The Holy Day of Pentecost

I said we will talk about that. So it is interesting. We might ask right from the beginning, how does God reveal to us how He's going to rescue us? We could ask that. How is He going to reveal His rescue plan to us? How does He reveal it? He created us and put us here on this earth. So we ask, what is His plan of salvation? What's the plan? Where can we see it? We see His plan through the Holy Days. The Holy Days are listed in Leviticus 23. We know them there. It begins with the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, which we've just completed. We're now moving on to Pentecost. These are the early Holy Days, the early festivals. We'll have the fall festivals that will be coming in the fall. Those picture the completion of God's plan for all of mankind. Knowing, first and foremost, what your purpose is and how God's going to accomplish it, it's really the first thing that we should really know and know that we know so that we can make sense of all that's happening in the world. The Day of Pentecost is another step in God's plans. What we find with regards to God's plan of salvation and His plan to rescue all of mankind is that He shows it through the Holy Days, but He also attaches an object lesson to His plan. He gives us these object lessons to help demonstrate what He's going to do. Really, the object lesson that He gives us with the plan of salvation for mankind is through harvest. Harvest. If you want to have a word to describe how God is going to rescue mankind, the object lesson, the word we can attach to, it's about harvesting. With that, let me read you a quote from our booklet. It's God's Holy Day Plan. If you don't have this or you haven't read through it, I recommend it. God's Holy Day Plan, A Promise of Hope for Mankind. I believe we have it back there. Let me quote this to you from the booklet. In the process of revealing His plan of salvation for mankind, God established His annual Holy Days around harvest seasons. Just as His people harvested their crops around three festival seasons, God's Holy Days show us how He is harvesting people for eternal life in His kingdom. So the Holy Days have meanings that build upon each other together and show and reveal how God is working to harvest all of mankind. So to think in the imagery of harvesting, it really helps us. And so God would introduce these concepts to ancient Israel, and He would say, Just as you have different harvesting seasons, so does my plan for mankind. I'm going to harvest mankind through the seasons. We have our early harvest of first fruits. First fruit harvest. It's a smaller harvest. Then we have a later harvest, a greater harvest, a fall harvest. It's real important to get that in our minds. God is not harvesting everyone at this time. In other words, He's not calling everyone at this time.

Knowing that, it can really make sense of this world. God is calling first fruits to Himself at this time, and we're preparing for a later harvest to come. It's God's purpose that none are lost, but that all have the opportunity to come to Him. And we understand this through the picture of harvest. Let's begin to unravel this by turning first to Exodus 23, if you will. If anybody has any comments along the way, feel free to stop me. We can take a look at it, but we're going to begin to look at these harvest seasons, three harvest seasons that are spoken about, physically, and then we're going to attach it to the spiritual meaning. Exodus 23, in verses 14-16, here mentions the three holy day seasons of the year. Exodus 23, beginning in verse 14, Three times ye shall keep a feast to me in a year. Ye shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. We just completed that. Ye shall eat unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, that's the first month in God's calendar. For in it ye came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty.

In verse 16, he says, and a feast of harvest. So we have the feast of unleavened bread. Now we have the feast of harvest mentioned. The first fruits of your labors, which ye have sown in the field.

Now here's the third mention, a third harvest. And the feast of end-gathering. So the feast of end-gathering at the end of the year. When you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

So you have this physical here, this physical harvest that points to a spiritual harvest. So he says, just like you harvest the crops, I'm going to harvest people. First harvest, pitchers and is symbolized in Passover and the days of unleavened bread. That's the early harvest. You have another harvest in early summer, which is another early harvest, which is going to be the Pentecost, which we are about to observe. It's also referred here to the feast of harvest. Pentecost and the feast of harvest are the same thing. The Holy Day Pentecost has several names attached to it.

And then we will celebrate our fall holy days and a fall harvest. And that marks out his bigger spiritual harvest to come, as pictured by the fall holy days. The Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day. So you see all these holy days listed in Leviticus 23. And these holy days take us through the plan of salvation for mankind. So here in verse 16, he refers to the Feast of Harvest. This represents the first fruits gathered, the spring grain harvest of Israel.

And again, we're going to see that the Feast of Harvest also is referred to the Feast of Weeks, and also Pentecost in the New Testament. So this particular feast day has different names attached to it, but they all refer to the one feast holy day. And so we see here in Exodus 23, this holy day season, this Pentecost season, the Feast of Harvest. It's a new beginning for the nation of Israel. And so we begin to, we want to delve into it and start to look at the spiritual context here and the spiritual connections. To do that, let's turn to Leviticus 23 now. Leviticus 23 in verse 9 through 11. So God attaches these ceremonies. They're physical ceremonies, but they have spiritual connections to them all. God's purpose was to, when Jesus Christ came, one of the things Jesus said was, You know all those things you did back then? Well, I am the fulfillment now. So when they celebrated Passover and they smeared the blood on the doorpost, on the lintel post, and they were protected from death, that Passover lamb, He says, I am the lamb now. And so now we're going to see a connection to this feast of harvest, feast of weeks, Pentecost, this holy day that we're about to observe. And we're about to see the connection with Jesus Christ. And we're going to be speaking about the first of the harvest, the first harvest, the first fruits of the harvest.

So let's see this. Leviticus 23, let's begin reading in verse 9-11. So just before this, you see the holy days listed in the festivals. But here, Leviticus 23, let's read verse 9-11.

So they were going to be doing something physical. It was going to point to something spiritual later. He says, When you come into the land which I give you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. So bring the sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. So the day after the Sabbath, that would be a Sunday from our calendar, right? So you have this physical representation. Another way to put this, let me just read this to you from the New Living Translation. It gives a little different flavor here. Giving the following instructions to the people of Israel, When you enter into the land which I'm giving you, and you harvest the first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest. Bundle it together, you know. On the day after the feast, the priest will lift it up before the Lord, so it may be accepted on your behalf.

So this ceremony resulted in God's official acceptance. They couldn't sell anything, they couldn't eat anything, any of it, until this was done. And God would get his approval for the new harvest season to begin. It's an official beginning here. It was a bundle of stalks of barley bound by straw or twine. And until this waving, W-A-V-E, from the priest, that's when the nation got its official approval to move forward with the season. It was a wave sheep offering, as we refer to it. Wave sheep offering.

And more to come on how that, your mind might be thinking of how that relates to Jesus Christ.

But before we get there, let's just for a moment look at how this day has different names attached to it. Go down to verse 15 here. Verse 15. So the reason it's called the Feast of Weeks is because it tells us when we should observe this day. So verse 15, And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, the waving, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Verse 16.

So seven Sabbaths, yeah. Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.

So it's the Feast of Harvest. It also has this name Feast of Weeks. And that reason it has that name attached to it shows us when we're to observe this day, this Feast of Weeks. They were, this day is unique. They were to arrive at the day we are to observe it by counting off seven weeks and then going to the next day, which is the fiftieth day. So that's what we've done. The Sabbath in the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath that falls in the Days of Unleavened Bread, we begin counting. And that's why here on June 9th, on a Sunday, we're going to keep the Pentecost there in Morristown, which I announced earlier. So it's just that we're just not coming up with this out of our head. We're everything, we try to look at everything in biblically here. So in Numbers 28 verse 26, let's turn there, since we're pretty close, Numbers 28 verse 26.

One more reference here to the counting.

Numbers 28 verse 26, it says, Numbers 28 verse 26, Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord, at your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work. So when you read about the Holy Days there in Leviticus 23, you see that the terms are, this is an everlasting covenant, you're you, you're generations, you see it here in Numbers, a holy convocation. There in Leviticus 23, you also see the weekly Sabbath mentioned. So these are all very relevant today. Some say these days aren't relevant anymore, but they show the plan of salvation. And they show us why, what God is doing here on earth. So let's think about this, this act that was done by the priest, okay? The first cutting and the lifting up to the Lord and they would wave it to be accepted. There's a beginning here, and it's going to point, that most of, some of us know, to Jesus Christ Himself. So let me read this summary from our booklet here, this summary here, and kind of have a review of what we've read so far. Our quote is a quote from our booklet. So think about this in spiritual terms. God refers to us, we will see as first fruits of the harvest. Christ is the first of the first fruits, those to whom He calls are the first fruits. So first fruits, physically, are the first agricultural products to mature and ripen. Throughout the Bible, quote, God uses the analogy of the harvest and particularly on Pentecost. First fruits, to illustrate aspects of His plan of salvation. Israel observed this day in the late spring, after the barley and wheat harvests. A special offering of the first ripe grain during the days of unleavened bread, called the wave-sheaf offering, marked the beginning of these harvests, which continued during the next fifty days, which led up to Pentecost. The spring harvest was the first fruits of the yearly agricultural cycle. Okay? And again, all this is going to have a spiritual connection for us. So we have the beginning of the harvest season, and there was to be a wave-sheaf offering, continuing to the day of Pentecost. So this day of Pentecost has a few different names. Feast of harvest, day of first fruits, feast of weeks, because you count those seven weeks in a day. Pentecost is what it's referred to in the New Testament. Pentecost simply means fiftieth. So you have all these names that you can look for. So obviously there's very important spiritual meanings to this day.

Just as there were harvest seasons in the Old Testament, an early harvest of grain in the spring and a main grain harvest in the fall, God's plan of salvation for mankind has two spiritual harvests. In God's master plan, God has a first fruit harvest, the first spring harvest, of those whom He calls to Himself. A later, bigger spiritual harvest, a fall harvest, as pictured in the fall holy days, where God has plans to end-gather all of mankind. So there's deep meaning in understanding this, and God gives us this principle of the harvest for us to understand.

If God was calling everyone to Himself at this time, you could almost conclude that He's losing out. You look around the world, and you would ask, What's going on? And you ask yourself, What about the poor child who was born, lived just a short period of time in a really hard life, let's say in a hard area of this world, and died? What's His destiny? You see, unless you believe that everyone is being called now, and this is the only time of salvation, you would have to conclude that God is the only one who is being called now.

You would have to conclude that that poor child never called on the name of Christ, never had an opportunity to even know the name Christ. Well, is He lost then? Is He in some kind of eternal damnation? No. That's not a God I would want to worship. If you understand the harvest season, you understand not everyone is being called at this time.

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. We may know this, and we've studied this for a long time, but it's absolutely profound. I don't want us to lose, even if you've had this truth revealed to you, I don't want to lose just how special it is. It reveals the God that we worship. It's a loving God whose will is that none perish.

Look at this. 1 Corinthians 15. Chapter 15, beginning in verse 20. If this isn't clear, I don't know what is. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, small m, by man, capital M, also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Verse 23. But each in his own order! Christ the firstfruits afterward those who are Christ at his coming. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, and he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

So I want you to see that. For in Adam all die. Everyone dies, right? Even so, all shall be made alive in Christ. Verse 23 may be one of the most profound scriptures in all the Bible. But each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits and afterward those who are Christ at his coming. So Christ is, we could say, the first of the firstfruits. He made possible all the firstfruits that would come after. But there's an order. Many are called. Few are chosen.

We know that scripture. So God is calling some now, many now. There will be a first fruit harvest at this time. Those who are gods, they will rise to meet him at his return. Just as it said, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ at his coming. We don't have time to work through the fall holy days. But we know the Feast of Trumpets represents his return. The Day of Atonement.

You can see these in Leviticus 23. The Day of Atonement. The banishing of Satan the devil. The Feast of Tabernacles, featuring the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ with his firstfruits. And then the 8th day when the great in-gathering will happen. And all those who never had an opportunity to know God will rise and be resurrected. And they'll have their opportunity at that time. If you want to... Well, I'm going to go down... I'm trying to resist going down rabbit holes.

Continuing just because of time purposes. If you get the booklet, you can read about God's plan for all mankind. And you can read about how Revelation speaks of the different resurrections. First resurrection, second resurrection. And when you apply that understanding to the harvest understanding, it puts it all together.

I think here in 1 Corinthians 15, it's one of the most profound passages in all of Scripture. And I don't know how you can read that and not have it connected to the harvest season. We're very... it's a wonderful thing to have your eyes open to this. The world's view of God's plan of salvation, many that's being preached from the pulpits, that today is the only day of salvation. And that those who never knew the name of Jesus Christ, well, oh well. It's an ugly plan. It's an ugly thing that they're teaching. And it's not true. God's plan is beautiful. It gives an opportunity for all to know Him. And it's in this wonderful harvest season. So we're pictured as first fruits. Those who are called accept Jesus Christ now. We have to have our eyes open to this.

Let's turn to Matthew 13. I will just take a quick moment and then we're going to move on to talking about Jesus Christ and the wave sheaf. But Matthew 13, let me set up the scene here. We're going to begin reading in verse 10. So the disciples were called. This was a moment here in Matthew 13 for Jesus Christ to preach the gospel of the coming kingdom of God to the masses. He gets on a boat. He pushes out from shore. And the disciples are astonished at what they hear. Why? Because He began to speak in parables. Christ spoke in parables. A parable is a way of speaking to make things not clear. And look at this. Matthew 13, verse 10. The disciples heard Him speak in parables. And they said, the disciples came to Him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? And He said to them, verse 11, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it has not been given. So think of the harvest season in these scriptures. Verse 12. For whoever has to Him, more will be given. He will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what He has, will be taken away from Him. Now listen to this, verse 13. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled. Hearing you will hear, and you shall not understand. Seeing you will see, and not perceive. For the hearts of the people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing. Their eyes have not closed. And their eyes they have closed. Lest they shall see with their eyes, and hear with their ears. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. Christ is talking to His disciples here. Look at verse 16.

So just before this teaching that Christ has given to His disciples, you'll see as the parable of the sower. You know, these seeds are going out. God has to open our eyes, and our ears, and our eyes. If we're not called to have an opportunity to be a first fruit, we're not going to see this. So it's a great opportunity. This is what the harvest understanding points us to.

Now I want to really point you to this significance of the wave sheaf offering. So without Christ giving of Himself and being crucified, then there could be no other first fruits to come. He was the first of the first fruits. So think of this symbolism. They cut the first sheaf of grain. They cut it. Jesus Christ was cut down, wasn't He? They pick it up. Jesus Christ was resurrected. They present it to God for His approval. If you remember, we went through this study in Passover. I think we did. We know with the three days, three nights, Jesus Christ was crucified and He rose just before sunset on Saturday of that crucifixion week.

Mary comes while it was still dark, the early morning of Sunday. He said, don't touch me. I haven't yet raised to my Father. So this is what He still needed to be presented and accepted by the Father as the perfect sacrifice.

So He ascends to the Father. The Father accepts Him. That's like the first wave sheaf. You see all this? It points to Jesus Christ. Later on, Jesus said, touch me. Feel me. I'm here. Because He had already risen and He came back and was with them. But at that time, He hadn't yet been accepted by the Father. Just as that first wave sheaf is to be accepted by the Father before they could start the agricultural season. Their harvest. So deep. So beautiful. So we learn this is the richness that we have through these holy days and through the harvest, understanding the harvest season. So we see there in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ is risen from the dead, has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

So the spiritual harvest begins with Jesus Christ. Another aspect of this is being firstborn. So you think of new beginnings and the day of Pentecost. He was the firstborn over all creation. Firstborn spiritually. Look at Colossians 1 verse 15. So we have another aspect of new beginnings. Colossians 1 verse 15 gives another aspect of first. Jesus Christ is the first in the plan of God in terms of the resurrection. He was resurrected first to become the first of the firstborn. He was the firstborn. Colossians 1 verse 15 says about Christ, He is in the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

So the firstborn has a title of importance, very important in Old Testament culture, the first child born. Here in Colossians 1, if you look down to verse 18, it says of Christ, verse 18, He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have preeminence. So He's the firstborn of the dead. We know there will be a resurrection, a first resurrection at Christ's return, a later great, larger resurrection, the second resurrection, pictured by the fall Holy Days.

So Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. It all begins with Jesus Christ, just as it did in the early harvest. So let me give you a summary statement from our booklet. The wave-sheaf ceremony God gave to ancient Israel represents Jesus Christ's acceptance by the Father as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He presented Himself to God the Father on the Sunday after His resurrection, the same day during the days of Unleavened Bread, on which the first sheep of grain of the spring harvest was waved before God.

So that's pretty rich. That's pretty deep, isn't it? Pretty cool. So looking at how is God going to rescue mankind, looking at it through the harvest, it really provides clarity. And we'll even talk more about this as we get to the fall Holy Days and we talk about the later harvest to come. It's a larger harvest. Innately, the first harvest is smaller. So God's calling a...we see throughout Scripture a small group.

Few are chosen.

Now, so we have beginnings. Those are all beginnings. Jesus is the first of the firstfruits there. Now, we then are referred to as firstfruits as well. Those who God is calling now. So James 1.18. James 1.18 is a good Scripture. So Christ is the first of the firstfruits. And then James 1.18 tells us...James 1.18...it says, "...of his own..." That's speaking of Jesus Christ. "...of his own, he brought forth us by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." That we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. So you see the connection here. So there you have the aspect of God's people as firstfruits. It begins with a small harvest with a larger harvest to come. Quoting from our booklet...

So this is something most people don't understand from Scripture. Most assume that God is trying to save everyone now. And I don't even know. There's not many organizations that understand that truth. When becoming a firstfruit begins when we're baptized, that's a new start for us. A new, deeper relationship with God.

Look at this Scripture. So when we become baptized, we are given God's Holy Spirit and we become firstfruits. Now look at this. Romans 8, verse 22. When you understand this concept, you begin to see it all throughout Scripture. It's like it just comes alive in your eyes. Romans 8, verse 22 and 23.

This will help...this understanding will help us make sense of the world. The first thing we need to do is understand our purpose in life. Where we are. Are you a firstfruit? Am I a firstfruit? Look at this. Romans 8, verse 22 and 23. I love this analogy of firstfruits.

Romans 8, verse 22. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting the adoption and the redemption of our body. So look at that term there in verse 23. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. The firstfruits of the Spirit. So in a sense, we have the first picking of God's Holy Spirit.

I don't have picking experience, but I'm told that strawberries, you know, if you pick strawberries, usually the best you're going to get is the first pickings. So we have the first pickings of the Spirit. They're in Romans 8, verse 23. The firstfruits of the Spirit. So he's talking about the whole world groaning. And then Paul says, even we groan for Christ's return, we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Amazing. All right. We're going to pick it up here. We know another beginning of this day, and we can't work through this fully. I think I'm going to work through this on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2. We know now this day is referred to as Pentecost. But of course, we know it has several names. Feast of Harvest, Feast of Weeks. Now here in Acts 2, it's referred to as the Day of Pentecost.

What took place on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is that the Holy Spirit was made available on larger scale. God was beginning to make His Spirit available, the first pickings of His Spirit. Acts 2, verse 1-6. When on the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord in one place. Verse 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing, mighty wind filled the whole house where they were sitting, then appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, one set upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterances. Verse 5. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews devoured men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language. So this points to the day of Pentecost when God made available, He called to Himself and enlarged and made available His Holy Spirit. Christ said, it's actually a good thing if I leave. He was the first of the first fruits. If I leave, I'm going to send you then my Spirit as a help to you. Never get confused about speaking in tongues. God is not a God of confusion. So if you see people on TV, the only thing I can explain is jabbering. That's confusing. Tongues, language. Language. And it wasn't odd things, gibberish. Everyone heard them speak in their own language. So this was almost a reverse of the Tower of Babel. God was almost a reverse of that, where God confused their languages and scattered them out. Well, God was going to bring people together with His Holy Spirit. That's why you could go to a different country and visit a congregation of God's people. And you'll feel like, ah, this feels very familiar. Even if you don't know their language. It's a common thing that all of God's people share. His Spirit connects us.

So this was a new beginning on the day of Pentecost. It relates to the receiving of the Holy Spirit. And this was the beginning of the New Testament Church. Going down to verse 38 of chapter 2, Acts 2, verse 38. And Peter said to them, So you see, you might just read by that without the proper understanding. But that makes perfect sense. And you read there, Acts 2, at the end of verse 39, This promise of the Holy Spirit is to you, and as many as the Lord will call. Well, now we understand the callings. We understand the harvests. Verse 40, And with many other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. And those gladly received His word were baptized, and on that day about three thousand were added to them. So other translations have the word church being brought in here. We know this is when the church began. The church is not a building. It's simply bringing together a people. The church refers to God's people. He brings three thousand on this day. I don't know if that's something we could ever expect, but that God gives the increase. We know. We labor. It certainly would be wonderful.

We won't turn there, but 1 Corinthians 12-13, For by one Spirit we were baptized into one body. 1 Corinthians 12-13, whether Jews, Greeks, whether slaves are free, we've all been made to drink into one Spirit.

So it doesn't matter color, ethnicity.

We're all here joined by one Spirit. That's what connects us. So we have all this rich understanding.

So I'll conclude with Ephesians 4. Does anyone have any comments or thoughts? It got a little hot in here. That's a song. I won't sing. That's a song. I won't sing. See?

You can tell I'm a little tired.

I may sing some songs to you. I'll sing the Beatles sometimes to you in messages. I won't sing that song that I just referenced.

Sure, Howard. So all these rituals, they really pointed to Jesus Christ. Let me see if I have that specific... Man, I've got to tell you, there is so much richness in these scriptures. It's like a water well that you lower your bucket down and you pull up a little bit at a time. Let me see if I can answer that. Well, I don't know if this will cover that or not, but this will be good.

Okay. In addition, this is from... By the way, if you haven't visited ucg.org, it's so good. It's so good. There's an article on everything, every specific question you could think of. The booklets are online. So there's lots of symbols with the first fruit ceremony, you know, that God was instruction. One of the instructions was the wave sheaf. In addition to the wave sheaf offering, the other sacrifices and offerings that you can read as you go down, commanded by God at the time of this ceremony, also pointed forward to Jesus Christ. So we just spoke about the wave sheaf. But there's more here there in Leviticus 23. Jesus was represented by a male lamb without blemish. You see that in verse 12, Leviticus 23 verse 12, which is symbolic of Christ's spiritual purity. So a lamb without blemish. Christ was called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We know that. He was also represented by fine flower, symbolic of the beating, scourging, and suffering through which he was perfected.

This fine flower was to be mixed with oil, represented Christ being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The lamb was to be a burnt offering totally consumed by fire. So this is all part of those instructions with the wave sheaf. In the same way, Jesus Christ was tested and tried in the crucible of life's trials and problems when he surrendered himself totally and completely as a sacrificial offering on our behalf. His supreme sacrifice was a sweet aroma to God because Jesus had voluntarily given himself for sinful mankind.

The accompanying drink offering of wine there in verse 13 is a drink offering with symbolic of Christ pouring out his blood to pay the penalty for our sins. The very day of the wave sheaf ceremony pointed forward to Christ, history records that the sheaf was harvested on Saturday night, which began the first day of the week, so sunset to sunset, their calendar. And it was then waved before and accepted by God on the first day of the week, Sunday, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So that gives a little nod to your question. But it's interesting. There's so much... the rituals that God instructed the priests to do and prepare in a certain way, they were done in order that strict obedience would be performed. Even obedience before they understood the larger meaning.

But again, when Jesus Christ would step onto the stage of human history, he would be able to say, All that, I'm here. All that's being fulfilled now.

So many of those rituals, I probably can't answer your specific question, did point to Jesus Christ at this time. If we try to look into that a little bit more at this time, we'll have a riot. Because I think I can hear some growling stomachs already. But I love that those kind of questions are really good because, you know, we have to have balance. You look into the real details of these things and you dig in and you see what they represent. It gives you a fuller meaning of why we do what we do today.

And it gives us understanding that God had this planned since the very beginning. And what he said would come would happen came true.

But in the end, it's how it affects us is most important. If you know that you're part of this first fruit harvesting, that should affect you. It should affect you. We should never keep these days as routine.

It's to revolutionize our lives. All this understanding. What else? Any other comments or questions? What?

The garden is actually that's it. It's expecting you. Yeah, you have. You know, I pray a lot that God's makes his voice clear to me and loud and so I. How did you know you were supposed to be in the future? Well, that's a good question. In the beginning, I had a really odd road here, you know. Well, I hit rock bottom and I was rescued. There's no doubt I was rescued from certain death, from losing my wife. You know, all of this. God saved me. He rescued me. He should have let me just go. He didn't. So I prayed at that time. He healed my marriage. We were there a little bit. We started to have children, wonderful blessings. But I prayed at that time. My life is yours, Father. And I turn it over to you completely. However you want to use me. And I saw that opportunities started to come. And I started saying yes. I started saying yes to opportunities as they came. And these were opportunities that were way above my head. More than what my, quote, skill set could accomplish, you know. But I started saying yes. And what I found is as I then started fulfilling those things that were put in front of me, God gave me the ability to rise. He blessed my effort, exponentially, you know. So I think if you have an opportunity that comes to you and you've prayed about it, you've asked God for it. Be patient and listen, but be empowered to say yes. Even if it seems way too big. And like you said, it might lead to a path that you couldn't even expect. And as God's people have said yes, they never had an easy road after that. It curved, it waggled, there were trees that fell in the way. But they said yes, and they knew that they were on the path that God wanted them to be on. So many times, insurmountable things are put in front of you, but God wants you to do a work, and He enables you to do it. Really pay attention to what God's will is. Like, God will never have you go outside of His law and His will. For example, God promised Abraham and Sarah a child. Promised them. They believed it. They believed in the promise. Years went on and on and on and on and on. The promise never came. They got impatient. They took it into their own hands and looked to have a child through the maidservant. Then all kinds of chaos followed. God still fulfilled His plan, His promise to them. But they got impatient. They went outside of God's will. They tried to take things into their own hands to make things happen. So really be patient. Ask God to make it obvious. This is the direction you want to go as conflicts come. Be willing to be patient because if it's God's will, it'll still be there. Even if you decide, I'm going to take a little bit and wait, someone else might have some different things to add. Has anybody else had any advice on knowing what God's will is for you and going down a certain direction? Has anybody had an example in their life or anything like that they might share? I don't do it often enough, but fasting is good. Every time I fast, and it's something I'm chastising myself about, I'll plan a fast on a certain week and I'll think of every reason in the world not to fast. I don't know if you're like me. But there is such clarity that comes from that. So if you especially if you have a big decision in front of you, spend a day fasting, go into his word, and it really gives real clarity most of all time. If you do that, I got my own issues. You get so impatient with things.

So I was next to nothing. It's amazing what God will do. So I said yes to God. God healed my marriage, gave his children, took us through some real trials. Kate was a really sickly child when she was young. She always was close to dying. God brought us through that. We learned an incredible lesson there. We were caretakers for my dad and Jennifer's grandmother. Full-time caretakers. If you've ever been in a caretaking business, you know that that changes your life, really. Elderly individuals. My dad had Alzheimer's, that kind of thing. Really difficult. Learned a whole lot. I started working for a bank. God blessed me financially. He started giving me promotions. Hire, hire, hire, hire. I was passing up people with degrees and smart people. I was getting promoted. High income, high status. And the church called. I realized at that time, God was moving me up the ladder so I could get some experience in managing conflicts and groups of people.

You recognize all the blessings are from God. All the opportunities are from God. More often than not, they're preparing you for something else spiritually. Even the physical things that we have are preparing us spiritually.

I'm now in a position where I can talk about marriage issues firsthand. By the way, we fought bankruptcy, lost cars, lost our house. People have financial issues. I can say, I understand where you're coming from. I went down a prodigal road when I was running from God. Someone comes to me with different addictions and things. I can say, I understand.

All those things were meant to destroy me. I can use for God's work now. It's a wonderful thing to be able to look back and see how God had a plan for all things to work together for good, the good and the bad. A lot of the bad was brought up by my poor actions, but God's very merciful. Having the first fruit opportunity is really a humbling experience. It's not a puffed up experience. You realize there are so many that are good people.

Just as that parable said, just as Jesus Christ was saying, wise men, good men, wish to know what you know and see what you see. We have to make the most of this calling. We have to work out our salvation so that God can do a work through us.

Walk worthy of our calling. It's a very daunting but very exciting thing as well. Look at me. I got out by six.

Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Give me your first name. Rachel. Say hello to Rachel. If you get a moment. Not now!

I guess we'll end with a prayer and then we'll be dismissed.