God’s Calendar - The Month (New Moon) of Cheshvan 2021 (5782)

Thank you for joining me tonight as we step into the new moon celebration, the close of Shabbat, and the new biblical new year with the month of Nisan. Nisan 1 started last night, and we have just finished the first day. This is an exciting time for those of us who are on the Lord's timetable — on His calendar — honoring the new moon, the Sabbath, and all the beautiful things He has ordained. We have a great deal of information to share tonight, and my prayer is that we can fellowship together as we welcome the new moon, the Shabbat, and the biblical new year.

If you have been with us over this past year, you know we started producing videos on the new moon, the months, the tribes, the Hebrew letters, and so on, and it has been a wonderful journey. The Lord does have His seasons that He has ordained, and it is remarkable when you step onto His calendar — the feast days, the new moons, the Shabbats — and discover how intimate they are. That is what we are all striving for: to be truth seekers who have an intimate relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will lead you into these beautiful things. Please help spread this message of intimacy with the Lord.

At its heart, this is all about being set apart — set apart for the Lord and what He has ordained, not what mankind has devised. There is nothing inherently wrong with certain traditions, but we want to stand on what God Himself has ordained: His calendar, the feast days, the Shabbats. We find the foundation for this in Exodus 19:6, at Mount Sinai, when the Torah was given to the mixed multitude — the nation of Israel, one new body, one new man, who had come out of Egypt. He called them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. From Sinai forward, He wanted to set them apart from the rest of the world, to walk in His ordained ways.

We also find this in Deuteronomy 14:2, which declares that we are a holy people to the Lord our God, and that the Lord has chosen His believers to be a people for Himself. He wants fellowship. He wants every believer — Jew and Gentile alike — to walk in His ways and to spread the true gospel, not a diluted version, but the true gospel of His ordained times, His creation, and all He wants us to celebrate with Him.

This calling as a holy nation and kingdom of priests is confirmed in the New Testament as well. Many believers, especially Gentile believers, spend more time in the New Testament than in the Torah, but the New Testament confirms everything the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms declare. We see this in 1 Peter 2:7–10, where Peter writes: "Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.' They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they were also appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

This is an incredible passage. Peter is essentially quoting the Torah and the Prophets: the stone the builders refused comes from Psalm 118; the royal priesthood echoes Exodus and Deuteronomy; being called out of darkness into marvelous light comes from the prophet Isaiah. Peter is pointing us back to all of these beautiful promises for those who love the Lord, who are Torah-observant in Yeshua the Messiah, led by the blessed Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh.

We also read in Revelation 1:6: "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." From Genesis to Revelation, the message is the same: He wants us to be set apart — a set-apart God with set-apart ways for set-apart believers, to be a light to the church, and a light to those who do not yet believe. He wants us in an intimate, timely relationship with Him.

This is not about being dogmatic or legalistic. He simply wants us to be intimate with Him every month. He is the one who sets these holy days, these holy feast days, the celebration of the new moon — and we will see that clearly in the Scriptures. What is more, we will be doing this forever, even in eternity: the new moon, the Sabbath, and all of these other beautiful things. In this video we will cover the new moon celebration, the new biblical new year and how it works on God's calendar, the Hebrew letter of the month, the tribe of the month, and the constellation of the month, and we will close with prayers together as we sanctify the new moon and bless the Lord God Almighty for creating His ordained times and seasons.

We must also ask: who makes us set apart? Do we set ourselves apart, or does God set us apart? The answer is clear — God sets us apart. He is the one who sets the standards, the values, and the morals, all rooted in the Word of God and the Torah. We cannot sanctify something He calls unholy, nor make holy what He has not ordained. These are conversations we need to have honestly — including around topics like Passover, the terminology and understanding that calls us to identify with the Messiah and His origins. Yeshua is coming for a spotless bride, and He wants us fully set apart. Psalm 4:3 says, "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself." Leviticus 20:7–8 says, "Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. And you shall keep My statutes and perform them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you." And Leviticus 20:26 says, "You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine."

We are sanctified by the blood of the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit leads us into obedience at every intimate level He calls us to. The message is consistent throughout all of Scripture: He wants us set apart. The markers and signs of that set-apart life are the Sabbath, the new moon, the divine appointments of the Lord — the feast days — and the deep, living relationship that we then carry into the world in whatever sphere of influence we occupy.

In John 14 through 17, Yeshua says plainly, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." That is clear and beyond dispute. When He said this, the New Testament had not yet been written — He was speaking of the commandments already given. And the New Testament, when it came, simply confirms what the Torah, the Psalms, and the Prophets had already declared. He wants us to follow His beautiful ways, observe the beautiful creation He has ordained, and participate in it.

This brings us to the heart of the matter: God's calendar. Everything in the Holy Bible hinges on understanding it. Once we grasp what He has ordained in His calendar, everything else — the feast days, the new moons — flows naturally. Think of it like a grandfather clock: all the mechanics work together, and when you understand the calendar, you can understand the time we are living in and the time of the Messiah's return.

God established His calendar in Genesis 1:14–16: "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also." The sun, the moon, and the stars — all created for signs and seasons.

The Hebrew word for "seasons" in this passage is the word *moed*, which means "a divine appointment." The Almighty God who created and blessed the universe has given us signs and seasons through His calendar — through the sun and the moon — and these lead us to the feast days. His calendar marks divine appointments, and there is nothing more compelling than being on the divine appointments of the Lord. He has ordained these things, and He wants us to be set apart with Him — to participate in them, and to be a part of all He has created.