a habit. While talking, everything you do should become a sermon. If you have a hard time, preach that you did this at this time. Accordingly, preachers should undergo many hardships. They should go through a lot of life training. They need to experience the lives of a poor laborer and a beggar, of a high executive staff, even of the top authority. Then, with all those experiences, you can share and give testimonies of sad times.

The congregation gets influenced only when the truth is told. What you heard from someone else can't touch their hearts. You should tell the true facts. Usually, when you give Divine Principle lectures, you speak others' words? The Principle is this and that--it's all others' words. But the Principle should be my Principle. Then when you lecture about restoration and talk about Adam's family, be Adam and have the heart of Eve when you lecture. From Noah to Abraham, Isaac, etc., you should be in their shoes and shed tears. Think about how much I have suffered to find this course of restoration. You can't hold your tears back. Without tears, souls are never driven.

Tears and sweat can't be absent. This is an absolute rule. You should be sweating when you preach. Sweat should be rolling down your spine. Even if you have put in all your sincere heart, try harder in preaching from now on. Until now, district leaders were bums and didn't preach. If there are any like that from now on, I'll replace them all. Okay? [Yes.]

F. Preaching Time

The question is that when a crowd of people comes, who is going to handle them? You will be the cook. Now, do you write a sermon out and talk for fifteen minutes or talk without writing? If you try without a script, you can do well. But if you do with script, it becomes problematic. After it's all cooked, if you are to make flavored rice you can add honey and sugar, but to do something like that you need to delay time, saying, "Good, good, it tastes good."

After working only for the scheduled time, with fire flamed up at a corner, you can't stop there. You have to pour gasoline and light a fire and have a breeze to go with, and then you can stop....To do that, it takes one hour, two hours, or even ten hours... If you have ability to preach for ten hours and still keep them there, do that. If you can dissolve Rev. Moon's fifty-years-old sorrow... If you can dissolve ten times of what you can dissolve for an hour, would you want one or ten times? [Ten times.] Everyone would want that.

G. Difficulties of Preaching

The most difficult thing for a human to do is to speak in front of this many people. About three hundred people have gathered here, and all of them pay attention when you speak. Individuals A, B, and C, all listen and criticize or judge on their own. So it is very difficult for the speaker to speak in front of many people.

Again, if his speech focuses on young people, it's impolite to older people. For young people, who want exciting and explosive acts, you should talk about exciting things, and for older people, who want quiet stories, you need subdued contents. So it's hard to deal with them together.

Even when you are singing, songs that older people like and songs younger people like differ, and songs more educated people like and songs uneducated people like, are different.

Again, when you are speaking to wives, it becomes problematic to decide which group to focus on. When speaking to a younger group, you can't always be saying, "really, yes, that is correct," but sometimes need to say, "yeah, right on sister!" But then it is impolite for the entire audience. You can't ask the older people to excuse your language because you were talking to the younger people.

Just as a train runs and ignores some trivial objects lying in front of it, when you speak up here, you deal with important issues. Nothing will be achieved if you consider every little detail. You need to know that. Also, wives shouldn't doze off when you talk about men.

When giving a sermon, there are people who receive revelation and those who don't. The problem is how to decrease the gap. In order to do that, use the ones with revelation to build foundations for the others. In other words, those who received revelations should put their hearts for ones who didn't.