The Great Harvest of God

Mr. Jim Tuck. Well, happy Sabbath, everybody! It's always good to see you, and good to have Denise and Dave back. I don't know if you were here last week, but good to see you again. I know you guys have been out of town, and I know this time of year, you know, people are on vacations. I know that's the case in the Northwest. Understandable, we have temperatures as we do in this part of the world. I think since the last time I saw you, we went up to Reno and Sacramento, and it was always good to see people up there that we've known for many, many years, but be praying again about the church up there. That all goes well, and we need to be praying also for the pastors that serve these areas, that God will provide us men who will take care of the congregations over which they serve. So please again remember that in your prayers. You know, I did find it interesting and have found it interesting. As some of you know, I'm sort of a I'm a buff at news. You know, I enjoy hearing what, in fact, Mr. Knudtsen said and what others say about the economy. And frankly, I think what Mr. Trump is doing could slow things down for us from our standpoint, maybe give us a little bit more time. That is if what he's deciding has an impact. You know, we'll just have to wait and see what happens and occurs. But remember, God is in charge. God is the one that appoints leaders and he can take them down. And what he does is he fits whoever he selects in his plan. He can speed up events or he can slow them down. And I'm hoping that what Mr. Trump is doing is going to slow things down with a buildup of China and other nations like Russia. And this time it might have the exact opposite effect, though. We'll have to wait and see. But we look around the world, brethren, that what is going on and we see a lot of negative things happening, we see a lot of suffering going on in the world. And again, people have come to me sometimes and talked to me about the news. And I've had a number of them say, you know, I don't watch news anymore. And I said, well, why? They basically say the reason I don't watch news anymore or read it is it negative. You know, all it is is, again, a lot of negative stuff. People suffering in the world. Why do I want to look at that? You know, and I understand that when we look at events in the world and what's happening, what's transpiring, it can be demoralizing, can it? You know, you get you watch it all the time and it can be discouraging in your life.

But and frankly, it is true. Without the knowledge of God and what God is doing, frankly, you look at the world and what's going on out there, there's no hope. There is no hope apart from God about these things. I understand why people consider the news so negative. It's like the CNN. You know what that is, what CNN is. I don't know if some of you ever watch it, but CNN stands for constantly negative news. It's all negative, and it is all negative out there. And again, if we don't have an understanding of what God is doing, it's discouraging to watch it. You know, one thing that we look in the Bible at what God's plan is, you know, God's great plan it revolves around the harvests of the Bible, the two great harvests. And you know, what we experience in terms of the trials and sufferings we go on through in this time that we're living in relates to that two-part plan of the two harvests of God. The first harvest, as we all know, is the Feast of Pentecost, or we call it the Feast of First Fruits, because it pertains to those called now at this time who are part of the church. That's what the church is about. That God is calling a firstfruits and He's harvesting us. You know, and just because, by the way, we have been cut, as it were, doesn't mean God's finished with a harvesting.

Like I mentioned in the letter to you, you know, the game is not over with starting, the game is over when we cross the finish line. We've got to do more than just be called. We've got to endure to the end. The second part in God's plan that is basically elucidated by the harvest, as we know, that it revolves around the Feast of Tabernacles, I should say, and it symbolizes, the Feast of Tabernacles, symbolizes the great fall harvest. You know, it's the great Feast of Engathering, as it were. That's another name for the Feast of Tabernacles. And, of course, the eighth day is the culmination of that. It's the culmination of when everybody has ever lived or existed is going to be resurrected to life, and they're going to find out what the truth is. And I don't know how many it's going to be, but we guesstimate 40 to 50 billion people. That's going to be a lot of people to prepare for, isn't it?

You know, Paul talks about, I'm not going to go to it, but in Hebrews 2 and verse 10, that God desires to bring many sons into his family. He wants to bring many children into glory. In other words, to change us from physical to immortal. He wants to do that. That is his desire. And God, of course, through our lives, he is teaching us, as Mr. Acomo is talking about, about the fear of God, how to have the proper fear of God, how to build holy, righteous character. That we can be like, in fact, Jesus Christ. We can have his mind, and we can have his thinking. But God is doing that. In a way, he's farming us right now. He's like a farmer overseeing us, cultivating us, watering us, you know, and he's going to eventually bring us on into the kingdom of God. You know, we are very connected, aren't we, in our day and age from farming? Here we are in the big city of Phoenix here. And if you just go out in the outskirts, if you go out where I live, and on the outskirts there are acres of crops. That this place, as hard as it can believe about it, even though the temperatures might soar, a lot of fruit is being born out of this Phoenix area. And, no, farming is not an easy thing. You know, I had a little bit of a taste of farming when I was about 16 years old. I think my brother, no, I was about 12, I'm sorry. I think my brother was 16. I was 12, and we got hired on by a farmer to help a farm in Bakersfield, California.

And during that time, our job was to irrigate. And we irrigated cotton fields.

And if you've ever moved these big pipes that were like a quarter mile long, they're huge. And if you can imagine a 12-year-old boy, and Isaac is 12 now, carrying these big aluminum pipes over the cotton, and you'd sink up into the mud up into about your knee, and you'd have to pull it out. And the water would sound like suctioning every time you pulled your legs out. But my brother and I did that every day for one summer. And we'd come home for work after about five o'clock. And quite frankly, I was so tired.

I was so tired, I couldn't even eat. And that's why I got so skinny when I was a, you know, a young fellow. I used to be so skinny if I, you know, turned sideways and stick your tongue out, you look like a zipper. You know, so it's pretty, pretty thin. If I showed you pictures of what I'm talking about, you'd understand I'm being totally honest about that.

But being a farmer is not easy. You had to prepare the field for working, and that was long hours plowing the field. You have to fertilize the ground. You have to plant the crop. That's, in a way, the easiest part, you know, putting the seed in the ground. But it's not over yet. You've got more to do. Then it's protecting the wheat from weeds that build up. You've got to get in there and hold them out sometimes, and there's no other way.

Except, I guess, some, you know, do, you know, different things to kill weeds, which probably is not good for the crops anyway. But you've got to keep the insects away and the animals away from the crop as well. And then, after all of that, all the work that you do, and coming in dog tired by the time the sun rolls around to sunset, you hope for the rain at the right time. And it might come and it might not.

Of course, if you're in an irrigating area, you still hope for the rain because the more that is, the less of the irrigating you've got to do. But you've got to have the right weather, and that's why God's going to give Israel, you know, rain and dew season in the world tomorrow. And then you've got to hope that when you sell your product, you make a profit. You might or might not.

You could go in the hole. You know, so farming's not easy. It's something that at the end of the day, you're driving, you're just driving yourself and it's your dog tired at the end of the day. But that's what God is doing, in fact, with us. He's working incessantly with us. He cares about us. We wouldn't be here if God didn't care about us and think about us.

The Feast of Tabernacles that is coming, you know, pictures of great harvest. But you know what? When we get to the world tomorrow, when we get to the millennium, in a way, that's going to be just a dress rehearsal for the even bigger harvest that's coming. You know, we're going to be in the millennium to begin to turn things around. And during that time, people are turned to God. For a thousand years, we're going to prepare for all the people who ever lived or existed who are going to come up in the second resurrection.

Where do 50 billion people live? You know, obviously, we'll have to build houses for them. What water will they drink? Well, we'll have to have plumbing, obviously. Where will the kids go to school? We'll have to build schools. We'll have to do all of these things. And it will take a thousand years to prepare for over 40 or 50 billion people. It's a dress rehearsal, in a way, for the coming big harvest is going to take place. So, brethren, we are harvest going on right now. The Feast of First Fruits pictures that.

There will be people that will be brought on into the family, we think. And this is speculation that they threw throughout the millennium they would be born into the family of God. And then there is the great white throne judgment the Bible talks about in the book of elation. When you have all of these billions of people, they're going to be brought up, and they'll come up as flesh and blood human beings, and they'll have to do exactly what we're doing right now, proving themselves.

And they're going to have to build character, and they're going to have to learn what the fear of God is. They never knew it, of course, in this world, in this society. So what I'm saying is the harvest are about suffering, about trials, as we prepare to enter into the family of God. In fact, you cannot, you cannot receive eternal life unless you've been through trial and suffering. I know we'd all love to be able to just goot right into the kingdom, wouldn't we?

I thought when I was baptized, I was baptized in 1968, I thought after that it's going to be smooth sailing. I really honestly thought that, but I found out very quickly that wasn't true. And it's not been smooth sailing ever since, quite frankly. But at least I understand what the trials are about. I understand what the suffering is about that we go through in this world sometimes. Let's go over here to Ezekiel 33, if you would turn with me there.

So much suffering and trials are necessary to teach us what the fear of God is, basically. We have to learn. A lot of times we don't learn by the words we read, we learn by experience, don't we? The things are in the Bible. But in Ezekiel 33, let's notice here in verse 28 here, notice it says, For I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease. I know it's hard for us to believe, but the time is going to come when the United States will not exist as a nation as it does now. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I do think we're nearer than we even imagined.

But God says He's going to do that, you know, just as He did it with ancient Israel, and they cease to be. And, of course, Israel was scattered throughout the nations, and they're the lost ten tribes of Israel today, of which the United States is one of them in Britain as well, and Australia and South Africa and other nations that are out there. They don't know they're Israel. But God is broken, though, broke ancient Israel's arrogant strength, and the mountains of Israel be so desolate that no one will pass through. Hard to imagine that time will come in this country where there will be such devastation, probably caused by the weapons that we armed NATO with over in Europe, that people will not be able to go through this land. It might, in fact, be affected by, you know, radioactivity due to what happens in the future. But in verse 29, then, then, they shall know that I am the eternal. When I have made the land most desolate because of all of their abominations which they have committed. You know, God told ancient Israel, you be sure when you are wealthy, when you have houses, when you have all of these things—what did he say? Don't forget me. But what have the people or many people in this land done? They've done precisely that. They've forgotten God. But God is going to teach this country and other nations of Israel that they would know Him, that they would fear Him, and that they will walk in His ways. Now, would God prefer that? No, He wouldn't. But, you know, here I am. I'm talking to you here talking about these things. Does it really register with us? Do we believe what's being said? I can read the Scriptures. I can do that. But do we believe? It reminds me, you know, when we—it's like your children, you know, you'd rather—far rather—they listen to the words that you speak as a parent, right? That you don't have to administer some sort of corporate punishment. You know, that that is far preferable. But, you know, when the words don't make any difference that you speak, the things we read don't make any difference. And the only thing, the only recourse God has is physical punishment. And that's what's going to happen to this country. Does God want that? Does any parent want that for their kids? Absolutely not. Let's do this verse 11 here. Say to them, say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. For why should you die, O house of Israel? So God doesn't want that. He doesn't desire that. But, you know, God, brethren, is in the character-building business, if I can put it that way. And he insists upon us, as human beings, building holy righteous character to be a part of his family. So that's why the onus is on us, brethren, to be applying God's way of life, that the responsibility is on our backs to do that.

And God has allowed, and he did anciently for Israel, he allowed Israel and Judah to suffer, and relentlessly so. And the Bible indicates that God pursued them, that they would learn, that they would see, and that they would understand.

But on the other hand, God was merciful to them, and he delivered them too. God allowed Judah to come back after 70 years, and frankly, they weren't on an awful lot better when they came back many years afterwards than they were when they went in to captivity.

Israel has not come back. The ten tribes of Israel have not come back, but God has promised they will in the future. But you know what their condition will be when when that happens? They will loathe themselves. They come to loathe themselves because of what they're going through, and they'll have a more repetitive attitude and willingness to hear and to listen. But let's go to Isaiah now, Isaiah 54, over here.

In Isaiah 54, let's notice down in verse 7 through 10, it says, For a mere moment I have forsaken you. So God, in the way God looks at it, Israel, he just forsook Israel. But with great mercy, he says, I will gather you.

With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment. So it seems to me the reason why Israel and Judah fell into problems is not because of what God did. It's the fact of what he did not do and that he did not intervene to stop it. He turned his face away from them just a little while, it says here. But with the everlasting kindness, I will have mercy upon you. In other words, God says, I'm going to have mercy upon you. Says the Eternal, your Redeemer. For this is like the waters of Noah to me.

Interestingly, here as he puts it, For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you.

For the mountains should depart and the hills be removed. For my kindness shall not depart from you.

And it says, Nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Eternal, I who has mercy upon you. You see, God says he would not cease to show mercy upon his people.

And let's go back to chapter 27 here in Isaiah chapter 27.

Well, God is merciful to us. I know I walked into the Northwest Church today and I started chatting with a gentleman there. And the first thing out of his mouth was God has been merciful to us.

And he has, brethren, in so many ways. But it's good to hear God's people who realize that. No matter how hard we may have it, no matter what we go through, we probably deserve more. We deserve more. Of course, a lot of the problems we have stem from the fact that we have a great adversary who is constantly there like he was with Adam and even the garden, trying to mislead. And I'll tell you, it's like Mr. Knutson was talking about. There are many things in the world that can be just practice that are out here in the world to turn us away from God. It's hard, if you're young, particularly, to keep your bearings, to keep your focus on the kingdom of God. But notice here, in that day, the Lord with his severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, that twisted serpent, and he will slay the reptile that is in the sea. By the way, this Leviathan here, you read this in other places about, you know, this Leviathan, it's symbolic of Satan. He's like a giant dragon. And there's no one to contain him, but God is going to, you know, hook him, and he's going to punish him. And we know that at the beginning of the millennium, the very first thing that's going to happen, that even God's not going to have to do it. He's going to send an angel to bind him for a thousand years. And so here in Isaiah, it's an allusion to that and what's going to happen for the future. Now in verse 6, let's notice here, those who came, he shall cause to take root in Jacob. Israel shall blossom in mud and fill the face of the world with fruit. In other words, the time ahead when this happens, when Satan is bound, will be a time of polity. Again, you know, here it's facts of the Feast of Tabernacles and the world of Maro in the world of Maro in the millennial reign of Christ, when it will be a time of plenty around the globe and due to Israel and God's blessing on Israel. Down in verse 12, let's notice this in chapter 27, let's notice this. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O youth children of Israel. Does that smack of a harvest in the future, brethren? It's going to begin at the time of the beginning of the millennium when Christ returns. And you and I are going to be there to help it happen, brethren, to help it occur. And it says, So it shall be in that day, the great trumpet will be blown. Trumpet, of course, symbolic of the Feast of Trumpets when Christ is going to return, the picturing the return of Jesus Christ.

And it says, And they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcast in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Eternal in the holy mount of Jerusalem. So God's going to bring Israel back, and he's going to bring Judah back. He's going to make them into one stick, as the book of Ezekiel talks about, or one nation.

So God is going to gather them. He's going to harvest them. And you know what? You and I are going to be a part of that. As spirit beings, we're going to be sent out as emissaries to the world.

And we're going to have to gather God's people. And by that I mean the people of Israel, that God does love. And they're going to be formed into one nation that are going to be a blessing for the entire world. Everyone will be affected by Israel. God intended Israel to be an example nation to the world, and he's going to make it happen. He's going to make it happen. Israel didn't do it. We're an example of what we shouldn't do in a lot of things. Even modern-day Israel in the United States, even though there's been a lot of good things, brethren, that have been accomplished by the United States, we export a lot of trash to the world, too. Much trash and a wrong way of thinking to the world. You know, think about it this way as well, brethren. Is it God alone has perfect knowledge of what modern Israel needs to cause them to come to repentance? We don't.

God had perfect knowledge of how to bring you to repentance, how to bring me to repentance, and He alone has the perfect knowledge of how to bring Israel and Judah to repentance.

And God won't place upon us more than we can handle, like the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

You know, we may not understand what God is doing in our life. Sometimes I've tried to figure it out what God is doing in my life. Why does He allow this? Why does He allow that? But I have to remember, brethren, who the potter is and who the clay is. The clay doesn't know what the potter is doing.

But I do know this. I do know this, brethren. We're going to go through a lot of trials, a lot of suffering before it's all said and done as God begins to work with us and mold as that clay. And in fact, those things make us who we become. It's like if you read the letter I wrote, I talked about Teddy Roosevelt, who was very sickly when he was a little boy.

And he worked very, very hard to become strong. He subjected himself to most people, probably the things that most people wouldn't have done. Franklin Roosevelt, you know, was, I think, somewhere in his 30s when he was stricken with a childhood disease called polio. And with polio, though, most would have thought his career was over. But Franklin applied himself to push himself. And he was able to get the point where the first speech he ever gave, he had to hold on to the lectern to stand up.

If he had let go, in any way, he would have just toppled over. And of course, it would have been the end of everything. If you look at any picture of Franklin Roosevelt, he is holding on to something or somebody's holding on to help. But, you know, someone could say, and they could moan and groan about the trials that you have in this life. And Franklin and, you know, Teddy Roosevelt could have done that, but they didn't. Both of them were well-to-do, very rich in that time and that day and that age, born with a silver spoon in the mouth. But because of the fact that they they were the kind of people that just get down and work with other people and be normal people, people listened to them. You know, when Franklin Roosevelt was having his fire shots, side chats during the time of the Depression, the American people listened.

He sounded like, you know, somebody wouldn't lie to them. And what he did did have a big impact in turning this country around. Now, I know some would argue negative things about that, but that's the positive side of it. But Franklin Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt, their trial made them who they were. Now, I know I went through a terrible thing in 2012. You know, I had a stroke and and I was down for about five or six weeks. I was in the hospital for five or six weeks. And quite frankly, I didn't even know I was going to get out of the hospital. And the stroke had actually affected my left side so that that I couldn't even walk straight. It took me six months of walking back and forth in our house. I couldn't go outside. But I walked back and forth in our house. And every time I would, I would try to look down and concentrate to straighten my foot out so I could walk properly. But, you know, I would not want what happened to me to happen again, not in a million years.

You know, and I wouldn't want it to happen to anybody.

But I don't know, I guess that's what God thought I needed.

You know, and I wouldn't trade what I went through for anything because of the impact it had on the way I think. Frankly, it became somebody else because of his trials and his suffering. And so did Teddy. Teddy Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, the great president who, you know, had the motto, you know, walk softly and carry a big stick.

You know, and he had such an impact on American politics, his faces carved into Mount Rushmore up there. Well, we may not have anybody carve our faces in Mount Rushmore, but maybe by what we go through, if we rise above the trials we go through, we'll be in the kingdom of God. And that's much more important.

You know, we don't know what God is doing in our lives, brethren, but again, remember, he's the potter. You know, we think what God does is unusual. It's strange. It's like it says in Isaiah 28 verse 21. I'm not going to have you turn there, but it says, the Lord will come suddenly and in anger. You know, God is going to have a time where he's going to come in anger as at Mount Parazim and Gibeon to do a strange and unusual thing to destroy his own people. Now, that's what, in fact, the tribulation is about. But he's at the end going to have tremendous mercy upon them and bring them back again and make them into a great nation.

God's work, often, brethren, is strange to us. We don't think the way God does.

So remember, we are the clay. He's the potter. You know, why do we suffer again when we're called? Well, the chief reason is this, that Christ is being formed in us, and it's done by trials and suffering. That's how he does it.

That you and I would be like our elder brother, Jesus Christ, who's the captain of our salvation. You know, we tend to be stubborn, don't we? We are stubborn. And, you know, God has to chase it every son he receives.

But why are we having to learn all these things? You know, we're learning all these things to benefit not only us, because we really do need it, but our brothers that sit next to us, our sisters that sit next to us in church. We're learning these things for the benefit of our brethren to encourage them. You know, a Christian's life is not, you know, from the time you're baptism, it's not like that. If you're as in, I'd like to talk to you. If it's just, you started off, and you're just, you're going stellar all of a sudden. My life has been like this.

It keeps going up, but there are ups and downs. Sometimes you make one step forward and two step back, but hopefully you keep, over time, you keep going up. You keep changing. You keep overcoming. But Christ is being formed in us. That's the purpose. That's what God is trying to do in us, brethren. And whether you suffer or whether you are comforted, I know sometimes that I've asked to ask God that God comfort me. I feel like I'm down. I feel like I'm down on the ground and I'm being kicked. And I've asked for His comfort, and I don't know how He does it. But, you know, every time I've asked, I don't see it coming. I don't see the comfort coming. I don't know which direction it's going to come in, but there comes a time, though, where I, you know, I think, you know, I feel encouraged. I don't know. Maybe you've been this way in your life.

Usually things, though, in the end, it's like you think are going to turn out bad. God has a way of turning it around, and they turn out to our benefit and to our good.

You know, Paul, I'm not going to go to 2 Corinthians 1, but you can read verses 3 through 6. But Paul himself says the reason why we go through our trials and we suffer is so that we can relate to other people, like the Roosevelts related to people.

It's like, you know, Franklin Roosevelt, as you know, had the problem with polio, and he went to Warm Springs, Georgia. And he liked it so much, he ended up buying the place. He spent a third of his fortune to buy this convalescent home in Warm Springs.

And after he began to, you know, benefit from it, he bought it, and it became a place for many of those polio victims, you know, began to gather. And he would go back, he went, I think, reports I saw, he went back 41 times. It became the White House in Georgia. He was there so much. But when he went there, if he saw somebody down and discouraged, he would encourage them. He told them to work. You've got to work at it. You know, you can't lay down and be sorry for yourself. You've got to work at it. But he set a tremendous example for people that had horrible handicaps as a result of polio. So again, whether we, you know, are comforted or whether we suffer, we can help other people, brethren.

What is important, we have to have the mind of Christ to think the way Christ does and learn the lessons so we can help other people. We encourage other people, brethren, by telling our story, whatever it is. And if you don't have a story yet, you will, before it's all said and done. God will see to that. He's not going to have anybody as a king in the world tomorrow, doesn't have a story to tell. All of us, brethren, have something to say about ourselves. We have to have, though, the character of God and the mind of Jesus Christ to become His sons and His children. We need to again look, brethren, to the harvest.

Christ suffered Himself. Imagine if He had given up.

You know, He said, oh, I'm sorry, this is too much.

And He was really suffering the night before He was taken to be crucified, already. He pressed beyond measure, probably more than anybody ever has been. Think about it, the weight of the entire universe was on your shoulders. And what did Jesus say? If there's any other way, you think He just said that for us? I think He really felt it. But at the end, He says, Father, nevertheless, not my will, but Your will. I want to do what You want me to do.

And He gave His life for all of us so that we could have forgiveness of sin.

That's the kind of mind that God wants us to have. That kind of mind. That kind of an attitude.

You know, we need to again know, though, that in that quest for the mind of Christ, that Satan is always going to be there. And the Bible tells us that the only way to turn Satan away, that he flees from us, if we turn to God. We have to turn to God.

If we do that, he will flee us. You know, the Bible tells us. But we are suffering, brethren, now, so that we can have the mind of Christ.

And Christ is always going to be there. And the Father, the Father is the farmer, as it were. The husbandman and every son he receives, he's got to chase him. He's got to correct and point him in the right direction. You know, he's the husbandman. He prunes the vine. Even if you're producing fruit, God's going to make it produce more.

Christ is the true vine, and the Father is the one that does the pruning.

But be aware, brethren, that we have to sow in the Spirit. If we sow in the flesh, we're going to reap in the flesh. We're going to have problems in the flesh. Don't be surprised if you do. But if you sow to the Spirit, you know, you're going to reap life everlasting.

And don't get weary and well-doing. Don't give up. Never, ever give up.

Press forward. The only way you can lose is if you give up. God is with you no matter what you go through. He loves you. He cares for you.

You know, we may not know why God called us, but I can tell you this. God knows why He brought you into the church.

But I think I do know this. Ultimately, the reason why God called you and me ultimately is for the purpose of the harvest that's coming. It will be big work that's ahead of us. He needs us in the millennium. People who have gone through the gauntlet, so to speak, and have built the holy righteous character and who are loyal to God and Jesus Christ. So He needs us for the purpose of the harvest. I say, need. God could take a rock if He wanted to.

But, brethren, He didn't raise up a rock. He called you and me for the great purpose of helping with a future harvest that's coming. And with a harvest that's coming, it is right now. Those being called now, those being taught now, that we can help one another. Brethren, when we gather at the Feast of Trumpets, which is not very far off now, when we gather for the Feast of Trumpets, we're going to celebrate the time of a great harvest to begin.

What will happen in the millennium? And then when we meet on the last day, that eighth day of the Feast, we're going to celebrate the most bountiful harvest that we'll ever be. And that is the resurrection of everyone who has ever lived or died. And when this occurs, brethren, we're going to have our work cut out for us as rulers assisting Jesus Christ, helping Him do what He needs to do. But let me say this, and I want you to think about this. We're not going to be there in the millennium and in the time of the great white-fool judgment or the second resurrection unless we are in the first resurrection. You want to be there, you need to be in the first resurrection, which is called the better resurrection. Or the first fruit harvest is another term we could use for that. So, brethren, a major part of God's festivals, His feasts of God, the seven annual festivals, center around those two great harvests.

And we're being called and harvested now for the purpose of helping others now in the Church to be an encouragement to them, to point the way, to keep going, to keep fighting, to endure the end and, brethren, of helping the multiple millions of billions through the time of the millennium and the time of the great white-throne judgment or the second resurrection, who will be called in that time ahead. All I ask you, brethren, is to think about this. Let us allow the trials we go through and the sufferings that we endure to prepare us for this great purpose. It is the greatest purpose a human could ask for that has such great meaning.

This is the reason why God has called you into the Church. The results of what God is planning and God is preparing, brethren, will cause us to rejoice forevermore. There will not be a time when we will not rejoice. Do you think we're going to be pretty happy when the time of Christ returned and we begin to rise to meet Christ in the air? What will you feel like as you're ascending in the air? I don't think we'll be thinking about, this is getting high.

I think we will realize that we've been resurrected. We've been changed from mortal to immortal. And I think you're going to have a lot of people laughing and happy going up to meet Christ in the air. And the same is going to be true, brethren, when we see what happens in the millennium, the bound of the great world tomorrow, and the time of the great harvest of the Second Resurrection. Imagine being there! Imagine standing next to the grave of your parents, or your grandparents, or your brother, or your sister, or whatever. And being able to be there and see them stand up out of their grave, and they see you for the first time.

Imagine that, brethren. The harvest time is a happy time. The harvest time is a time to rejoice.

So be thankful, brethren, and know these things and apply them into your life.