God's Original Intention for Humanity

- [Upbeat Music] Hey, my name is Julian, did you know that Eden means pleasure? I believe God's original intent is that humanity live from the place of incredible pleasure, live from a place of delighting in Him, and in an overflow of communion with Him In the Garden of Eden, we see this beautiful picture where heaven and earth meet together, where God is intricately involved in they affairs of man, where His presence is felt, and where there's intimacy between man and his maker, and I believe God originally came to instill His intent, and that humanity's blueprint is not in what we see in the world today, but humanity's blueprint is found in the Garden of Eden. It's an incredible thing When you see how Eden works, and you see how everything was meant to be extended. This beautiful garden of delight, and pleasure, is meant to cover the earth. It's meant to be extended all over the earth, that was the mandate that God gave Adam and Eve. It's a beautiful thing when you begin to see that you can copartner with God in releasing His presence on the earth. But we see that sin enters in, right? we all know the story so well, and because of sin, God and in His grace and in His mercy, has to move Adam and Eve, and the Bible says that they moved up the east side of the garden, and He has to do so in order to save them from eating of the Tree of Life, and living in their sinful state forever. God is incredibly kind in the way that He deals with us, and you see Adam and Eve leave His side of the Garden. And what begins to happen is a journey of humanity Walking eastward from Eden, walking East of Eden. You see that with Cain, he establishes the first city, and it's an incredible thing to think that the first city was established on the basis of judgment, on the basis of murder as Cain took the life of Abel, and he was marked by that for the rest of his life, and then, you begin to see as it moves, as the story chronicles the movement of people you see them moving to the Tower of Babel on the the east side of the plain of Shinar, and man tries to, in their own effort, reconnect with God and build a tower to God. And it becomes fruitless, and it becomes of no value. And you see this journey East of Eden throughout the narrative of Genesis, until we get to one man called Abraham. I love Abraham because I think he's probably the cheekiest man in the Bible, and God likes him so much because of his cheekiness, and calls it faith. The Bible says that God reveals Himself to Abraham, this Middle Eastern man, who had only known the gods that he had seen in creation. Sun god, the moon god, all of the gods that governed him was seen through physical eyes, yet here comes this self revealing God, Who's not contained by the confines of this world, and reveals Himself to Abraham and says to him, "I am your exceedingly great reward." And Abraham says, that's great, now what you gonna give me? I love Abraham's cheekiness, God calls that faith, and it's then that that God promises him is that people, a community, a different type of city that would look like heaven on earth again, and people who would be once again connected to God. And the Bible says that Abraham began a journey, he began to sojourn, and instead of going eastward, he turned around and he went westward, he went against the grain of culture, he went against the grain of his ancestors, and what people had expected him to do, and he began to look, the Bible says in Hebrews, for a city that came from heaven, for a celestial city, for a city that was not built by the hands of man, but built by the hands of God, he was looking in a sense for Eden again. And I believe that what began in a garden, God wants to restore to the world through a city, a city called the people of God to begin to live in harmony, in delight, in pleasure, and in deep connectedness with heaven on earth, that's the original mandate, that's the original plan, and God wants you to be part of that in extending His Kingdom. The amazing thing about the cross is that Jesus when He dies, opens Heaven up for us, and the Bible says that the curtain of the Holy of Holies, that which was sacred and held the presence of God, was torn from the top to the bottom, and the whole point of that moment wasn't just so that we could get into the presence of God, it was so that the presence of God could get in us, and now we get copartner with Him in redeeming the earth, and making things beautiful again, and living from the place of pleasure. Hey, if you wanna hear about your call redeem the earth, and make all things new, I'll encourage you to get my new book, "Terra Nova", the link is in the description. I know that will equip you to change and reimagine your world.