Overview of the Holy Days and the Sabbath

Howdy, y'all! I have to say that. I am from Texas for a little while yet. I didn't really get to say that too much, so I do have my Texas tie on, by the way. Although I did tell the Texas brethren that I would no doubt have to talk a lot about humility once I got there, realizing some Texans do tend to be a little prideful. Now, I don't think that's true about Alaskans, right? Even though they're so much larger and bigger and better and all that. No problems here in Alaska. I'm just kidding. I've gotten along very well with the Dallas brethren, thankfully.

You know, I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to teach you a little sign language. Now, I'm personally very sign language challenged. You can ask anyone over there. They'll be glad to let you know. Because I've been doing this with them since 2001, I believe. And I still have a lot to learn. A whole lot to learn. But we're going to do Happy Feast. So, I'll step back a bit. This is how we do Happy. Just take your hands and go like this. And make sure it touches your shirt, your dress. This is Happy. And then, this is the F symbol. And then, straight up is like Feast. And then we put it together. It's Feast of Tavern apples. Alright? So, we're going to go Happy Feast. And we're going to point over toward them. So, let's do it all together. Here we go. Happy Feast! Alright. Good job! Okay, now you know as much as I do. Well, I might know a little more than that.

Alright. Well, I would like to echo what Mr. Simkowiak said about the music, the messages. Everything's been very wonderful. It's been outstanding. And I have truly had one of the most wonderful feasts I've ever enjoyed. This is my 45th feast. And it's certainly way, way up there. It's hard to say, you know, which one's the best. They're all awesome. But it's really wonderful to be here with all of you. And I've truly enjoyed it. And I don't have to leave right away, either. I get to go down to Homer, Alaska, where I have a daughter who lives down there.

And my wife and I will be down there for about a week, spending time with her, our son-in-law, and two grandsons. So we're definitely looking forward to that. Sorry that most of you have to go back sooner, but that's just the way it goes. Alright. Well, you know, I was doing some figuring, and I figured that I've been attending the feast for 45 years. That's like six straight years of feast going.

Some of you have done more than that. But for me, you know, it's been like six years of my life I've spent going to the feast. And when you bring the Sabbath into this...it's...no, I'm sorry, it was six...no, I'm sorry. It's six years of Sabbath-keeping. A little over six years of Sabbath-keeping since I've been in the church. And another year of annual Holy Days.

Is that right? Yeah, 45 weeks. Yeah, that's right about right. So a year plus six, about seven years or so of my life I've been keeping God's annual Holy Days and the Sabbath. So that's rather substantial. I know some of you have spent more time than that. I know you've been around longer than I have. But what a blessing to understand the truth about God's Holy Days, the Sabbath, and the annual Holy Days, and to observe them for so long, and to reap all the blessings that have come because of that.

It's just overwhelming. In Leviticus 23, of course, it talks about the annual Holy Days, but before that it talks about the Sabbath and the importance of the Sabbath. So I want to just talk a little bit, first of all, about God's Holy Days, the cycle of God's Holy Days and the Sabbath. Each of God's Holy Days' pictures a vital step in God's plan of salvation. Every Sabbath, we look back to creation. We look back to the One who has created us, the One that we should be so thankful for, who has done everything for us, given us life.

So every Sabbath, we commemorate the creation and what God is doing in our lives. And then the annual Holy Days, obviously, picture God's wonderful plan of salvation. So I'd like to take a few minutes because I believe we need to have the big picture when we leave here today. Let's talk a little bit about each of the vital steps in God's plan of salvation for not just us, but also for all of mankind.

So we go back to the very beginning in the springtime, when God began the year, and we have the Passover. And we all know that the Passover symbolizes the sacrifice of our Passover Lamb, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died for us, who shed his blood and gave his life for us. Certainly, it starts there with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Scripture clearly says that for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to die for each and every one of us. So God certainly loves us. He's proven his love for us.

God is love. And greater love has no man in this than to lay down his life for his friends. And we know that Jesus Christ counts as friends. He's our elder brother.

We certainly look to Jesus Christ for the example that he has set. So the Passover gets things rolling very well. When we baptize someone, we ask two questions. Have you repented of your sins? Sin is the transgression of God's holy and righteous law. Have you repented of your sins? And have you also accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your high priest, your Lord and Master, your soon-coming King?

And that's when we're baptized. And, of course, we begin a lifetime of putting sin out of our lives. So right after the Passover, we have the Days of Unleavened Bread. And we spend seven days putting sin out of our lives, symbolically striving to put sin out of our lives, striving to become unleavened. To become like the Unleavened Bread who came down from heaven, again like our Savior, Jesus Christ, who was the perfect sacrifice. We know that Pentecost, and we know that there's a wave-sheaf offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath after the Days of Unleavened Bread, the wave-sheaf is offered. We know that 50 days later, we count to Pentecost. We know that God's Spirit was poured out on Pentecost when Peter and the other disciples were gathered together. God poured out His Holy Spirit, and miraculous things began to happen in God's Church. The New Testament Church began. Christ is the head of the Church. He's the firstborn among many brethren. He's the first of the first fruits. We are training now to be kings and priests that we might reign with Jesus Christ during the Millennial reign of our Savior.

But, in a sense, we're right here today. We're waiting on the return of Jesus Christ. That hasn't happened yet, has it? We're certainly waiting on Christ's return. We're looking forward to that time, that coming. We're anticipating that day. We know there will be some difficult times before Christ returns. We've read the book of Revelation. We've read Matthew 24. We've read Daniel. We've read various other Scriptures and prophecies about what is coming ahead. We know that Jesus Christ is going to squash all rebellion against him at that time. We know that the Father is going to put all of his enemies. They're going to be like a footstool to Christ. He's going to put down all that rebellion. And Christ is going to reign. Now, I've often said that we must learn the lessons of the spring Holy Days, or we won't want to see the fulfillment of the fall Holy Days. Now, think about that for a moment. If you don't learn the lessons of the spring Holy Days, are you going to be looking forward to the return of Christ? If you don't understand what the spring Holy Days are all about, if you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior, if you haven't repented of your sins, if you haven't received the Spirit of God dwelling within you, are you really going to look forward to the fulfillment of the fall Holy Days? So, we have to learn the lessons of the spring Holy Days in order to truly benefit from the fall Holy Days. We know that the Day of Atonement symbolizes a time when Satan the Devil is going to be bound. And he's going to be bound for a thousand years. We know that we will be drawing ever nearer to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, becoming more at one with them throughout the Millennial period. Again, Satan's out of the picture for a while, for a thousand years. And the Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes that Millennial reign of Christ for the first fruits, because we're really the early harvest in that sense, because we've been changed to Spirit. When Christ returns on the Feast of Trumpets, the seventh trumpet shall blow. Isaiah 27 verse 13 says, And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, And they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, And they shall worship the Eternal, the Lord, in the holy mount at Jerusalem. And we know that 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the return of Christ at the blast of the seventh trumpet. So it is important, obviously, for us to understand the meaning of these days.

And, of course, Mr. Ashley talked about the eighth day, the last great day, and what that picture is, what that means, and how awesome that day will be for all of those who have lived and died and have not accepted Christ as their Savior and haven't had the truth of God revealed to them. They will have an opportunity at that time to know the true God. We know that God's law is going to go forth out of Zion, and the knowledge of God will just permeate the earth. It's going to be a wonderful time, a beautiful time to be around. So I hope that all of us are learning again the lessons of the spring Holy Days. So we'll be there when the fall Holy Days come to fruition. We won't have to wait a thousand years, but we'll be ready, willing, and able to serve and to be there with Jesus Christ. The Great White Throne Judgment Period is an understanding that God has given us that, frankly, most people just don't comprehend. They don't understand it, and they won't for quite a while. But, thankfully, one day they will understand. And then we know that God's spiritual kingdom will become a reality, and there will be new heavens and new earth, and the new Jerusalem will come down out of heaven. And there will be no more flesh at that time. No more sin. No more sorrow. No more crying. A wonderful time to look forward to. A time for us to rejoice in.

Some beautiful times ahead of us. So what is it going to take to grow spiritually and to endure and to remain faithful so that we may be in that spiritual family when Jesus Christ returns? What is it going to take for all of us to be back here again next year, keeping these days? Well, the first thing it's going to take is keeping these days. We need to make sure that we observe these days, and the Sabbath is so important. Sometimes it's disappointing to me to hear that people seem to take the Sabbath lightly because they don't assemble together.

Perhaps every Sabbath, as God commands, but they think that they should come to the high days. So if there's anyone in here that is in that category, I would ask you to take a hard look at that and realize that you need to be there each Sabbath. If you're able, if you live somewhere where you can fellowship with others, these are commanded assemblies. These are times to fellowship, to get together, and to realize that God is indeed our Creator and that we have to have that weekly reminder. I know I would have gone way off the track a long time ago if I had not kept God's Sabbath for all these years.

Satan is a powerful adversary. He's a powerful foe. He wants to destroy us. And if we don't observe these weekly Sabbath days, he has a tremendous foothold. So don't take the Sabbath lightly. Keep the Sabbath. And that's a reminder every week of who we are.

These are signs. The annual Holy Days and the weekly Sabbath are signs between God and His people. God says, I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And we show that by observing these days. And partially, that's one thing, certainly, that's very, very important for us to be doing. So basically, the first point is keep these days.

And remember that this is a cycle. It's a yearly cycle. We've just completed a yearly cycle, in a sense, and it starts back up in the spring. I mean, it starts every spring, and then we have kind of the doldrums for a few months. But we don't want to get that post-feast letdown. We want to keep all the messages that we've heard, this feast, as well as, perhaps, from many others, and just keep them close to heart and mind, and draw ever closer to God, our Father, and Jesus Christ.

So the cycle, the Holy Day plan, is so important. I just can't overemphasize how important it is that we faithfully observe this cycle. And we look forward to the spring Holy Days. Now, I'd like to make an analogy now. It's one I think you'll like. It has to do with my favorite fish. And I'm a fisherman. I like to fish. I've caught lots of bass, a lot of trout, walleye, crappie. But my favorite fish to catch is the Alaskan salmon.

The Alaskan salmon. I really enjoy catching Alaskan salmon, partially because they're always about this big. And when you're catching bluegills and crappie, it's nice to tie into a big Alaskan salmon. And because my daughters lived here for about 10 years, I've been able to come here pretty regularly, every year at least once. And I've done the Kenai Flip. How many of you have ever done the Kenai Flip? Isn't that what we call it?

Isn't that what we call it the Kenai Flip when you're in the river? Yeah, Sherry's done it many times. That's what I call it. I don't know if that's the official name or not. But it's really an amazing experience. If you haven't ever done it, you should really try to get to Alaska when they're running in the Kenai River. The fish are coming back. In fact, what I like to do is go through the life cycle of the Alaskan salmon. And make some spiritual analogies. First of all, there's an egg.

There has to be lots of eggs, right? Lots of salmon eggs. And they are laid in the fresh water. They go into the streams, the tributaries, the rivers in the fresh water. And they lay their eggs in a nest, which is called a red. R-E-D-D. It's called a red. And of course, it's fertilized in the gravel. They go down into the gravel. They lay their eggs down there. They're fertilized by the males.

And the embryos begin to develop. So that happens around this time of year. And they begin to develop, and then they hatch in the springtime. So that's all that's beginning to happen. And then, according to the place I googled, the aliven is the next stage. Have you ever heard of that? A-L-E-B-I-N-S. Alivins. Now, this is a very tiny fish that hatches in the springtime. And it has a yolk sac attached to it to provide nutrients for growth. Obviously, it has to be nurtured. And many eggs, I'm sure, go downstream, or they're destroyed or eaten by fish.

There are predators out there that are trying to eat up all the eggs. And so, there's a war going on in one sense. So, the alivins are very tiny, small, little fish with yolk sacs. And then, they become fry.

And they emerge from the gravel as fry. They swim to the surface, and they fill up their bladder with air. And they begin feeding voraciously. And, depending on the fish, also, I read that some say there's another stage called the par, which is a young salmon actively feeding in fresh water. A young salmon between the stages of fry and smolt. S-M-O-L-T. Distinguished by dark, round patches that are evenly spaced throughout its sides.

So, again, we have a tiny, small fry or a par. And they're growing, they're feeding. And they begin their seaward migration. So, they come out of the fresh water, and they start moving toward the sea. Now, the pinks and the chums, that's the same name for the same fish. Pinks and chums. I think. Pinks and chums are already silvery smolts. They're about four or five inches long. They head directly to the ocean. The sockeyes, or reds, go to a lake and they spend one to two years there before going to an ocean.

Or going to the ocean. Then chinooks, or king salmon, those are the big boys. The big ones. They get to be like 50 pounds. Some of them. They typically spend less than five months in fresh water, while cojos or silvers spend over a year in the fresh water. So, it depends on the fish, how long they stay, and even them, some stay longer than others. So, this is...they're smolting now.

Smoltification is actually a word. Smoltification. So, they're going through smoltification. That's true. And they're out into the sea now. And, you know, God created these salmon, and God knows what he's doing. And they've survived since creation. Now, think about that. They have survived all these years since creation. And they continue to survive. That life cycle continues. It goes on. In regard to ocean life, the next step...

So, they're into the sea now. They've gone downstream to the ocean. They're feeding heavily. They're getting bigger and bigger. The chum typically stay four years in the ocean. The chums are the pinks. They stay about four years. They're among the smallest of the salmon, but the most plentiful.

And they're out there about four years. Up to seven years, according to this... No, I'm sorry. I messed that up. Pinks and chums aren't the same, are they?

I think dogs and chums are the same. Yeah, dogs... pinks and humpies are the same. Yeah, pinks and humpies. It takes a while to get this straight. Alright, so the chums and the dogs are out there from four to seven years. They get quite large. The pinks only stay 18 months, and so they're smaller.

The reds stay a couple of years. They're bigger. They're really nice. Fun to catch. The co-hos of silvers are also out about 18 months. The chinooks, or the kings, stay out about seven years. So they get really big. So that's ocean life. And of course, there's a lot of fishermen trying to catch these fish, sharks trying to eat them. You know, that's still not an easy life.

There's still a lot of people out to get them. And then, it's time to start the spawning migration and to come home. Because these fish will go back to the exact place where they were born. So, every cycle, they come home. They come home, whether it's four years, or seven years, or two years. They have a burning desire to come home, and to spawn, and to reproduce, and to keep that cycle going.

So, I hope you can see a lot of spiritual analogies here that apply. You know, those fish have to persevere. There's, again, many of them die. I don't know what the attrition rate is, but it's very, very high. From all the billions and billions of eggs that are laid, just a small percentage actually make it. Back four or five years later to the streams where they were born. So, they come back to the natal streams. This is the spawning migration. They come back to the natal streams. They're going upstream now. You've probably seen fish ladders and pictures of how hard they work to get up some of these fish ladders. That's because of artificial stuff. God didn't make fish ladders.

People did that sort of thing. Now, God may have made some natural fish ladders. It's probably healthy for them to have to go upstream like that. Plus, God wanted a good analogy that I could use for all of you. So, think about that. They want to get home so badly. That's how we should feel about the kingdom of God. We want to get back home. We were born. God gave us His Spirit. He raised us up in a sense. He gave us new life. We become new creations. We want to get home. We anticipate the return of Jesus Christ.

We anticipate being born into the family of God, becoming spirit. And, in the meantime, we do have to persevere. We have to be persistent. We have to fight Satan the Devil. He's a roaring lion. He's seeking whom He may devour. And He would love to pick us off one by one or a bunch of us at one time, if He could. And we have to be on guard and make sure that we're not doing anything that would lend Satan a hand in getting the best of us.

So, Satan is that roaring lion. Notice Isaiah 27.1, where it says, Isaiah 27.1, it says, In that day, which of course is speaking of the return of Christ and in that time frame, that time period, In that day the Eternal with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent, that twisted serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. So we know that eventually that is exactly what will happen to Satan.

He's going to be cast into the lake of fire, into the abyss, outer darkness, no longer affecting mankind. So we look forward to that time when our adversary will be minimized, put away, slain.

We look forward to that. Mr. Ashley, I think, referred to the Scripture in 2 Peter 3, verse 9, where it says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a knowledge of His truth. God's plan is very merciful. As Mr. Ashley also pointed out, the poor mother that thought her 25-year-old son was going to burn in hell for the rest of His eternity.

Thankfully, God isn't that way. God has a beautiful plan of salvation for all people. And it's only those who choose not. They choose. We're free moral agents. We get to choose whether or not we're going to follow God or not. Whether or not we're going to be cast into a lake of fire. It's our choice. We have to make choices every day. And every one of your choices is an important one. And we should never take our choices lightly, because they dictate our lives.

The choices that we make daily dictate the direction we're going to go in our lives. So we have to be very careful about where we're headed. You know, those fish, those salmon, are very single-minded. They're eating lots of good food, getting bigger and bigger. We should feed spiritually.