Who's the Center of your Circle?

So the feast is a wonderful time. I've titled my sermon today, The Feast, Who's the Center of Your Circle? And I'm going to point out how these feasts fit into that as such.

Shel and I spent a number of years, right after graduation from college, I was asked to travel. And we spent a lot of time setting up projects and meeting different people, and setting up meetings with world leaders to preach the gospel. We became friends with one of the Japanese royal family, Prince Mikasa, who was the brother of the emperor at that time. And during those travels, I learned quite a few things. I didn't really realize that still existed in Japanese culture. Japanese culture, the sense of loyalty, is incredible. Especially when we look at World War II, as the samurai did for centuries, they pledged their allegiance to the emperor. And the allegiance was strong. The tradition of death instead of capture was ingrained in them. And this small island nation was able to take over the Pacific area and much of China during the war. They were formidable because of their loyalty, their willingness to die rather than surrender. But their fortunes changed, and you know that they set up a kamikaze effort to sink the allied ships. They were willing to die for the emperor, and 3,800 kamikaze pilots, actually kamikaze meaning divine wind or spirit wind, were a special attack unit. It was absolute suicide, what they were going to do, obviously. Surprisingly, only about one in five of the attempts were successful. You'd think flying a plane into something would be easier, but it's not as easy as you'd think, especially with people shooting at you, I suppose. But their loyalty to the cause was admirable, but whether successful or not, their survival rate was zero. That was it. That was your last mission. That's all it was. I didn't know how extensively this culture was still ingrained in them, you know, some 40, 50 years after the war, until I was over in Tokyo with Mr. Armstrong at one time. There was a man who'd come to teach at the college, Japanese, called Mr. Osamu Goto, and some of the people who'd been in the church 40 years or so, you may remember that name. But he had heard Mr. Armstrong on the radio, decided to come to the United States. After the war, he drove a taxi for a while. He also was a Protestant preacher for a bit on radio over there, but he heard Mr. Armstrong came to Pasadena and began teaching Japanese at the college. He was over the Asian Studies at that time.

He went to Mr. Armstrong and he said, Mr. Armstrong, I'd like to introduce you to the Emperor of Japan. Now that's kind of an unusual statement. I mean, it's not that easy to meet royalty.

I know, having set up a number of meetings, and for him to say that, and not knowing his background, it seemed kind of odd. I mean, you could say, hey, I'm going to introduce you to the President of the United States, and you could probably arrange that easier than you could meeting the Emperor of Japan.

And we didn't know whether we should do it or not. Mr. Armstrong, at that time, he'd already met King Leopold and several people, and it seemed like he should be, you know, he'd read Matthew 20 or 14 so many times, this gospel of the Kingdom, or preached to the world as a witness, and then shall the end come. And like most people who men of God, the old John, Paul, different ones, they thought they'd be alive till the end of the world. And Mr. Armstrong showed no exception. He thought he'd be alive till Christ returned because of the things that God showed him in the Bible.

And so he thought, well, maybe that's how God was doing it, you know, like Nineveh. You know, if you went to a king and they repented, you'd witness to the nations. So he didn't know exactly how this verse would be fulfilled. So he told Mr. Godot that, yeah, he'd accept the offer if he could do it, not even knowing whether he really could or not. But, because he wasn't afraid to go through an open door if there was one there. Mr. Godot knew a number of politicians, but he didn't go to any of them.

He said, Mr. Armstrong, I'm not going to introduce you to anyone until you meet the emperor. And again, we're over there, and sure enough, he was able to set up a meeting with Emperor Hirohito, and Mr. Armstrong met him. The reason he did that was because whoever you meet in Japan, at whatever level, that's kind of the status you carry throughout the rest of your life. By meeting the emperor, he had an open door to Japan to meet anyone that he wanted to see.

It was fascinating to be there. He became very close to the emperor's brother. He was the fourth son, so he was a younger brother. Actually, Prince Mikasa asked Emperor Hirohito to resign after the war because he had served in China, saw the atrocities, and actually said Japan was wrong. But MacArthur had told the emperor not to resign, so he didn't. And it wasn't self-serving. He was the fourth son, so he wasn't going to become emperor. But he was very close to Mr. Armstrong. Prince Mikasa spoke fluent Hebrew. Now, almost nobody in Japan knew that because they need Arab oil, and that wasn't the right thing to do in the 70s to speak Hebrew when you're getting all your oil from the Arabs.

Better off to speak Arabic. But he had a Middle East cultural center that he supported, and he wanted artifacts from different countries. And these artifacts, he had them all from the Arab world, but he had nothing from Israel because he couldn't ask for because of the politics.

So he'd asked Mr. Armstrong to help him get them, and sure enough, because of the friends we had in Israel, we were able to get artifacts for him. And we were in Tokyo for the opening, the ribbon-cutting ceremony of this museum that Prince Mikasa had founded. And we're in the Imperial Hotel, and we're getting ready. You know, we landed, and the next day was going to be the ribbon-cutting. And unfortunately, Mr. Armstrong got sick that night, and he told me, so Aaron, you're going to have to go do this. And so I went with Mr. Goto. We drove across Tokyo, and something happened on the way across town that surprised me.

Every time we'd go by different places, he'd look, and he'd point over here, and he'd say, hey, see that house? That was where Fukoya was born, Minister of Labor. Go a little farther down. Oh, this is where Yamashita was born, Minister of Transportation. This is where, you know, Fukoya, I mean, he just went through, basically, most of the Japanese diet. And I, hey, I might know where Lincoln's house is, or Washington's, but I don't know where all these other congressmen and senators are.

And I thought, this is fine. So I said, Mr. Goto, I said, this is fine, but why are you telling me this? Well, in his nice Japanese accent, wow, belly, belly, important, now I'm belly important. Says, you see, the emperor lives right here in the center of the circle. And these people that serve the emperor live in the first circle around the emperor, and then those who serve them are in the next circle. What he was actually giving me was the status of all the diet members in relationship to the emperor. The reason Goto was able to introduce Mr. Armstrong to the emperor was because he was born in the first circle.

And so he knew he could have that opening. I'd like to ask you today, as you keep these faced, who is the center of your circle?

Where does your loyalty lie? And how do you prove that loyalty?

If you ask the question, who's the center of your circle? Most all Christians would know academically. They'd say God the Father or Jesus Christ or whatever. But do our actions betray that loyalty, that honor, that calling that God has given us. See, if you're called, you know that you did nothing to have that privilege, that invitation that Mr. Miller talked about. You know that John 644 clearly states, no man can come to Christ unless the Father who sent him draws him. And so that calling is very special. And it says that he'll raise him up the last day, and that last day for you and I as the first resurrection, and for others that don't know the truth, the second resurrection. All these are pictured by the Feast of the Lord. And again, as has been pointed out, these are not Jewish feasts. These are the feasts of the Lord, the feasts that God instituted. I'd like to turn to Leviticus 23 and kind of go through those feasts and show how these feasts actually prove who is at the center of your circle.

Because God placed His Son squarely in all the feasts. And as you were told, Christ followed God, and we follow Christ. And Christ kept all these days. Of course, Leviticus 23, verse 4, says, these are the feasts of the Lord, holy complications. Of course, beginning with the Sabbath that we have every week.

But Leviticus 23.5 says, in the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, is the Lord's Passover.

Now we know who the Passover is. And often when I'm on airplanes sitting with people, and different Protestants and Jews, and I'm flown with all number of people, I always talk about it with them from the standpoint of I say, you know, that my Jewish friends, I say, you keep the days of God wonderfully. But you don't know what they mean, because you don't have Christ. When I'm flying with Protestant friends, I say, you guys, you have Christ. But you don't keep the days, so you don't know what or why He came. They all tie together. We're told that Christ is our Passover Lamb. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Paul states that again for those who are new. These things that often churches say were done away or not needing to be kept, that they were Old Covenant. And that's the way people tend to wash away things that they don't want, and just make it old and irrelevant. I saw on the news, I turned on this morning for a minute, they were interviewing some Florida college students who were saying that the Constitution needs to be abolished and rewritten. It's just old. Those are old white men that just wrote that. It doesn't mean anything. That's how you wash away things that have actually built something. And of course, this is important. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleaven. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Keep your place right there in 1 Corinthians 7. I'm going to go back to that in a second, but back to Leviticus now. Verse 6, on the fifteenth day of the same month as the feast on leavened bread, the second feast. And it starts with the holy days. In seven days, we eat unleavened bread. And again, as Paul said, a new lump. 1 Corinthians 5, 8. It tells us, Let us therefore keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We are to keep the feast. Paul says that very clearly. Christ kept them. Paul kept them. The early church kept them. And if Christ and God are the center of our circle, we keep them as well.

There are many references that Christ and the disciples show. They devote before and after his death that they kept those feasts. And when you keep God's feast, you realize that you're keeping them and placing them to change your life so that they would be at the center of your circle. In Romans 3, verse 25, we also see Paul talking about Christ being our sacrifice. It says, 1. To declare his righteousness for the omissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

2. His sacrifice pays for all human sense. No question. And so for us to get rid of sin, we needed to pass over, and we needed unleavened bread to remind us yearly that we need Christ to be able to pay the price for our sins so we can come out of this world. So we can put God and Christ at the center of the circle where he belongs.

Back to Leviticus 23. Again, we'll go back to that each time so you can keep your finger there, your little ribbon in that. Because the third feast also has Christ at the very center of it. This is the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. Leviticus 23, verse 15, says, 1. You shall count from you the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, 7th Sabbath to be complete. Even to the morrow after the 7th Sabbath shall you number fifty days, which is where Pentecost, count fifty, comes from.

2. And you shall bring out of your habitation two wave loaves of two tenths deal. They shall be fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven. These are the firstfruits to the Lord. So Pentecost, Feast of Firstfruits, two leaven loaves are offered up. If you read about the wave sheaf offering, which is where we count from, which is the Sunday after the Sabbath in unleavened bread, that was unleavened loaves offered to God. Because Christ was the unleavened sacrifice that came. And I find it fascinating when Christ died and was crucified on Wednesday, rose on the Sabbath, when they came before dawn on Sunday, and the women wanted to touch Him. He said, Don't touch me. I haven't yet ascended to my Father. Yet later that night, when He came back, He said, Hey, touch me. So what happened on that Sunday was the wave sheaf offering. He was up and accepted to God. So Christ died on Passover. He went up with the wave sheaf offering. And on Pentecost, the firstfruits, the church, was begun.

Continuing, verse 17, or verse 20, The priests shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering to the Lord. With two lambs they shall be holy to the Lord for the priests. Verse 21 of Leviticus 23, You shall proclaim on the self-send day that it may be a holy conversation to you. You shall do no servile work. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And of course, they never kept them for all their generations. He takes God's Spirit. Seems to help through that. And how do we see this in the New Testament this day of Pentecost? Acts 2, when the church began. In Acts 2, verse 1, we see that the Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, was fully come. And on that day they were meeting in one accord, wondering, because Christ had told them, if you go back in Acts to Acts chapter 1, page before that, in verse 3, this is what Christ said to them when he was talking to them, to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. In verse 4, being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard of me. Now again, Christ is telling them to wait for this promise. For those who say that Christ died and these are done away, Christ spent forty days with them, talking to them, telling them, he should have said, wow, you guys really need the Spirit right now. You know, you don't need to wait for Pentecost. I mean, this is all done. He actually endorses the day by telling him to wait for Pentecost. So back to Acts chapter 2, in verse 2, if you've read this before, suddenly a sound came a sound from heaven as the rushing of a mighty wind. It filled the house that they were sitting in. There appeared cloven tongues like a fire, and it sat on each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, the day when the church was started, a time when the firstfruits of God would be prepared. And again, this is from 53 days after his death. Why did God send it then? Because this is his plan, and everything he lays out happens in his time on schedule. So do people that try to do away with these feasts have to recognize that Christ didn't tell them not to do it. In fact, he told them to wait for Pentecost and also to wait for the other feast. God placed Jesus Christ, the first of the firstfruits, at the very center of his circle. And we see that in 1 Corinthians 15-20.

When we read that, the resurrection chapter, Paul says, Christ has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. So all the people are dead. He's the first fruit. He's the first one to rise. Down in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 15, again he says, but every man in his own order Christ the firstfruits, after that they which are Christ at his coming.

Again, we are firstfruits. The people that God has called and selected now to be part of his family, that invitation. Back to Leviticus 23. Where is Christ in the Feast of Trumpets, the fourth feast? Leviticus 23 verse 23 says, the Lord spoke to Moses. Again, this isn't Moses writing this. This isn't something. This is from God the Father through Christ. Speak to the children of Israel saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial, a blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Again, how does Christ fit into this feast? Well, there's several places in the New Testament. Matthew 24. We'll start there, and then we'll go to a couple other places to show that Christ is coming on the day of trumpets. Matthew 24 verse 29 talks about the tribulation. The tribulation can't be that far away. The world is really falling apart rapidly now. It says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened? The moon shall not give her light? The stars shall fall from heaven? The powers of the heaven shall be shaken? And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven? And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn? And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory? They mourn because Satan is the god of this world, and the center of their circle is Satan. They don't know it, and there's a lot of good works they do, but they're doing it under the wrong God. Verse 31, he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. God's first fruits will be gathered together on the feast of trumpets when Christ returns. Paul talks about it again in 1 Corinthians 15 where we were before. We read the resurrection chapter. Verse 51, Paul says, I show you a mystery. It is a mystery to this world. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. That's when it happens. That's when we join him. Paul says that to the Thessalonians as well. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16, he makes it clear, it says, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. So the dead rise first, and those who are alive, Paul thought he would, those of us who are alive he talks about, and he had the us's and the them fixed up because he is one of the them, not the us's. But there'll be some of us alive when Christ returns, and also the book of Revelation also lays out all the trumpets, and we can't go through that today, but all the trumpet plagues and the things that happened in the last trump sounds, and the dead in Christ are raised. And Christ is dead center, and when you keep the feast of trumpets, which we did a couple weeks ago, we're showing that Christ and God are at the center of our circle.

Back to Leviticus 23, the fifth feast, the day of atonement.

Again, we want to be where God is, where God put Christ.

In verse 27, also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a holy day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. You shall do no work in the same day, it's a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you, for the Lord your God.

Again, Satan is the God of this world, and on that day two goats were chosen, and the lot was cast, and one goat was taken out into the wilderness. That was the goat that represented Satan, who has created all the sins in this world. He was a liar from the beginning, as Christ said. And the other goat was offered up, which was Christ's sacrifice, so he qualified to take that throne. In Matthew 4, verse 8, the devil offered Christ the thrones of this world. When he tempted him, he took him up to a mountain, and he said, look at these kingdoms. I'll give them to you. Just worship me. Satan, Christ didn't say you don't have those to give at this time, although he knew they'd be taken away, because Satan is the God of this world. And he's our adversary. He's the devil who wants to take your and my life, our eternal life, away from us. And he's going to deceive the whole world, and the whole world is going to follow him. They'll attack Christ when he comes. We may suffer from some of those things, but that's because we're loyal. We're willing to die for our cause. Christ and God are at the center of our circle.

We know that Christ is going to come to sit on that throne. And who's worthy of it? Revelation 4 shows us how the 24 elders are there, and they bow down before him that sits on the throne. That's Christ. And he says, you're worthy, Lord. That's Revelation 4.11. You alone are worthy to receive glory and honor and to sit on the throne because you created all things. This is where God puts you. And we see in Revelation 12.7 that Michael and his angels had to fight against the dragon and his demons. In verse 9 of Revelation 12, Satan is cast out. That day of atonement comes, Satan is cast out. He can no longer deceive in the way that he has for the last 6,000 years. It's been a sad time on earth. 6,000 years with human suffering and human misery.

But Satan's bound. In Revelation 20, verse 1, he says he's bound with a chain in the bottomless pit.

In Revelation 20, verse 2, he says he's bound in that pit for a thousand years.

And that thousand years is where the sixth feast comes into play. The Feast of Tabernacles, which we're here today to celebrate. A time of millennial rule with Christ on the throne, Satan bound. And us, the firstfruits, helping to teach all the nations. Helping to show them what we have learned now. To give them the truth. The truth of God's Word. Leviticus 23, verse 34, speaking of this feast of tabernacles and the eighth day that follows it. Speaking to the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be a feast of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. And that's today. That's why we're here today. It's the fifteenth day of the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar. Verse 39, dropping down, it says, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord seven days, and the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. Verse 42, you shall dwell in booth seven days, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths.

Same as they did for forty years. And I brought them out of the land of Egypt, because I am the Lord your God. And God wanted a relationship with Israel. He wanted to be the center of their circle, to work with them.

Verse 44, Moses declared to the children of Israel these feasts of the Lord. Again, they're God's feasts. Turn to Revelation chapter 5.

This sixth feast again pictures that millennial reign. When Christ comes back, it says in a couple places in Jude and John that Christ is going to present us to God, going to present us blameless to Him. Revelation 5.10, it says, He has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on earth. We don't reign now. We don't control much of anything right now, except our own destinies with God's help. We obey and we make Him the center of our circle. We do His will and the will of the Father.

Again, in Revelation 20, verse 4, we see again how long we'll reign with Him in the millennium.

Revelation 20, verse 4, Revelation of God to Christ through John, 1. I saw thrones, and they that sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, which did not worship the beast, neither his image, nor had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

We will not take the mark. Others will. Right now, the stage is being set for those things. Right now, the mandates that we see because of the COVID virus. COVID virus isn't the mark of the beast, but it's certainly setting up for it, where no man can buy and sell certain places. You can't go out to eat. You can't do this. You can't do that unless you do it. It's just a setup to get mankind prepared. And again, it's for the benefit of the people. And whatever happens when the beast power does this for people to accept it, it's going to seem like it's for the benefit of the people.

Are we ready for that? And again, how do you know who the beast and false prophet are versus the two witnesses? Well, if you have two men that say, quit keeping these feasts, that's the bad guys. If you have two guys that say, keep the feasts, those are the good guys.

Pretty easy. It's in the book.

And you get a reign with Christ a thousand years if you're in that book. Verse 5, the rest of the dead live not again till the thousand years are finished. So those of us who rise before the start of a thousand years are the first fruits. That's the first resurrection. It says, Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. On such the second death has no power, and they shall be priests of God, and Christ shall reign with him a thousand years. We have a thousand years. It's a better resurrection because it's tougher now.

When Christ returns and sets up governments, they'll not learn war anymore. You don't have to worry about all the security, the theft. You don't have to worry about people losing your job.

One of the things that's like a child, I thought it's going to be fun to teach people how to tie. And then it says, well, there's going to be so much food that the sower and the reaper are going to follow each other. I thought, well, how hard is this to tie when you can't give it away? So there'll be other things we're teaching along with God's way. But we see in verse 7, and after the thousand years are expired, that Satan's loosed out of prison for his little season. And he deceives the nations that I don't understand, after a thousand years of peace, how God, how people can be deceived by Satan. But he has that much power. And some people's character is so warped that I suppose that they'll follow that. When I was a child, I read in Isaiah that there'd be a voice behind you saying, go this way. And I thought, well, that's going to be great. I'm going to know exactly how to go. Every time I come to a fork in the road, I know which way to go.

But I started thinking about that as an adult. And I thought, you know, if the voice has to tell me, no, this way, which way did I want to go? That way! Whoop, take out my mic. And I thought, you know, if the voice has to put me on the right path all the time, I haven't learned this from the heart. I have to learn this from the heart so that the voice doesn't have to tell me which way to go because I know which way to go. And all of us need to reach that where we know which way to go because the voice has to tell you, you didn't want to go the right way. And I can see when Satan's loosed and his voice is saying, hey, you can go the other way now. There'll probably be people that choose the other way. Obviously, a large number do. There's a big army that fights, but they get destroyed. In verse 9, or verse 8, says, the armies gathered together for battle, the number of whom is the sand of the sea. So Satan's able to deceive a lot of people again at the end.

In verse 9, they went up on the breast of the earth, compass the camp of the saints about, the beloved city, the fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. So they come to Jerusalem and God devours them. And the devil that deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone, for the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented night and day for ever and ever. On that seventh feast now, that feast of judgment, the great white throne. Verse 11, I saw the great white throne, him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. The books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of those things written in the books, according to their works. So you're not saved by works, but you're certainly judged by them. You're saved by grace and by faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. And who's not found written in the book of life is cast in the lake of fire.

Christ was given all judgment. He says that in John 5.22, that God the Father judges no man but gave all judgment over to Christ. Christ is dead center in the great white throne judgment in the seventh feast of God. We reign with Him in the six feasts, and He judges all. Those who are resurrected and given a chance to know His way, they'll be judged. Christ is dead center in every feast day. And when we keep this feast, we prove to God that we have put God and Jesus Christ at the center of our circle. And we're willing to have that loyalty to Him.

Through God's Spirit, we value what He's given us.

In getting status with the emperor, you did great heroic deeds.

With us, to be in God's circle was a gift. God says He calls the weak of the world to confound the wise. We don't get to be in there because we're so special, and we did heroic acts. Our deeds come after we're called by God, after our invitation from Him. We're called by God. We respond to that calling, recognizing our sins. We repent of those sins. We realize our need for the Holy Spirit. We ask to be baptized. We have hands laid on us. And our minds are open.

And God and Christ, from that moment on, become the center of our circle. And we give our allegiance. Everything we do, everything we think, everything we are, has to begin to reflect God and Jesus Christ. And like the Japanese toward their emperor, we have to be willing to die before capturing and giving up this truth. To die before betrayal. We have to have that kind of loyalty. And we're here to learn, to get closer to God, to fellowship with one another, to think about those things. I always like the book of Deuteronomy. You know, it says in Deuteronomy that you're supposed to read that book on the year of release every seven years. I don't know what the year of release is. They lost track of that, but I try to read it every seven years, if not more often than that. Of course, the kings, they become king of Israel. You had to write now handwriting all the books of the law.

We should keep that in mind because we're supposed to be kings and priests. It's a good time for this feast to read the book and see that. But when you keep God's holy time, when you keep His Sabbath, when you keep these feast days, and you keep His laws, you're stating very clearly that God and Jesus Christ are the center of your circle because you chose His days. You chose His invitation.

Others who claim God and Christ, and there's a lot, Christ said, many shall come in my name, deceiving many. That means there's going to be a lot of false Christians because if they come in His name, they're not going to call themselves Buddhists and Hindus and Moslems and whatever. So many will be deceived. It doesn't mean they're bad people. So my best neighbors, my neighbor right now, I have one. He's a minister of a church. We talk all the time. I give him a lot of sermon ideas. He hasn't changed the Sabbath yet, but we'll work on that. But he's a good guy, and he bought the house from the first neighbor I had there, who was also a minister. The house that gets passed from minister to minister, it seems. And they all know what I believe. They all know I keep the Sabbath in the Holy Days and why. And different things we talk about. And they're good people, but they don't really have God in Christ as the center of their circle. They talk about it. They verbalize it, but they don't do the things. Matthew 7, verse 21, I'll go there because God says that. Because people do do things in His name. And God does bless and heal some people. I've seen miraculous things happen. Even God, we're all these children. So He can choose to help anyone He chooses to help. So I don't doubt miracles, He does. But miracles are not an endorsement of the things they teach. Because, like it says in Deuteronomy, if someone comes and teaches you something different, and he does signs and wonders, but if he teaches you against this book, don't follow. So God does do miracles and allow that to intervene in people's lives. But verse 21 of Matthew 7, not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. What's His will? I called you to my Son. Follow my Son. What did my Son do? He kept these face. All those who followed Him kept these face. And again, after a period of time, like in ancient Israel, pagan entities came in, distorted the truth, put Christian names on various holidays of this world, and they call it Christianity. But it's not. In fact, if I'm overseas, sometimes people ask, are you a Christian? I kind of have to give an answer of, well, for me to tell you I'm a Christian, you'd think I believe things that I don't believe. Because to really say what it is, I have to explain what I do believe. Because if I just say I'm a Christian, well, that means you keep Christmas, Easter, and no, I don't. Christ isn't in those things. And yet, Christ said that many would call Him Lord, Lord. Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name we've cast out devils, and in Your name done many wonderful works. And what does He say? I profess them I never knew You. Depart from Me You that work in iniquity. Iniquity is lawlessness, not keeping the commandments. These are the words of Christ to anyone who doesn't truly make God and Christ the center of their circle, indeed and in action. It's your heart in the first message. We're here today because we're taking action. A difficult time. Many people lose their jobs over taking action. Satan's world, he wants to destroy you.

Those are what Jesus says to those who don't do that.

Anyone that doesn't see that this world is dying has to be foolish. So many things are happening all around the world. They anger. I told my neighbor, I said, we've got to be close to the end because the anger is there. He said, well, people for thousands of years thought it was the end. The bubonic plague. I said, well, yeah, it was local. And if you were there in tribulation, you could think that. But I said, this is the first time in history when worldwide we can see tribulation, we can see anger in all the nations, we can see rioting, we can see everybody doing their own thing, doing that which is right in their own eyes. Everything going against truth. There is no such thing as truth in this world, absolute truth. That's your truth. Well, this is my truth. That's somebody else's truth. No, truth is in this book. Truth is what Mr. Miller said, what did Jesus do? Not what would Jesus do, but what did He do? And what did you do? People see your truth because you're taking action and doing those things.

This world without knowing it has made Satan the center of their circle. Even with Christianity, where they put Christ's name on the things they do.

But it's not true. It's in many forms, many different religions. And there are good things. Most religions have a moral value that many of their people keep. And you, through God's mercy and His calling, have been invited to understand the true sacrifice and to eat out the tree of life. The tree in the garden where it started. And what you do speaks loudly. The old saying, do as I do, or your actions are so loud I can't hear what you're saying. Well, our actions should just be allowed that they know exactly what we're saying. Everyone's going to have an opportunity to be part of God's family. But we're blessed to be the firstfruits, to understand it, to be here today, to make God the center of our circle. Do we declare God when we have opportunity? I always do that on the airplane. If they back away, then I back away. If they ask more questions, I sat next to a Catholic girl who was going to a funeral with her brother who died in an accident. He didn't have the Lord. He's going to hell. And I told him, there's no hell. It was a grave. But he'll get rise again. She was really comforted by that. We were flying for about two hours together. I was just going through the Scripture with her. I said, you're Catholic and you're good people, but the Bible doesn't say that. And she was kind of happy with it. I don't know what happened to her after that, but I said, she'll see her brother again. He's not down in Porcatori or hell or anywhere there. And you'll find that out someday because God's feast show. He has a plan. His plan is for everyone. And your brother's just sleeping. He's just in the grave waiting for that time. Do you have a chance? There's lots of opportunities to do those things. Indeed, how we live our lives show those things. All my neighbors, they've always liked me because I've been a good neighbor. I always help with things. And my policeman neighbor in Pasadena, he said, you're a minister. Why aren't you putting up Christmas lights? Our street wanted to win the light up the block party. And mine was, I'm the minister who's got the darkest house. And I said, well, you got a Bible? He did. And I said, turn to your mind. He did. And I said, read this. And he said, oh, they put up a tree. They fasten it with nails and it moves not. They deco a story. That sounds like a Christmas tree. I said, yeah, well, it does. And I told him, I said, I believe in good will toward men. I believe on peace on earth. I believe all those things. But I said, I can't keep this date. I said, I studied it. I said, if you study it, you've got to make a choice.

And I said, I understand why other people do it. And they say it's for good. And they put Christ's name on it. But I said, I just can't put my Savior's name on something He says He hates. In fact, I told him, I said, you know, you hate pedophiles. I said, there's a group in California that wants to legalize pedophilia. And I'm going to donate a million dollars in your name, and your name will be on the plaque forever that you gave a million dollars to this pedophile group. How would you feel?

He said, oh, I see what you mean. Well, he didn't change. And the next year, he came to me and said, well, us pagans are putting up our Christmas lights again. I talked to him a few years later after I went back to Pasadena from Texas, and he said, you're the best neighbor we ever had, which is where you and I should be. We should be the best neighbor anyone ever had. Because we keep these days, we make God and Christ the center of our circle. We must always be there. Our loyalty has to be there with that. Do we do that in our deeds and actions? The Kamikaze attacks began in October 1944, a time when the Japanese were losing the war. As we approach the end of this age, it'll look like we're losing this war. There's a few of us, not that many.

But Satan, that's a rowing lion, is going to try to stop it. All the way up to the very end, he thinks he can win. Prior to the Kamikaze strategy, many of the pilots have been killed. Not much of an air force left in Japan. Many of God's most loyal soldiers have also been killed and died. Those have been loyal. Part of his prophets of old, James, who was beheaded, Peter crucified, Paul, others. Many of our soldiers are in the grave waiting for that first resurrection. The Kamikaze aircraft were becoming outdated, and they couldn't keep up. The world sees our messages outdated. That's just some old thing that somebody wrote up that may be good for their time, but it's not good now. We understand marriage can be anything.

Study the science. Well, the science to me says XX and XY, but for them it seems XYZ, QP, whatever.

But it's sad. But our message may seem outdated. But it's not. And as other Christian churches start accepting those things because they're trying to be relevant, we believe in absolute truth because God has given us the spirit to see an absolute truth.

The industrial capacity of Japan was far less than that of the Allies. Our capacity at this time is much less than this world. They can shut us off in a minute. There's a lot of advertising we can't do on Google because our message isn't correct. And they can pull the plug on us. Someday it may be you're just reading your book by yourself without the ability to tune in, even. That's what is happening.

Japanese were unwilling to surrender until their emperor said so. We must be unwilling to surrender no matter what it takes. Whether we die before Christ returns, whether we're willing, we have to be willing to die if that's what God expects of us. This feast pictures an end to wars and a thousand years of peace. And at that time, our resources will be great. Satan's resources will be gone.

That's what we're keeping this feast for. If we live God's way with God and Christ the center of our circle, our survival rate is 100 percent. Not physically, but spiritually.

But we continue our willingness to hold fast, no matter how tough it gets.

Because as we read the book, it gets tougher. And this world is fighting against that.

But we have to be willing to confess what we believe. Matthew 10, 32, Christ said that. He said, who's willing to confess me before men? I'll confess before my Father. Because you're at the center. You're in that first circle.

And I'm going to present you to my Father and talk to you about Him. But He also says, if you deny Him before men, He'll deny you before the Father.

You lose your place in the first circle. Are Jesus Christ and God the Father the center of your circle? Or are you attached like glue, where you won't leave it or forsake it, no matter what?

I'll end with this. If God is truly the center of your circle, if He is, you'll be keeping His feast. That's why you're here. Because you're saying you're willing to forsake all the world's things and do what God wants, no matter what the price. If God is the center of your circle with your heart, with your mind, and with your soul, God's going to say to you, like He did to His Son, well done, now good and faithful servant.