The following text was given by Rev. Tom Cutts is the District Director of the
six Southern states of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana. He and his wife, Angelika, were matched by True Parents and
Blessed with 2075 Couples in Madison Square Garden in 1982. They have three sons
and one daughter:
My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself. But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.
If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey
your selfish desires. The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other.
They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you
should. But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you.
People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.
People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.
God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful,
patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law
against behaving in any of these ways. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we
have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God's Spirit has given us life,
and so we should follow the Spirit.
Galatians 5:13-26
Galatians 5:13-26
“…what God has spoken to you in the Light.” Has God spoken to you? I have neighbors and relatives who don’t believe there is a God. There are others who believe that God created everything, but they cannot imagine that this Creator can personally relate to them, care about them, wants them to be happy, and wants the best for them.
I was in Las Vegas last month for an International Leadership Conference, and one participant from our district told me he was an atheist. I’ll call him Steve, though that is not his name. Steve does not believe in God. He certainly does not believe that there is a God who can speak to him. But while he was in Vegas he had a curious experience.
When Steve arrived at our hotel, he saw three teenage girls get out of a car. They wore high heel shoes, bright colored hot-pants, fishnet stockings, tops that exposed their tummies, and lots of make-up. They were teenage prostitutes.
Steve has two daughters himself, and when he saw these girls he actually started sobbing. Right there in his taxi, he broke down in tears. He surprised himself by how upset he was. Steve shared this experience with me, and challenged me saying, “How can you say there is a God? If there was a God, He wouldn’t let these young girls’ lives be ruined this way.”
I said to him, “Steve, your reaction, proves to me that there IS a God. You could have lusted for the girls, or judged them in disgust, or simply ignored them. Instead you felt the heart of a concerned father. Don’t you find it amazing that you cried for kids whom you had never met before? Where did that emotion come from? It didn’t just come out of the thin air.”
There has to be a
source of our personality and our emotions. Not only did God create our physical
bodies, but he is also the source of our personality and emotions. That means
that God is a Being of Personality and Emotion. That’s why we refer to God as
Heavenly Father.He is a real Being who suffers when any of His children are abused. Through Steve’s emotions, God was speaking to him. Steve was experiencing the heart of God when he shed tears for those three girls. I don’t think I convinced him that God exists, but I did get him to wonder about his own passionate reaction, and where those powerful feelings came from.
The founder of our church, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has established a special mission in Las Vegas. Right now there is a saying that, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” This means that people go to Vegas to do all sorts of things. Things they would rather the folks back home not know about. So, their naughty secret “stays in Vegas”. Rev. Moon wants to change the whole environment there. He wants Las Vegas to become known worldwide as a good place for families.
To make that change Rev. Moon is promoting Absolute Sexual Morality. Fundamentally, this means that people remain sexually pure until they are married, and when married, they only have sex with their spouse.
Absolute Sexual Morality is a lot more than not having sex with the wrong partner. It is a lot more than “no spare keys” to your sexual organ. It also means that you direct all your sexual desire and feelings toward your spouse. No seductive thoughts and behavior for anyone else.
I am very concerned about young men who are involved in pornography. Easy access on the Internet has made pornography a big problem. Pornography addiction makes it really difficult to establish a loving and sexually fulfilling relationship in a marriage. One of the leaders in our youth movement, CARP, said that she found that the older teenage boys with the strongest addictions to pornography started looking at pornography when they were 8 and nine years old.
Of course, at that age boys don’t have strong sexual feelings. But as they get older, hormones kick in, and if they masturbate looking at pictures, that delicious feeling becomes powerfully imprinted in their minds. Hormones bond them to that first sexual experience. They “fall in love” with sex.
They need to repeat the same kind of experience in order to feel sexually satisfied. This makes it really difficult to be sexually fulfilled with a wife. Several of the marriages of our Second Generation (children born into the movement through parents matched by Rev. Moon) have ended in divorce because the husband was addicted to pornography.
God wants us to have tremendous joy in our love relationship with our spouse. The Absolute Sexual Morality is not a curse from God where he tells us “Don’t do this” or “Don’t do that.” Based on the way we are designed, Absolute Sexual Morality is actually a gift from Heavenly Father.
Practicing Absolute Sexual Morality can help us establish wonderful lasting marriages. So, please protect not only your body but your heart.
The sermon title today is “Don’t Doubt in the Dark, what God has spoken to you in the Light.” God speaks to us in many ways. He can speak to us through our feelings as he did with Steve. Or He can give us intuitions to go stand in a particular spot in a ballroom. Or He can give us powerful insights that help guide our lives. Some people hear God speak with an almost audible voice. God also speaks to us through other people.
God can speak through the most unlikely people. One time I was leading a fundraising team in Connecticut, and I couldn’t decide on the next area to go to. We were in a little town, and I pulled the van off the road and searched the map for our next area. I couldn’t decide and was becoming paralyzed by indecision.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of some movement outside my window. There was a drunk looking in at me. He had dirt and leaves in his hair, a scraggly beard, and his head wobbled around unsteadily.
His eyes were not focused. Carefully, I cracked my window to see what he wanted. I was shocked by what this drunk said to me. He slurred, “Just make a decision.”
Has God ever yelled at you through a drunk?
I hope that God will speak to you today. In the Bible, it is recorded that God spoke to a prophet through a donkey. Hopefully, He can use me to speak to you today. Two weeks ago, our second son, Daniel, called home from Australia. He is on the Oceania Leadership Team (OLT). He was calling to say he was flying to Fiji the next day. He would be leading a team for the next forty days. In a couple of emails he mentioned that he was having experiences with the heart of God. So, I asked him how God had spoken to him.
He shared how he was the team assistant for the past forty days. The team was fundraising, but his teammates were bad about getting out of the van to go fundraising. They would reach their drop off point, and spend a lot of time getting out. Daniel was trying to get them ready before reaching the drop off point. One day he thought he had everyone ready, but they were worse than ever. He got so angry with the team. He felt they were not concerned about the team, but were focused only on themselves.
Later that day, Daniel had a showdown prayer with God. Daniel realized that his being upset toward his team was a tiny taste of how God might feel towards His rebellious children. But more profoundly, Daniel realized that he himself had caused God to suffer, when Daniel was more focused on himself and his own schedule. Daniel repented deeply with tears. And in his tears he even found a more parental attitude toward his teammates.
Our movement (Unification Movement) has a number valuable programs for our young people. Programs like STF, OLT, and Jr. STF give our sons and daughters opportunities to put the Divine Principle into action. We are not called to just believe, but we are to mature our character. And that takes time, making good choices and practice.
I am really grateful to the OLT experience my son is having. We talked for nearly two hours. At the end of that Daniel told me how much he enjoyed talking with me. In the past, our conversations were rarely longer than a few minutes. Parents will understand what a joy it is to have a longer conversation with your child. I hope all of our youth can participate in programs like OLT and STF.
Our Bible reading today (above in Galatians) lists the qualities of spiritual maturity and good character. If we are in God’s Spirit we are to be loving, joyful, kind, patient, peaceful, self-controlled, and faithful. So, how does God produce these fruits of the Spirit in us?
If you want to be a loving person, do you think God will just “abracadabra” make you a loving person? No way? If God is trying to make you a loving person, do you think He will put people around you who are easy to love? No way? It doesn’t require much maturity to love people who are easy to get along with. To help you grow, God will put you in the exact opposite circumstance, where you have to make a choice, and practice loving. Then your character will mature.
Heavenly Father has each of us on a character education course. And this explains one aspect of the “Dark” mentioned in the title of our sermon. If God is maturing the quality of peacefulness in you, you might be thrown into the darkness of chaos. Or if God is maturing the quality of joyfulness in you, you might find yourself in the darkness of sorrow.
The key to growth is making the right choices. God gives us opportunities to mature our character. We can respond in fear and run away, or we can take a risk, and gain the victory. After winning smaller victories, God gives us opportunities for larger and larger victories.
King David didn’t just go out one day and slay Goliath. God gave him opportunities while tending sheep. David could have been afraid and run away, but he took the risk, and was victorious. Based on this small victory, God sent a lion to threaten the flock.
David could have been afraid and run away. But he took the risk, and got a bigger victory. Then God sent a bear to threaten the flock. David could have been afraid and run away. But again, he took the risk, and got an even bigger victory. Based on this training, God prepared David to face the giant Goliath. And in the end, David was ready to tend not only sheep, but all the Hebrew tribes.
I am sure that David had some failures. He probably lost some sheep. But he did not focus on his failures. He kept his victories foremost in his mind.
Have you ever bought a car and then the next day notice how many other cars have the same color as yours? The number of cars with the color of yours did not change overnight. But your mind was attuned to the new color, and began seeing more cars of the same color.
Your mind is a powerful tool. We tend to find what we are looking for.
When I was on MFT, I had a great time. Of course I faced rejection and physically it was hard work. But I focused on the joy I experienced with the last sale. That was what kept me going, and of course, the next sale always came.
One brother in our district came to me and said he was having trouble finding a job. He mentioned that the economy was tanking out, and he was being rejected everywhere he went. He was worried that he would be rejected again. He knew that with that attitude, he probably would be.
As we spoke, I was reminded of a story I heard about True Father (Reverend Moon) and one of the church businesses in Korea. The manager wanted to fire one of the older employees. But Father said the employee could not be fired. The manager said the old man was not producing and paying him was a waste of money. Then True Father explained that the old man was bringing God’s blessing to the company.
And this brings us to our conclusion. As God’s sons and daughters, YOU are bringing God’s blessing to your tribe, to your neighbors, and to your workplace. Have confidence that God wants to bring his Blessing to others through you. Build confidence by remembering your victories, and finally never forget, “Don’t Doubt in the Dark, What God Has Spoken to /you in the Light."
Return For Tomorrow's Post: God Needs Liberation, Too
Don’t Doubt in the Dark, What God has Spoken to You in the Light
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