The Journey Back to Eden

God is Restoring The Royal Priesthood

God's desire from the beginning has always been for us to be in a loving relationship with Him. He created us to be His sons and daughters, rooted in our identity as His children. Our primary function in the family of God is to be a royal priesthood, proclaiming His praises and reigning with Him. This eternal purpose is connected to our original purpose in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were placed as royal priests to cultivate a worship culture and steward the earth as a dwelling place for God's glory. The journey of the Bible is a journey back to Eden.

Video Timestamps

00:00God's Desire for Relationship

01:27Our Identity in God

02:46Sons and Daughters of God

03:01The Role of a Royal Priesthood

04:26Our Eternal Purpose

05:25Adam's Original Purpose

06:42The Garden of Eden as a Temple

08:33Adam as a Royal Priest

09:30Cultivating a Worship Culture

10:00Expanding Eden to the Earth

10:36Ministering to the Lord

11:30The Journey Back to Eden

Video Transcript

But I want you to know that God's desire from the beginning has always been that we would be with Him in voluntary love, worshiping Him, enjoying Him, and in partnership with Him forever. This has been His purpose and desire from the beginning of humanity. So why did God make people? It's because He wanted to love us and be loved by us. That is why He created us. It's because He wanted...

us to be in relationship with him. Not because he needed us, but because he wanted us. That's why. He had a desire, he had a yearning, a vision in his heart, and so he made us. And so, he made us primarily to do two different things. Number one is, he made us to be his sons and daughters. Okay? This is our identity in God. Our primary identity is that we are sons and daughters of God. And...

in a culture right now that is telling you to find your identity inside of you somewhere. And maybe you can change that depending on how you're feeling. God wants to root us in our identity based on who He made us to be. Because He's our Creator, He's our Maker. And He determines our identity. Our identity comes from something outside of us.

We don't figure out our own identity. That's a lie that the enemy's trying to put pressure on you and me that we've got to figure ourselves out. You don't have to do that. I'm here to set you free. God wants to speak His love and identity and purpose over you. You don't determine your identity. You receive an identity. So my last name is Lily because my dad's last name is Lily. He gave me that identity.

my earthly dad who actually passed away like three and a half weeks ago. And so this is my first mystery trip since then and so yeah, just honor him. He was an awesome man, loved Jesus and we miss him a lot. But part of my sense of identity came from him, right? He's my father. I was born into it. I didn't create that myself. So.

Our primary identity is we're sons and daughters. You're born into the family of God when you become a Christian, and that's who you are. You don't, you know, you're just a part of the family. You don't have to do anything to earn your way into the family. You trust Jesus and you're in, and that's who you are, whether you want to be or not, which means we're all brothers and sisters with each other, whether we want to be or not too, right? So that's part of being a family. So our primary identity,

is that of being sons and daughters, but our primary function in the family is to be a royal priesthood. So the family business of the Kingdom of God is the priesthood.

So we are sons and daughters just because we are. That's our identity. But what does sons and daughters of God do? They are a royal priesthood. I believe this is at the core of what God has made us to do. And understanding that reality will help us to understand why we're here and what we should do with our lives. 1 Peter 2, 9 says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.

a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. When I take it back, before I go to the beginning and we go to Genesis, I actually am going to go to the very end. The book of Revelation. What are we going to be doing for all eternity? Revelation 5 says this. They sing a new song.

saying, worthy are you to take the scroll to open its seals for you were slain. This is to Jesus. By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom of priests to God and they shall reign on the earth. That's what we're going to be doing for all eternity. We're going to be a kingdom of priests to God reigning on the earth for all eternity. And you go, okay, so what does that mean? Exactly.

But it's worth finding out isn't it if this is what we're going to be doing for all eternity if we're going to be a Kingdom of priests to God that reigns on the earth we should understand what that means Revelation 1 5 says similar language that God's gonna make us a kingdom of priests forever. So that's our eternal occupation We're not gonna we're not going to be having to do evangelism and missions in the age to come after Jesus returns, right?

We're gonna, what are we gonna be doing? We're gonna be a royal priesthood. What does that mean? Let's talk about it and let's keep digging into what that means. But our eternal occupation, our eternal purpose is connected to this idea of priesthood. Not only is our eternal purpose connected to it, but our original purpose is. So let's go to the garden now. So speaking of my dad again, he liked to, he always,

had a little garden in our backyard. So his dad had a legit garden with tractors and all that. But my dad always had a little vegetable garden in our yard, like some tomatoes and cucumbers. Those were the kind of things that grow in North Carolina. And so when I read the beginning of Genesis, and it says that Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden, I'm thinking they were put in a vegetable garden. I'm envisioning peppers and zucchinis and.

cucumbers and tomatoes and he's he's like trying to keep the bugs away and Spread some fertilizer or something to get these things gone or something I don't know. What's your idea of garden is maybe you're thinking like flowers or something like that?

But when you understand the Garden of Eden, it's actually a lot different than what we might imagine at first. So Genesis 2, verse 15, you can look it up or write it down or forget it. Important verse that if you look at it, it might just slip by. You might not even understand what it's saying. But what it's saying,

and I'll explain in a minute, is that Adam's original purpose was actually to be a king and a priest on the earth. Genesis 2 .15 says this, the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. Seems simple enough, right? To work it and to keep it. But, who wrote the book of Genesis? Anybody know? Who do they think wrote Genesis? Anybody know? Moses, yeah, I'm hearing whispers of it. You're right.

As far as we know, it was probably Moses, okay? So first five books of the Bible, most people believe were written by Moses, compiled kind of all at the same time. So in Moses' day, the people related to God through a tabernacle, right? And the priests and the Levites stood outside the tabernacle. And these words in Genesis 15 where it says that...

God put Adam in the garden to work it and to keep it. Those verbs in the Hebrew language, they're used in the Bible to describe the Levites who would stand outside the tabernacle and take care of the place of worship and guard the tabernacle. So, when the Hebrew people would read Genesis 2 .15, and they would say, God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it,

They're not thinking tomatoes and cucumbers. They're thinking that the Garden of Eden is a temple and that Adam is put there as a priest to worship and to guard that temple as a place of the presence of God on the earth. That's cool. That's a lot different than I imagine when I think about what's going on in the early days. But that's...

That's how Moses is describing what's going on in the Garden of Eden is that Adam and Eve are put there as royal priests. They're put there, so you've got two words. You've got work and to keep it. And the word work there is actually connected to the idea of cultivate, if you go look up this Hebrew word. This is like, this is worship culture weekend, right? This is what this weekend's called, the idea of a culture of worship. What is a culture? Well, it's...

certain art and its language and it's what, you know, of certain people group, the distinctives of that people group. And it actually comes from the word cultivate. So a culture is something that's cultivated and cultivating means you take care of something that's growing, right? It's something that's growing up organically, but you're protecting it and taking care of it and helping that thing, stewarding that thing, taking care of that thing. So.

Adam is put in the garden to cultivate a culture of the kingdom of God and the presence of God and the glory of God to create a worship culture and then to guard it and to keep it. Does that make sense? I think this is so cool. So, Adam was a priest to God. And then when God tells Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, he's not just saying have babies.

He's saying, take the culture of Eden, have babies that are going to be royal priests that will expand Eden to cover the earth. So the glory of the Lord fills the earth as the waters cover the sea. And the whole earth is full of worship and worshipers, people that love God, minister to Him as priests, and then steward the earth as a dwelling place for God, for His glory on the earth.

That's cool. That's why we exist.

is to minister to the Lord, worship Him, and steward our lives and steward whatever influence that God's given us to be a place for His presence and for His kingdom here on the earth. Isn't that awesome? So we go, oh yeah, worship. That's great. You know, like we're going to sing some songs and have a good time. But worship is a huge deal.

Adam was put in the garden to worship the Lord, and really you could think of him as like a worship leader, if you want to stretch it a little bit. He was there to love God, to walk with God, to be in intimate relationship with God, and then he was there to keep that place as an atmosphere where God was worshiped and adored and his will was done and that things were in agreement and honoring and obedient to the Lord. And of course, you guys know the story, right?

They didn't fulfill their job, right? They didn't guard Eden as a place of God's glory and presence. Satan came in and they sinned and the earth fell into sin and here we are. Right? And so all of the Bible is a journey back to Eden.