First Fruits for the God Family

It seems sometimes that the end is near. You've probably heard that statement. The end is near.

Sometimes people will call it the end times or the end or the end of the age. And I don't know, you young people might wonder what that means. You know, is it over? Is the end about to happen?

In actual fact, in God's plan of salvation, we are very near the beginning.

It's just about to start. There's only one person so far of humanity that has been resurrected.

And this plan of salvation has been planned since before the foundation of the world we see in the Bible. So the preparation has been going for a long, long time. And the actual salvation of humans to actually be brought alive into the kingdom of God is about to begin. And that's an exciting thing. Throughout the Bible, we see that God uses the analogy of harvests for what this plan of salvation is intended to accomplish. Whenever you have a crop that you put in the field, there's a lot of effort. There's a lot of time. There's a lot of involvement that goes into that. The final harvest actually happens a long, long, long, long time later. And suddenly, you know, that harvest is a very busy period in its exciting time. I think you'll know that around the country and around the world, harvest times often are celebrated with festivals.

Festival harvests of various types, whether they're grapes or olives or, you know, who knows what. Whatever people are harvesting, it might be tulips. But these are great celebrations.

If we go back to Exodus 23 and verse 16, we can read of this celebration that we are rejoicing in today. Exodus 23 and verse 16 gives this festival one of its many names. You know, it's Feast of Weeks. It's Pentecost in the New Testament, just meaning 50th. But here in Exodus 23 and verse 16, and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field. So this actually speaks to quite a span of time. It's not something that just pops up. It's something that you have sown in the field, and now this Feast of Harvest are the first fruits, the very first things that are coming out of your labors, which you've sown in the field, and you sow what do you sow? You sow grains in the field. And also he goes on to another harvest called the Feast of In-Gathering at the end of the year. Now that is the Feast of Tabernacles' last great day that we celebrate at the end of the year. And if you think of harvest for a moment, right now there is a barley and wheat harvest that is just wrapping up. Winter wheat and barley is wrapping up. In some senses it's kind of out of sight and out of mind, isn't it? Because we're thinking about gardening right now. Anybody putting a garden in by chance? Yeah, we're thinking about, you know, how are these little plants coming up? We tilled the ground, you know, we put some compost in there. We've been working at this for a while. And now we've got some seeds in there. And now getting the right rain and watching little things sprout is kind of exciting. But those fruits are later on. And some of those tree crops of fruits and nuts, they're going to come later in the year. And some of the other crops that you put in, like what we call corn or maize, vegetables, some of those things are going to be growing for a while. And so those are represented at their completion by the Feast of In-Gathering. It's called, you know, you gather it all in. And you'll have some supplies there that maybe you can can. I'll see you through the winter months when there's no food really available, nothing really to pick and eat. So the first fruits refers to that agricultural time at the beginning of an agricultural year when the very first of things become available to eat. Now if you were to go back into biblical times, you'd find they didn't have refrigerators. So those summer crops, those vegetables, they're not going to last a whole long time, are they? There's going to come a time when there's not much to eat, maybe a lamb or something through those cold winter months. What are you going to eat during that time?

See, and maybe your food's going to be running low on supplies. When the first fruits finally get there around April, the next year, your stores are probably going to be depleted. And you're going to be really looking forward to some barley. Now that's going to be pretty important, isn't it? Now barley's not the most favorite thing, but it's food. And you can do some things with barley. And after that will come some wheat. And those are going to be some rejoicing. Well, that's what we're celebrating here. We're celebrating the bread of life, as it were, that we kind of had run out of. And now this bread of life, this barley bread that Jesus Christ is, that unleavened bread. Wow, there's food and we can have life. See how these harvest festivals really can take on a lot of meaning. Initiating this first harvest was the first of the first fruits, the very, very first, that first little bit of wheat that was gathered and then waved before God. Let's notice this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 20. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 20. This harvest of first fruits isn't just about us. We see in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So for the God family, the very first exciting human to be harvested was Jesus Christ. And he was waved during that wave sheaf offering back during unleavened bread and presented himself before the Father on that Sunday after his resurrection. And that first grain, that first little sheaf was waved before God. But we are part of Christ's body, aren't we? We're also associated with him. We're not perfect. We're not totally unleavened like he is. We're not that barley that's humble. We're more like the wheat. We've got a little bit of pride. We've got a little leaven.

And so it is that in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 16, Leviticus 23 and verse 16, it says, count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Here we are. And then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah. Wave loaves. So Jesus was waved as the wave sheaf. And now we like him, but a little different. We're leavened. We're two loaves. And these loaves are waved as well. Notice what it says.

They shall be a fine flower. They shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord.

So we will be cleaned up like a bride and adorned in clean, bright clothing.

The righteous acts of the saints through the blood of Christ washing us and cleansing us as we we put on more of a Christ-like attitude. And yes, we will be presented as well, and God will perfect us. But we must remember, as it says in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15, who the forerunner is, the first of the first fruits. It's about him and it's about us serving him. It's not replacing him or being like him. It's about being a bride to him, he being the ultimate one, the knowledgeable one, the leader, the one who is fully capable, and we're going to assist him.

So in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15, it says, he is the image of the invisible God, and he's the exact representation of the Godhead. Notice, the firstborn over all creation, the firstborn over all creation.

We drop down to verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church. So one body with him as the head, we are part of that firstborn, aren't we? Part of the firstborn who has the birthright to inherit the Father's inheritance, he inherits all things.

And we as his bride get to join this firstborn. He is the head of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. So it's going to be a wonderful thing for us to serve and be with the preeminent Jesus Christ and assist him as a helper, as a type of a bride. The next events in the agricultural cycle, then, are the two giant summer festivals of the harvest.

And in kind of comparison to the barley harvest, which we all kind of miss this year, didn't we? We didn't really hear about the barley harvest. It's kind of like humanity. We didn't really hear that much about Jesus Christ and him being our head and our leader.

And then the wheat harvest, the winter wheat, has been out there. And I guess it's being gathered in. We don't hear too much about that. We don't go to the store and, oh, there's some wheat here, you know, along with the lettuce and the tomatoes. No, we don't tend to see that so much. But these other big crops, they're huge. They're going to be harvested by autumn time, and there will be a celebration for them.

Now, in Scripture, God shows us a very, very important task that he and his son have been working on for millennia. They've been laboring over. It involves a lot of their constant focus, a lot of their constant work, a lot of long suffering. And after millennia, this first harvest is about ready. It's about to begin. It might be the end of Satan's era of, you know, deceiving and trying to rule as an upstart, a self-appointed ruler, this earth, which was never given to him in Scripture, not his responsibility.

He comes weaseling into the garden like a snake and takes people away. He deceives people. He draws people away. See, that sown he draws away. He comes like a thief through the window, Jesus said, and steals sheep. You know, that's going to go away, yes. And so there is an end of that. But there's a great beginning, a great beginning. And let's look at this today in a sermon entitled, First Fruits for the God Family.

First Fruits for the God Family. We are a gift that God is preparing, actually, for his family to serve future generations, to bring in his family. This is all about Agape, the family building and sharing that family of God throughout eternity. We might begin by asking the question, where do I fit in? Where do you fit in? You of all ages, young and old, where do I fit into God's harvest? Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 through 14.

Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 3. Blessed. That word in the Greek means, oh, how supremely blessed, exclamation point. It's one of those words that's very full of action if you look at the Greek. Oh, how supremely blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us, exciting blessings, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

That is very exciting if we put that in our hearts and we let that lead us in our quest to become Christ. Notice verse 4, just as He chose us in Him, He chose you. Do you realize that?

No matter what, if you're two years old here, God has chosen you. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. I'd like to explain how that works. I have no idea. I'm not God.

I know I can go to Daniel 11 and He will tell you 2,000, 2,500 years of people, some by their very name that hadn't happened for, wouldn't have happened for hundreds of years. Even the personalities that they had, the family relationships they had, the deeds that they would have, the appetites they would have, and coming right down to our day. So I don't know, but that's what it says. And I trust that that's the case. Notice that we should be holy, godly, and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to sonship as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Good pleasure. He's pleasure. That's a good thing. He says, I've chosen you and I'm happy about that. It's my good pleasure. It's my will.

To the praise of the glory of His grace, that reciprocal favor He gives us and enters into a covenant with us by which we develop this fruit, this mindset of the God family, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. See, by developing those spiritual characteristics of of holy, righteous character, godly love, we are accepted as a member of the family. We're godly. We're Christ-like. We're brothers of Christ. We're sons and daughters. We're children of God because that is what is in our mind. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. In verse 9, having made known to us the mystery of His will. What is the mystery of God's will? That we should be the bride of Christ. According to His good pleasure, there it is again.

He's excited. All you have to do is turn to Revelation 19 and read verses 7 through 9 and see the excitement, including verse 6, all the excitement and the joy and the celebration that will happen when you are resurrected. In verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, this whole plan that He has, He might gather together in one all things in Christ.

Gather together in that one God, that one God family, those who are in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. This is the harvest. This is the bringing it together. This is us climbing onto the throne with Jesus Christ like He climbed onto His Father's throne and said, sit down, you know, come be with me. And in my Father's house is joy and pleasures forevermore. This is a happy place, a happy time. In verse 11, in Him we also have obtained an inheritance. We inherit everything with Jesus Christ. I mean, the wife inherits what the husband has, and we're coheirs. So we have this wonderful inheritance. You think maybe you have a few things now, you think, wow, I've got a few, I've got some stuff, that's pretty good, you know. Wait till you inherit everything. I mean everything. Not just in the physical world, I mean everything that's your inheritance. And just to make sure you are the new Jerusalem, you are somehow part of or indelibly part of the capital city that has a certain footprint in the eternal new heavens and new earth where kings will bring their glory to it, says in Revelation 21 and 22.

That is really, really something. God's excited about this. Verse 12, that we who first trusted in Christ, see, there we are. We who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth. If you want that to live a little more, just take your pen and capitalize the W. The word of God, John 1, is Jesus Christ. The word of God, Revelation chapter 19, is the name of our husband when we come writing in with him. If you capitalize this word, you'll see here that after you heard the word of truth, Jesus Christ living in you and the words of Jesus Christ as well, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, in whom, you see, not in what, in whom this word of truth you believe, that's an individual, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit came fully on the day of Pentecost, and we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, that mindset, that power of God in our lives. Notice verse 14 should say, which, which is the guarantee of our inheritance. That mind in you and me guarantees the fact that God says, you're my child. Jesus says, you're my wife. And in Ephesians chapter 5, about 20-something, 23, he says, my wife is making herself ready, you see. My wife is working. Jesus Christ is cleaning her up, his wife, you see. We are, we are that individual collectively right now.

Until the redemption of the purchased possession in the praise of his glory.

Hmm. We are about to get redeemed. We are about to get changed.

Again, the first fruits harvest is still a future event. We're not actually called first fruits until we come to the resurrection. We'll see that in a moment. But this future event is nearing, isn't it? Let's go to James chapter 5 and verse 7 and see this from God's perspective.

James chapter 5 and verse 7. I always like to see what God is thinking instead of just, oh, I want to be in the kingdom. Oh, I want salvation. I, I, I, I, I, you know. What's God thinking? If we go to James chapter 5 and verse 7, break into the second sentence, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. If you capitalize the F, you've got God there. Now, it says here, waiting patiently for it, waiting patiently for it. If you look at the Greek for waiting patiently, it's macrothumeo in the Greek, and it means to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring troubles. It's not just sitting, you know, huh, well, you know, it is really involved in this, persevering patiently, bravely, enduring troubles. You know, there's a lot of troubles in the world. We sometimes give God some issues. God is working. It's a very challenging time. But notice, until it receives the early and the latter rain. If you look in the dictionary for early, you'll find it means near the beginning. The near the beginning, the early rain, near the beginning. The rain here that's being referred to is God's Holy Spirit. He pours it out in the early rain to an early group and a latter rain. There's an early harvest that needed the rain while it was growing, and there's a latter harvest that needs the rain while it is growing. And so, in Revelation 20 and verse 6, we find this early rain, Revelation 20 and verse 6, "'Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.'" What we're celebrating today, not the timing, but the celebration of the first resurrection, of the first fruits. "'Blessed, oh how supremely blessed and holy is he who has a part in this first resurrection.' Second death won't have anything to do there, but there will be priests of God and Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years." So we're going to reign and help bring in the autumn harvest, the millennium, the second resurrection. We find here this thousand years is part of that autumn growth that will have a harvest as well. And also in verse 5, the rest of the dead that were not part of this first resurrection, this little small resurrection, did not live again until after the thousand years were finished. That's the first resurrection. Mr. Armstrong used to say, Pentecost is about a first resurrection, a small harvest. It's a little harvest. You know, many are called few are chosen, and there's a small harvest, but this is going to comprise a working body with Jesus Christ at the head who will bring in the bigger harvest later.

And then as we find the rest of the dead did not live until that thousand years, part of this latter rain then is the millennium and what we celebrate in the Feast of Tabernacles on the last great day, the eighth day, greater humanity. All the billions, maybe a hundred billion people who never had God's Holy Spirit, never knew God, never had the opportunity. What a huge harvest that's going to be. I mean, compare numbers like we read 144,000, maybe that's a general term. That's a small number compared to 100 billion, right? So you have an early rain for a little harvest of firstfruits, just the firstfruits, and then you have the great harvest later.

Before the creation of the heavens and the earth, God planned these two harvest seasons.

The early rains actually come in late October. It kind of messes with our minds a little bit.

Come in late October, November. That's when the seed goes in the ground for winter wheat and barley after the feast. It's a time when we don't tend to think of life. If you think of the autumn, what do you think of? Dying trees, leaves falling, the garden's dying, you know, there's not much happening, not much to eat anymore. That is when olive oil is harvested, which often is representative of God's Spirit. Olive oil is harvested in November, honestly, about the month of November, that time of year. And then you have these seeds going in the ground. Now, what happens to it? Through the winter for barley and wheat, it's kind of like a dead time, almost like Satan's world, right? There's not much spiritual life going on. Things are sort of dead. Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. It's a tough time. If you think of the early rains and what the wheat and the barley have to go through, once they get some moisture, they get snow, they get terrible winter comes in. It's very harsh, various storms, the storms of February and early March come crashing in. That's like you and me. That's the planting that we have. The latter rains begin about this time of the year, and we'll run through the summer. And those are for the sunshiny, warm days. You know, everything's greened up, everything's pretty, things just grow like crazy, easy, easy growing, you know, compared to what that winter crop has to go through. When you think of what's your and my environment to grow, the winter doesn't have much sun, doesn't have much light, does it? There's not much light in the world today. It doesn't have the warmth. It doesn't have the beauty. It doesn't have the, honestly, the support. There's not much farmers can do for those crops during the winter. It's also growing unnoticed, unappreciated. It has troubles. And so their evil age can find them out there, you might say, lonely, scattered, difficult, but resolute, absolutely resolute that they are going to produce a crop. You know, that is tough stuff. That hard winter wheat and that barley is out there and they're going to produce a crop.

So the fruit of the earth is very precious. It's very precious to humans when it finally comes alive and you finally have a little something to eat in the spring. And it's very precious to God when it comes alive and he has family that he can harvest finally. When we look at verse 7 again, see how the farmer waits for. That Greek word, ekdikomai, not good at Greek, means awaits. It looks for. It's expecting. Farmers don't wait. They await. If you have a garden, you're not waiting. You're awaiting. You're out there looking. Are there weeds? Do I need to trim something here? Do I need to help something? Is there going to be some frost? Do I need to cover it? Etc. We are working while expecting a crop. Jesus said in John 5 and verse 17, My Father has been working until now and I have been working. From their perspective, they are the greatest servants that will ever be. They paused whatever they were doing and created an incredible physical realm. And then they filled it with the most amazing things. And they created people with all types of sensory abilities and minds. And then they watch everybody. They assess everyone. They bless everyone. They direct us through all of our ups and downs and our issues and our trials and our sins and then forgiving us. And you know, that's a lot of work that God and Jesus Christ do. It's like agriculture. You have a field. You have to till it. You fertilize it. You choose seed. You plant it. You make sure it gets watered, weeded. You protect it. Finally, you'll get to harvest it. You'll winnow the wheat. You'll transport it. You'll store it. Maybe you'll sell it. There's a lot of work involved in this. And that's what God and Jesus Christ are doing.

The one thing that God can't control is the quality of the crop. That's up to us. And there's so many parables that Jesus gave. You know, where's your tree planted? Is it planted by the river of water? Where's your fruit planted? Is it planted on rocks or in sand?

Where are you growing? Are you producing a lot of fruit or are you just producing like a wheat stock that's called chaff? And if you remember the summer of 1987, we had a big drought and the wheat crop in the United States, a lot of it didn't get water all summer. The plants grew up in the winter whenever the plants grew up, but they didn't have the moisture at the right time. And so the heads were empty. There was either a little speck in them or nothing at all. I walked among the wheat fields in South Dakota and a farmer just reached down and harvested a bunch of those about this time of year and blew and there was nothing in his hand. So God doesn't want us to be without this fruit that he's looking for. The quality, the quantity is exciting. It's like when you go out to your tomato plant. You say, well, there's a tomato plant, but does it have any tomatoes on it? Are there any snap peas? The plants might be growing, but is there any fruit on it?

It's exciting, but it also can be a waste of time.

The big question is, what can you and I do to help God with his harvest? We need to think about loving God, not just about God loving us. This is a two-way reciprocal covenant that we're in. We're to love God with our heart, soul, and mind as he loves us. So what can we do to help him with his harvest? Well, we need to have that patience. Verse 8, you also be patient, but again, that's that macrothumeo, which means steadfastness, constancy, endurance. We need to have those things as a living plant, a wheat plant, that through all of this winter cycle, we are developing wheat. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. That harvest is coming.

So God is calling us for this great future event. Let's skip forward and see what that'll be like a little bit. Let's go back to Revelation 22, the last chapter in the whole Bible.

Last chapter in the whole Bible, Revelation 22 and verse 17. Imagine yourself now.

You're reigning with Christ. You're maybe in the second resurrection. You've got the whole earth out there full of a hundred billion people. And what are you doing? Well, try this.

And the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come. And let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely, the Holy Spirit of God.

That's what we're going to be there to encourage others to take God's Spirit, like we have, and to drink it in and thirst for it. You and I are called to help to begin to roll out the kingdom of God across the earth. We go to Isaiah chapter 35. It's pretty exciting.

Isaiah chapter 35, this is what God wants to resurrect us to help with.

Isaiah chapter 35, we'll start in verse 1. Look at this both physically and spiritually.

And the wilderness. Today it's a wilderness. There's no God's Spirit in societies around the world.

Jesus Christ has not been accepted as the King, as the God of this world. Most everybody has said, we don't want you. We want the other guy. So there's the wilderness and the wasteland.

Literally, there will be that when the millennium begins. But also, this is what people have been going through and living through. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the road. The individual without God's Spirit is like just sand, you know, sand up here. But imagine you put that, you immerse it in the water of the washing of the Word of Jesus Christ. And that will just blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. Verse 3, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble needs. We'll go into people whose previous lives have been horrible and they're fearful and they had difficult, very difficult, maybe deaths even. Say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong and do not fear. This is the bride. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with recompense of God. He'll come and save you.

And then the eyes of the blind will be open. Literally, sure. But right now, Jesus said, blessed are you because your eyes see and your ears hear. We're going to roll that out to them and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Right now, nobody's walking with God.

Their, you know, society, you could say, is lame. In verse 6, then the lame shall leap like a deer. They're going to live and walk and run God's way. The tongue of the dumb, they can't say anything godly, but it's going to sing for waters or the Holy Spirit will burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. It's a wonderful thing. In verse 10, the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. See, God is about joy. Love, joy, harmony. And everyone will be led in ways of joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing will just flee away. Just, it's not part of God's way of life.

We are blessed, very, very blessed, to have a 50-day count, as it were, to celebrate a festival that represents us. And it's an exciting time for God. It should be a very exciting time for us. And we have some work to do for God, don't we? Some work to do for God. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20.

But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. In verse 23, but each one in his own order, Christ the first fruits and afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. At His coming. Get ready to become first fruits. Let's go find where we become first fruits in Scripture. It's Revelation chapter 14 and verse 4. At His coming, we will be harvested, we will be resurrected. And at that time, just like Jesus was harvested, remember, He is the first fruits because He was raised from the dead.

We become first fruits when we too are harvested. Revelation 14 and verse 4.

These are the ones who were not defiled with false religions, we could say, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. These individuals in verse 1 are standing with Jesus Christ written on their foreheads, with the Father's name written on their foreheads. And we will then be that first fruits harvest. Resurrection is very, very exciting.

And back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 51, we see the timing of this event.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 51. And we are certain that Jesus Christ will be returning.

The prophetic things are more and more lining up. We don't know when that will happen.

I've been attending church for almost 74 years, and I've always heard He'll be coming in 5 to 10 years. Recently, somebody said He'll probably be here in about 5 years. Kids, don't let somebody tell you you won't graduate from high school. They always told me that. You'll never marry. You'll never have a job. You'll never have kids. I've got a great grandkid, and I'm still here in 5 to 10 years. So just live your life. But in verse 51 it says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. So that's when it's going to happen. This celebrates it, but this isn't the timing. Whenever that last trumpet is blown, and Jesus said He didn't even know the day or the hour. So, you know, let's not think we know more than Him. When that last trumpet is blown, it will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

This is exciting for us. It's exciting for God. What a wonderful life that we have.

So in conclusion, Jesus Christ was harvested 50 days ago, 190, no, 1994 years ago. All right. He's been harvested, and He was presented to the Father today. Just before He died, He expressed exactly why He came and why He died. You find that in John 15, that we all may be one, and that we may be with Him, and behold the glory that God gave Him. That's His goal. Let's conclude with His words in John 5 and verse 24. John 5, and verse 24. 24 and 25.

Most assuredly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life. It's belief, faith with the works of doing that process of the new covenant, developing God's character and mindset, and shall not come into judgment, shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life. We are alive. We have that certification of God's Spirit changing our mind into His mind. That's the guarantee of our salvation.

Most assuredly, when Jesus says, most assuredly, you can depend on that. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. So, brethren, as it says in our Festivals booklet, Pentecost serves as an annual reminder that our Creator grants His Spirit to those called to be the first fruits of His spiritual harvest. Keep developing the fruits that God wants to harvest, the fruits of His mind, of His agape mindset, so that you can assist Jesus Christ in bringing in the greater harvest in the future as His bride.