[Darris McNeely] Well, brethren, this is the Feast of Pentecost. A time of the firstfruits of God's plan of salvation. A time that really when we break it all down, pictures God cultivating His firstfruits in preparation for our greater harvest that is pictured by the fall Holy Days. But here at this point in the mid-season, if you will, between the Holy Days, between the spring Holy Days and the fall Holy Days, we have Pentecost. These days picture to us reality of what God is doing, and that is that he is sowing the seed of the Kingdom now, in this age prior to the return of Jesus Christ. That seed, the seed of the Kingdom takes root, and it grows, and it produces fruit among those who are called the firstfruits. God plans these firstfruits, a few at a time, as he sews for His Kingdom.

You see, God sees far into the future, with the vision that transcends anything that we can have on the human level. Isaiah 46, tells us that God declares, He says, "I declare the end from the beginning, and from the ancient times things that are not yet done," He says, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." That’s Isaiah 46:8-10, He declares the end from the beginning. Just like He said in Revelation 1, when Jesus said that, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." He knows exactly what is going to be done, how is all to work out. He has that vision to be doing it. And we are in a very critical part of that right now that, in a sense, is really the time of the Church. This is the age of the Church. The firstfruits that are being sown for that coming Kingdom. And God is doing it with an incredible vision.

A number of years ago, I ran across a story that I think helps us to appreciate this a little bit. It's a story of vision on the human level. Human beings are able to do significant things and with visionary actions. I was reading about, a book, it was one of the books on leadership that I'd collected over the years, but they had an interesting story because the point that the author was making was about vision. And he told the story about Oxford and Cambridge colleges in England. The prestigious universities that England has had going back to the 14th century. Oxford and Cambridge have been around for a very very long time. And in the late 14th century when they built the first buildings, the faculty and the students began to move in and it was originally, the original set was a quadrangle, a set of four buildings, and one of them was what is called the Great Hall of assemblies and teaching and gatherings, the Great Hall. And it was a huge hall done as only the English can do it with the great beams in the ceilings, the oak beams that held up the roof, and it was a grand, and is a grand structure, still there.

But as the years go up by with any building, made with materials out of the earth, rot, decay, ware, deterioration sets in and things have to be replaced, renovated. Five hundred years after the opening of these colleges, in the middle of the 19th century, in the middle of the 1800s, 500 years later, the beams were rotting and they had to have some work done to them. So they hired an architect, the college did, a man by the name of Sir Gilbert Scott, to restore the roof in the hall. You've got to have a roof over your building. Everything was badly rotted. So the architect, along with representatives from the college visited a place, a great set of trees and woods that we call the Great Hall Woods in Berkshire. And there they expected to find the trees that would provide the replacement beams. And sure enough, the trees were there. Because those trees had been planted 100 years earlier by visionary men who knew that the beams of the Great Hall would have to be replaced with oak. And so they cut down these hundred-year-old trees to replace the beams in the Great Hall.

That was something planned only a hundred years in advance, but it illustrates the planning, the visionary planning that can go on, even at the human scale. How much greater the visionary planning that God is doing right now, as He plants the seeds for His Kingdom in those who are called the firstfruits. It's a good story to help us focus on this day of the visionary planning that God has on a grander scale than that which replaces even a Great Hall, in a great nation, such as Great Britain. God is involved in the human scale of everyday events when it comes right down to your life and to mine. In His vision, for each of us, He knows the end from the beginning. And this day, the day of Pentecost, summons us to consider that calling that He has given to us.

And so I ask you all, brethren, here this morning, more with an exclamation mark than a question mark at the end, do you see your calling! Do you see your calling? We're being put together into a spiritual temple at Christ's return. We are part of that firstfruits of God's plan. Let's turn over to James 1, and be reminded of that in this one scripture here that is well known to us, James 1:18. James says, "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of God, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." By His will, we have been brought forth by the word of truth to be the firstfruits of God's creation. And the firstfruits are something that we know from all of the imagery of the Old Testament that fits this day, of a wave-sheaf offering that was given 50 days ago, on that morning after Christ's resurrection. In the temple, Christ fulfilled that wave sheaf offering, and the count began toward Pentecost. And here we are on that day assembled before God, not necessarily with just that assembled to teach us, but with the symbol of not only firstfruits, but also the vision of God's calling to us at this particular point in time and the planting that He is doing.

In 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians the third chapter, the apostle Paul carries this imagery of a planting into his description of the church, Begins in verse 5, 1 Corinthians 3:5, where he talks about the work of that he did in the city of Corinth to do with the Church and that of Apollos and others. He said, "We are those through whom you believed," in verse 5, "as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." It is God that always gives the increase. “So then neither he who plants does anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” And when we put it all together, it is God who is doing the sowing and the planting. And He works through His instruments, He works through a ministry, He works through His Church, He works through the individual members, but it is God who is sowing the seeds of the Kingdom today and He is the one who gives the increase.

He says in verse 9, "We are God's fellow workers; and you are God's field, you are God's building." So Paul draws together the sowing and the field into this concept of a building that is being put together, one piece at a time through the ages. And God knows the exact shape and form that each of us has a part to fulfill, and we are being shaped and crafted and molded by the experiences of our life today. All the good and even the unfortunate, to shape us into God's building, by a Master Craftsman beyond anything that we can imagine.

Paul says in verse 10, "According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.” And that happens. It happens with the individual experiences of your life and mine, the successes we have, the setbacks we experience. It happens with each critical announcement that comes of an injurious sickness and illness, a tragedy that might hit. It is all being done by God's purpose and God's will. In verse 16, he sums it up, here he says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” That's the ultimate building that God's concerned with a temple, a spiritual temple being built by Him that God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And so, again, I ask, do you see your calling?

I have three big points that I want to make today. I could say I just have three points that I want to, but I’ve got three big points to make today. It's a Holy Day. It's a double Sabbath, so we got to have big points, huge points. Point number one, God has planted us in the Body of Christ. God has planted us in the Body of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 6, 2 Corinthians 6:1, Paul says this, "We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation.'" Revised Standard Version really puts this in a more accurate translation that it is “a day of salvation.” This is a day of salvation. God's plan teaches us that this is a day for the firstfruits. There's another day coming for all of mankind, in God's timing, planning, and order, according to the Holy Days, plan that are outlined to us by the Holy Days. But this is our time. This is the time of the firstfruits. This is our age, that of the church. And this is something that applies to us today. God has planted us in the Body of Christ and He is preparing us. This is our time. Our time is now.

In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul gives us here in this letter to the church at Corinth, some very insightful understanding regarding the calling that we have. We sing this particular passage in 1 Corinthians 1, beginning in verse 26, Paul writes, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." We've all missed the boat on that. Our nobility is of a different sort. We are going to be kings and priests in the future but not having that today. And that there are hopes and dreams and we might wish ourselves to be princesses or princes or kings, but God has His timing for that. But this is our calling.

But verse 26, he says, "It is a calling." And the challenge again, through these words to see our calling. Verse 27, he says, "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." In these two verses, our calling is there. Paul says, "See your calling. God has chosen." And that's exactly what's happened to each of us. God has designed and through His plan a time, and in that time, in our period of this generation, this calling has taken place for you and for I, for others, my mother, and your family members, and friends, and whatever connection that has brought you into the church, that brings you here today in your faith. This is a time and this is by God's choosing, and this is a calling. And this is what God is doing, as He has always done.

You see, God prepared to Joseph, long in advance of a particular need in Egypt that not only saved the Egyptians but his own family. God prepared Joseph decades in advance for that particular moment and that particular event. And he saw it himself when he said to his brothers, "You thought it for ill to me, but God was involved in this episode, in this affair,” and God was. God prepared David. He said to Jeremiah, "I knew you in the womb." He provided parents for Jesus Christ to be born into the physical family. He provided a Pharisee named Saul to become an apostle. All men, all women, prepared for positions in the work of God, and He is now preparing us for the future.

In John 14, He said that this is what He would be doing upon His resurrection and His ascension. What He told His disciples in that last meal with Him, John 14. Beginning in verse 2. He said, "In My father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." And, again, there are some very nice songs and concepts that people have. I had an aunt that just recently died. I think she was 92, and my favorite aunt. And her son, one of my cousins texted me and told me about her death. And, you know, he talked about, you know, in his text that, you know, she's in her room in the mansion now. And that comforts him. It's not true. It's not truth. I didn't even try to engage him on it, but that comforted him. But the reality is that Christ is preparing mansions, as He says, and He's doing it right now. And He's doing it in the lives of firstfruits, people who are going to be a part of that temple fitly framed together into what is going to be put together. And it's all being done by design and by plan, and God is involved in working then.

Verse 3, He says, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." And so that is a part of the message of the day as well. That even now, Christ is preparing with the Father, the mansions, the places, the positions, the responsibilities in that temple, a spiritual temple that is being put together. And so, again, it brings us back to what I have as my theme today, do we see our calling? Do we really see with the spiritual perception, that what we are involved with today in the Church, in our lives, in our daily activities, in this calling is a process of training and preparation? By the living Christ, through the spiritual community that is called the Church, and I say Church with a big C, not just a little c, the big C Church, for the job in the age to come, because the Church is the Body of Christ. And the purpose of our life today is that. That's why God has called us. That's why we assemble on Pentecost. And that is what should be in our mind, that God has called us with a holy calling now to His Church. And our unity and our purpose must be within that and understanding why exactly we are called now rather than later.

Perhaps, for so many members through the years, as the years turn into decades, turn into a lifetime, of faith in the Church, the question always comes back, "Why me? Why now? Is it worth it?" And yes, it is worth it. And we work through that faith to always stand firm and strong in that recognizing. But the ultimate key comes back to the realizing that why now rather than later. We might fantasize that it would be easier later. I'm not quite so sure about that, but God knows what He's doing, that He has called His firstfruits now. But we have to keep that vision in our mind because it is the vision of God. And as long as the Church can do that, it fits into its purpose and mission, and its work to take the gospel to the world and to care for those disciples that are called. As long as the Church keeps that vision in mind we can grow, we will be able to withstand any attacks that come either from within or without. The key to understanding that is what helps us to get through the challenges of our life.

Let's turn back to 2 Peter, 2 Peter 4. I'm sorry. It's 1 Peter 4. There is no 2 Peter 4. But you already found that out. Beginning in verse 12, 2 [1] Peter 4 beginning in verse 12. "Beloved," he says, "do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” Brethren, there are fiery trials that are part of this life. President Kubik wrote a letter this on Friday that was sent out to us, listing some of the trials, immediate trials, facing some of our families and brethren within the Church. As I said, when those notices, those emails come in, our heart takes a leap, and we think, “Oh no!” and we pray, and we beseech God, and we wonder why. “Why so young?” We wonder why even with those who've lived a full life. But a verse like this is something we have to always come back to and understand. That those matters are a part of life, and as you said, don't think it's strange concerning the trial, the fiery trial, which is to try you as though something strange thing happened to you. It happens to everyone. It happens to us. Even the firstfruits.

"Rejoice," he says, "to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, and when His glory is revealed, you will also be glad with exceeding joy." Verse 15… let's read verse 16, "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" Just as we are firstfruits of God's plan in this age, this verse fits us too that judgment, our time of judgment is what he's talking about here, this period of judgment, has come upon us as it begins at the house of God, the people of God. We are being judged by the things written in the books of the Bible through our life and our example and our adherence to that. And it is that knowledge that brings us here on the day of Pentecost and will bring us back on Trumpets, and to the Feast, and to the Passover next year. It is that knowledge which unfolds the purpose and the plan of God and salvation. And it is that knowledge of God in His perfect wisdom, and yes, judgment, that is the ultimate key to help each one of us put the trial, the sickness, the tragedy into the proper context to even begin to understand it.

And in time, by God's grace and by His Spirit, we will, and we do understand it. But it has to be put within that context. That's what Peter is saying. "Don't think it's strange." It hurts, it's painful, and we'll question God, as I sometimes tell people, "Go ahead, and if you want, yell a little bit at God," as you work yourself in faith through to an understanding, into an answer. But never turn your back on God. Never leave God because He will not leave us. So when we come to the day of Pentecost, we have an understanding that God has planted us in His Church. And we have to keep that in mind, as we deal with these situations.

Big point number two, God has planted us into each other's lives. He's planted you into the life of the person sitting next to you or across from you or in another part of the room. He's planted you in their life. He's planted you in my life. He's planted me in your life. God not only has planted us into the Body of Christ, but He has planted us into each other's lives. It's called relationships. And that's where it gets kind of rough sometimes. Because we are to care for one another. We've embedded that into our mission. In the United Church of God, we are to care for the disciples that God adds. That's a part of it all.

In 1 Corinthians 12, had reason to think about this verse in recent days and looking at so many different situations that I've encountered, and been working with, and been aware of. 1 Corinthians 12:18, in this passage that talks about the Body. It says, "But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased." We've all been placed in the Body, we've been planted in that Body, as God pleases. The timing is His, pleases Him. The when pleases Him, the where, and the how. “And if they were all one body, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.” And he goes on to talk about how they interact with one another. And then it says, down at the middle of verse 24, "But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” We all rejoice together and we all suffer together.

And if there's not a time, with all the social media available to us together, available to us today, that we cannot see the understanding of that verse, "as we suffer together," and track one another, it is. But Paul writes this matter about us all suffering together when one suffers we all suffer. In the midst, in the context of what he says in verse 25, "that there be no schism in the body." There is no schism, no division. Christ is not divided. That's another question that Paul has already asked and answered in chapter 1. There is no division. Christ is not divided.

Several weeks ago, I received word that a good friend of mine had developed serious disease called Lou Gehrig's disease. My good friend's name was Todd Carey. Some of you knew Todd Carey. Todd Carey and I worked together in the ministry. I trained him. We came to a parting of the ways a few years ago, and a schism. But then somebody came to my door of my office and said with the news that he's got Lou Gehrig's, and so I tried to call him with the numbers that I had. I hadn't talked to him in about seven years. And couldn't get him with the numbers that I had and I finally said to one of the other members of the office and the staff, and I said, "Do what you can. Find me his number." Came back a few minutes later with the number.

So I finally got hold of him. And we had a good talk. We talked for about an hour. And it was just like old times. We talked about his illness. We talked about faith. We talked about family. We talked about God. We talked about what we meant to each other because we had been through the wars, and it was good. I thought that I might get a chance to see him, but a few weeks ago, he died in his sleep, and mercifully, with that disease, didn't linger. But I was glad that I made the effort to talk to him. He was glad. And we had a good talk. We didn't talk about the things that had divided us. We talked about the things that had united us, and the memories. And it was a good note to end on. And it'll be a good note to pick up on sometime in the future and to continue the conversation when all of our empires of dirt crumble under the return of Jesus Christ, and when God sorts it all out. He and I were planted in each other's lives. You're planted in people's lives. And brethren, we have to take very very good care to nurture our relationships. We have to nurture our relationships that we have been given because things can go bad. They can go south real quick.

This week we had our grandkids with us in our annual Camp Kick-a-Tail. For those of you that don't know what Camp Kick-a-Tail is, in the McNeely family 35 or more years ago, my two sons were lallygagging around the house on summer vacation, and they needed something to do. They needed their tails kicked. So we instituted what we called Camp Kick-a-Tail in the McNeely household, which was whatever had to be done that day, pulling dandelions out of the front yard, sometimes it was make work and, you know, just go to the library to get books to read or whatever. But we call it Camp Kick-a-Tail, and that faded as they grew older. Now we have grandkids. So few years ago, Debbie and I decided to reinstitute Camp Kick-a-Tail with our grandkids. So we get our grandkids for several days in the summer, and we do what, we do Camp Kick-a-Tail.

My son Ryan, says it really doesn't resemble anything that he remembers about Camp Kick-a-Tail in his day. In fact, he's renamed it Camp Relax-a-Lot. And so, whatever you vote to put a name on it, we had that this week. So here's my… there's a point to this. We decided the other night, "Let's watch a movie." And we have all the… we have movies in the cloud, we have movies on D.V.D., and we have the prehistoric movies still on V.H.S. So we had an old V.H.S. movie that we pulled out called, A Secret Garden. Oh, yeah, you know that one, right? The Hallmark Channel version. I bought that years ago. And the kids go, "What?" They don't, you know, they want to watch Star Wars. I couldn't get "Star Wars" for them. And so we said, "Well, let's watch The Secret Garden. Your daddy watched The Secret Garden and he liked it." So, okay, finally, "Grandma, grandpa, go ahead, put it on." So we tied them into their chairs so that we could watch The Secret Garden.

And, you know what? They got into the story, and we got into it because we didn't know this and forgot about it. The movie was filmed at Caernarfon Castle, that Downton Abbey, yeah. That instantly picked up even my wife. She got back into that one. And she already knew that that the last scene, the climactic scene, the hero that walks into the secret garden was none other than Mr. Darcy, otherwise known as Colin Firth, in the definitive version of Pride and Prejudice for those of you that are into that.

So it was a good night for all of us. And the kids watched The Secret Garden. But there's one line from The Secret Garden that we've always remembered. In fact, Debbie stitched it into a little plaque and piece that is hanging in one of our, the walls of our home now all these years. And the line is this, "Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow." “Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow.” It's a classic line right out of the book and they put it into the movie. Which tells us that we have to not only tender rose in a garden to keep the thistles and the weeds from growing in and choking out the fruit, the life. You know, you've got your gardens in already gentlemen for the summer, and it looks pretty good right now, but you know those weeds are going to come on. And the garden has to be tended. Relationships have to be tended, or thistles grow up, thorns take over and choke out the life, the vitality, the love of those relationships.

God has planted us into each other's lives. And brethren, we have to tend and nurture those relationships and not let anything come between them, between us. We are building a spiritual community. This is our calling as well. And Christ said, "By this, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another." That's exactly what He was speaking to. We will grow together in the bonds of love and fellowship as we recognize that we are all disciples. We must come to, at some point, really truly learn to understand one another, and to love one another, and to turn to each other at times, and turn our faces, and open our hearts to God, and let that Spirit create that attitude of love within us. It will be done. It is being done. We have to be in the flow of God's Spirit working that within us.

Big point number three, because God has planted us in His Church, and because He has planted each other into our lives, we have to prepare to reign with Jesus Christ. We have to prepare to reign with Him. We have to gird up our loins to advance the work of the Kingdom in our lives today. The seeds of the Kingdom have been sown into our lives as firstfruits, and we have got to advance that work. We are in a spiritual war. I love Ephesians 5 on this, Ephesians 5. I was going to turn to Ephesians 6 but my son spoke on that yesterday. So he's helped me to shorten the sermon here today. Ephesians 5:14. It's one my favorite scriptures to turn to kind of get a jolt, Ephesians 5:14. "Therefore He says, 'Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'"

We have to wake up. We have to be alert. We have to live our lives fully alert and aware of ourselves, of the times, and of the spiritual forces that are arrayed against the group of people called the firstfruits. There are deep, powerful, spiritual forces aimed at the firstfruits, and always have been. This is the group that Satan hates and fears the most. They are the group that will replace his rule on the earth. The firstfruits who are being prepared today. That's what we're all about, really. That's our vision. That's our message. We're being prepared to reign with Jesus Christ. And each day, each year, each season of our life, each episode that we go through that tries our, and just wrenches our heart with emotion, either in our own families or for another family in the Church of God, through sickness or death or tragedy, it just is an opportunity to clear out some of the clutter of our lives, and to get focused upon what's really important. To clear out the clutter of our church, our church life at times that allows us to get divided, to get a laser focus on the Scriptures that define this day and define our calling.

The Feast of Pentecost is about the firstfruits of God and the Lamb. The Feast of Pentecost is about the Church of God. It's about the Body of Christ. It's about a day of salvation for the firstfruits. This day is about you. This day shows us that this is our time. Your time is now. It has to stir us, then, with a vision of how God is working in our lives. And stir us even with a vision as to how God would solve the problems, the intractable and unsolvable problems of the greater world around us. We live relatively sheltered life at times. And yes, reality intrudes when sickness and tragedy strikes.

But as we, my son was saying yesterday in the sermon, "How do we react as Christians as we kind of keep one-eyed looking at the world we live in and keep from being so fearful of the larger picture of the world?" Truly, there's enough in our own personal lives to be concerned about, but we are we are surrounded by that on a regular basis. Again, it's the calling, the vision of this calling that God is involved in our lives. And He knows why He's called us, and He knows the role that we are to play. And so that the individual events of this life had happened to us are there as a part of that greater purpose. And when we submit in faith to God in that way, we will come to an understanding, even if the answer and the moment is not what we want or wish or have a trouble bearing up under. We have to keep a vision of what God is doing.

We're in a interesting period in our world right now. There's a greater storm yet to break upon this world. Times we would look and we see the black clouds that gather on the horizon. But we have to have a vision that God has called us to learn a way of life. And to make sure that it works in our lives so that the fruits manifest not only for us to taste and to enjoy, but for others to see that something works, some people have faith, some people know where they're going and why they're doing what they're doing, and some people know that there is a God, even as the world continues to roll in a direction opposite of where God is. We have to have the vision to see ourselves as a leader, a ruler, a king, a priest in that coming Kingdom.

In Revelation 19, a statement is made for us all to consider. Revelation 19. Well-known verse, that pictures the marriage of Christ to the Church, Revelation 19:7. It says, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." The Lamb is Christ. The wife is the Church. "Let us rejoice because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready." Every time I read that verse, I'm struck by the tense of the verse, that the Church, the wife has made herself ready. When it comes to that moment of the marriage, she's ready. She's ready. Which means that there's a time of preparation that precedes that, and that time is now, for you and I. In other words, Christ is preparing the bride right now, so that when it comes to that moment that verse 7 talks about, she's ready.

That's a staggering thought. Because the way I bring it down to my own life, I say, basically, here's my take on it, I'm either a part of that preparation or I'm not. Am I being prepared or not? In or out, one way or the other. There's no in-between on this. When that moment of marriage comes, the Church is ready, which means right now it's being prepared in our time. That is also a very important thought for you and I to remember on the day of Pentecost. Because it is being done today. Are we a part of the process, or otherwise? That's a question that we all have to ask ourselves.

Because when that day comes, then, what is said in Daniel 2:44, we're in the days of the kings that are mentioned in that prophecy of Daniel 2. It says that “…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Daniel 2:44, points to what this day pictures as well. Because when Christ sets up that Kingdom described here, that Kingdom, it says, we'll not be left to other people. In other words, it will be given to the saints, the firstfruits. Those who are part of the Church, the Body of Christ that had been prepared. Those that had been planted, and those who have been planted not only in the Body of Christ but have been planted in each other's lives. And I've understood that and never forgotten it.

The Church is a spiritual community called and chosen by God, called to learn today. We used to use the phrase that was coined a number of years ago that the Church was a teacher's college. That's still an appropriate phrase to remember, a teacher's college. It's a place of preparation for the world to come. A group of people prepared in advance for a job that is going to be inaugurated when Christ returns. And that's what this day pictures, a time of the firstfruits of God's plan. A time picturing God cultivating those firstfruits as preparation for the larger, greater harvest pictured by all of these Holy Days.

Visionary men planted oak trees in a forest in England a hundred year before they were needed. Remarkable lesson from that. God today is sowing the seeds of the Kingdom with an ever greater vision that has been going on for much much longer. And that seed has taken root, and it's growing, and it's producing fruit, among those that are called the firstfruits. God plants. He's sowing for His Kingdom. God sees far into the future for His plan. Brethren, do you see your calling?