Latest / The HighDive / Ep. 23 | In The Beginning | Where Heaven Meets Earth

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Ep. 23 | In The Beginning | Where Heaven Meets Earth · The HighDive

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um have you ever planted a garden?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Have we ever talked about this?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we've ever talked about it.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I have tried to plant um what the box gardens?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I've tried to plant like the raised beds.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: The raised bed gardens.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I successfully grew nothing.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: What I learned was that the where my home lives and the trees that are surrounding it does not provide me with adequate sunlight.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's fair.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: You in your home specifically.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm terrible.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: You grow shade really big.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I do have a lot of great shade, and I can grow pine needles like you wouldn't believe.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: I believe it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: I got into gardening really big one time.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: She did.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: I remember that era.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I got I really got into it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: You had like a whole like row of stuff.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I got and and I got into it enough that I put it on my profile like as a hobby of mine.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Beekeeping, gardening, the whole nine.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: You are living the outdoor life.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do you remember the very first garden I ever tried to plant in our childhood?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: In the backyard under the uh the the clothesline.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so all right, the story it was more of a ditch.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: It really was.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, dad's parenting style.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Although we did harvest something.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: So dad's parenting style is sure, go for it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Go for it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Dad, I want to I want to grant a plant a garden.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, let's go buy some seeds.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we go to the little local mom and pop where they have the little carousel stand of all the seed.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: All the little packs of seed.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if I remember, I think I got a pack of green beans, tomatoes, I think like peppers and squash.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: I got four or five.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I go into the backyard.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Dad wasn't gonna help me.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, he'll figure this out.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Figure it out, kid.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I got a shovel.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: I dug a trench.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: It was probably, I don't know, six inches deep, maybe six inches wide, maybe four feet long.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: I dug a trench.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: I opened up the first pack of seeds, poured it along.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Second pack, four, like all five packs of seeds poured one on top of the other.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Covered it up.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: I watered it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was oh yeah.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember like one little green bean shoot came up.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: That was my first failure at gardening.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we harvested a green bean.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we ate it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we put it within a can of green beans so we could eat the green beans.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think the moral of the story, whether it's that, the yard, uh, my my pristine yard that was given to me, and the story I told in the sermon on Sunday, or other stories yet to be told, the moral of the story is I can kill something quick.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: I have been successful at killing all things except for some flowers that were given to me, and they were given to me by placing bulbs in a Publix bag and laying them next to my garage door.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I'm gonna kill them.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna leave them alone and I will deal with them later.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they got covered up with pine straw.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And every year in the spring, these bulbs pop up out of the ground, these little lilies.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they're beautiful.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if I would have tried to do something with them, I would have killed them.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: But it just happened naturally.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're still in a public's bag, but they grow every year and they prop up right by my garage.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's this little moment of you can't grow anything, Alan.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, yeah.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there is an interesting connection because this past Sunday we looked, Genesis chapter two, kind of we we focused in the beginning of that chapter where we get some beautiful descriptors of the Garden of Eden.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but we also kind of made this connection of how Adam was blessed and gifted with this place that he didn't earn it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: It was just he would just put right into the middle of it with all he needed for godliness and success.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And he ruined it pretty quickly.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we often do that a lot in life.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna talk about that and unpack some of those ideas today.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Ricky, this is Alan.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the High Dive Podcast.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this podcast is a ministry of Calvary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: We are excited that you are here today.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Garden of Eden.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what what comes to your mind when you hear it?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Plush, beautiful fruit, yeah, um snakes and creatures walking around and engaging uh the place of the fall.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um I definitely get pictures of beauty, beauty, yeah, plant life.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why I imagine like jungle like.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I don't know if it was that way.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I certainly I certainly get that picture in my head if I lots of green.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of green.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um I do too.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think it's principally important though for us to connect.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: While I'm sure it was beautiful because the Bible describes it as beautiful, and that and it was more than just green plants, like there was you know, minerals and metals and animals and life and everything was there, rivers, uh it was moving.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was the place where heaven and earth coexisted.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's an overlap.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh God walking in the cool of the day in this place, like right.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's there the text gives us this indication that this is a place where heaven and earth overlap.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think there's importance in that as we read the rest of the story from Genesis all the way through, of that's the ideal.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Now here's a teaser thought.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: I we can explore this a little bit, but I don't want to go this terribly far because I think more fascinating conversations about this can come up when we get into chapter three and the whole temptation and the circuit.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: But if it truly was the place that heaven and earth met, yeah, God clearly explicitly scripture states that he walked with Adam and Eve.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think angelic beings were also on earth interacting with humanity in this Eden state?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the whole of Scripture suggests, and I think there are little glimpses of it in chapter two and chapter three, that what was happening in the garden was a place where the creatures of heaven and the creatures of earth interacted.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: I I agree.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that will be really fun when we get into the chapter three is great dialogue.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: Into the conversations that Adam has with the serpent.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: So a teaser for what's to come for later in three or four weeks.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, this is that that heaven and earth in its perfect design.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think there's clearly a an undeniable connection then from like Genesis 2 to Revelation 22.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of the start and the end of the story.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: New heaven, new earth.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and heaven and earth together again in its design.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, but there's some principles or some visuals then in the thread of scripture.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: We talked about this a little bit on Sunday, but I'd I'd kind of go a little bit further in this conversation today.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh tell me your thoughts on those ideas of heaven and earth meeting and that thread throughout scripture.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so um I think first it's important to provide, based off the text of chapter two, um, a visual description of what this place might have been like, right?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we're told that there was no plant, it was no fields, right?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you're in a barren place.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in this place that was barren called Eden, God plants a garden.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we're told that in this garden there was a river that flowed out of Eden.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: My experience has been rivers flow downhill.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not familiar with the rather with a river that flows uphill.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so in order to have from the center of the garden uh a river that flows from the center of the garden and then it branches out into four that water all of the garden in the land, the implication from that is that this central place of Eden was a high place.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: You could call it a hill, you might translate it a mountain, right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it wasn't a flat plane.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: We were in a flat place, and God makes Eden, and in Eden there's a high place where the river flows out of.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we're in a high place.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's important.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I will interject to that imagery, at least, is reinforced by Ezekiel, Joel, and Isaiah in prophetic literature later when they write referring back to Eden.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this uh holy mountain language.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the mountain of the high place language is reinforced later in the prophetic books.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you end up with this um this garden where the center of the garden or the middle of the garden is a high place, um, where the river flows out of that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're told there's lots of plant vegetation that's planted.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're told about two special trees that are planted.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we're told that Adam and Eve have Adam has been given instructions that, hey, of all the trees in the garden you may freely eat, but of that tree, don't eat that tree and don't touch that tree, because in the day that you do, you will surely die.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so the the framework I think that what that provides us with is this idea that that heaven and earth overlap in these places that are high.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so as you begin to, and and why I highlight that is as you read through the rest of the story, by the time you get to like chapter 11, um, the people are building their own high place, yes, the Tower of Babel.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um when you get to when the Israelites go into the land um and they encounter the Asheroth and Baal, what we find is that they are built on high places.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: High places, yes.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when God tells the people to destroy these idols, he tells them to destroy the high places.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when you begin to look around the civilizations of the world, from the ancient ziggurats of Mesopotamia to the pyramids of Egypt to the pyramids of the Aztecs, all around the world to all throughout history, we find people who are creating places of worship, temples.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're either creating an artificial mountain, like a pyramid, or they're building some kind of structure that's high.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're in a plane, you don't have mountains, you build a fake mountain so that you have a high place.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you are in a place with mountains, then you build it on top of the mountain.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I think comes out of Genesis chapter two, and that we see all throughout human civilization and culture, is this connection to the high places is where heaven and earth overlap.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, if you just imagine it, just in your imagination, a high place and you look at it, you see this place where heaven and earth sort of seem to meet.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right, the horizon.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: The horizon meets, right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we find in chapter two is that Eden provides us with a structural framework to see this relationship between heaven and earth overlapping.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it it is a consistent idea throughout the rest of scripture.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Pagans worshiping is worshiping in this sort of way, where they build high places, and all throughout human civilization, we see this happening where we build these little mountains, these hills, the places where worship is being done, because that's where the perceiv well that's where heaven and earth overlap.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it was even uh still ancient for us, but in more modern history, when you get into like Greco-Roman civilizations, they would build them in the same place, you know.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the pantheons and the part of the always on the high place, the temples were always at the top.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I and I think the the connection throughout even pagan history is fascinating, but more importantly, is this image of heaven and earth coming together, um, which then by definition is where we get the word sanctuary that we use today.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is the place that we meet with God.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I think whether it's right, wrong, or indifferent, sometimes now in modern culture we have taken that word to identify it with a room with a place in a church.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like this, oh, this is the sanctuary because this is the room.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: And moving beyond that, we're identifying even that place here in our world.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: We use that worship center is that that room, but this is the space that is set apart where we intend to meet with God.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: We want to experience a little bit of heaven on our earth here, right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so that even connects while not in geography or in a literal place, but with our heart and with our desire that we want to sanctuary, we want to meet with God, we want to experience those places where heaven and earth meet one another.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: We find we find peace, uh, invigoration, connection, uh, an overwhelming sense of presence in those places.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I what I find fascinating, we talked about this a little bit on Sunday, though, is even then how God started working with his people uh as he moves them out of Egypt and he begins to establish the importance of a tabernacle, yes, later becoming the temple.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, like I'm gonna build this framework with Eden imagery because this is the place uh when we look through the Exodus story, this is where the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud would sit.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is where God rests.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and now I'm going to establish uh the the boundaries and the borders, like for the garden, the easter, eastwardly entrance, like in the garden, the cherubim to give this visual representation of guarding the holy presence of God, uh, but this invitation then to meet with him and to connect with him.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so that that imagery even plays through into the tabernacle and later into the temple.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is it is obvious from the text that we are to understand that Eden was the first temple, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: The first tabernacle.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was the because the other places where we're introduced to it in Exodus about the tabernacle that's being this portable place, and then when the temple is finally built with David and Solomon, um the the instructions are to put fruit trees and pomegranate trees and almond trees and animal life and cherubim.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Even create this life.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Create this environment that feels garden-esque like.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so Eden is not just a place where God made Adam and Eve and put them.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It it is it is represented throughout the rest of the Old Testament as the temple.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It is the place where man and God met and interacted and where heaven and earth overlapped.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it is imagery that is important through the rest of the scriptures, but it is the first of the temples.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: It is the first place where God and where humans and God interacted in Eden.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in that, yes, there's an imagery taking us back and reminding us of Eden, but why?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think the the importance of that is to be reminded that even post-fall, like God desires to meet with us and have a relationship with us, uh, reminder of our partnership with him and the invitation to come, um, for any and all to come.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's this beautiful visual reminder of no, this is my design, this is my intention, these are my plans and purposes for humanity.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Where I think it even gets though more amazing is when we we fast forward now into the New Testament.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and John the Baptist, yes, this special uh relationship with Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in John 1:14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: What yeah, that that word dwelt is the Greek word that if you were in the Septuagint, it would have been the tabernacle.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's that that word is the he tabernacled with us.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: So John is not just saying that God is now living here, he's using vocabulary that is tabernacle vocabulary to paint a picture for us to go, oh, heaven and earth are here in him.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Heaven and earth have overlapped.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: God and man are over.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, God and man have become one.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like he and he is tabernacling with us.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So the language is intentional and it draws on Eden imagery, it draws on tabernacle imagery, it draws on temple imagery when when he says that God dwelt with us.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's not just saying God is now here and he lived with us, and he there's more being said with that choice of word.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think too, the I love uh, I want to give credit where credit's due.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: I love the work that the Bible, Tim Mackey and the Bible Project guys have done and some of their specific work on this topic.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there's a if you're interested in checking it out, you could just go to Bible Project and Google their heaven and earth biblical theme video.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's the Venn diagram visual that they give for this is beautiful, but it's just it's a picture for us of where God, through his redemption plan, is trying to restore back this heaven and earth motif through the work of Christ and his presence on earth.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: But then there's this there's a beautiful connection to the sacrifice portrayed in the garden, the sacrifice of Christ and the work.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: But then he moves forward through his death, burial, and resurrection, he dwells in us, and now then we are the temple.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Become little tabernacles, right?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's the cool thing about the imagery, is when what happens at Acts, like what happens at Acts is a replay of what happens with the tabernacle was initiated when this the pillar of fire descends from the mountain and rests on top of the tabernacle on in on Pentecost, the flaming fire rests upon the people.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like the imagery is not accidental, it's intentional.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same, it's the same.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and what ends up happening when you look at both Paul's writings about we're part, we're he's knit us together, we're part of the body.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like there is this intentional understanding that he dwells within us, and now we have we have we are little micro heaven and earth things, creatures moving around on this planet with the ability to provide interactions of heaven and earth again.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think in real in real reality, right, which which gives weight, if we really want to spend the time to explore this, it gives weight to uh Peter in Hebrews um defining us as a royal priesthood.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: So because the the functioning role of a priest was to connect to God and connect others to God.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like I wanna the role of a priest is the the person that mechanically brings heaven and earth together.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so that's our position.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: There's an interesting uh thought experiment that uh some have said suggested principally that Adam and Eve in essence functioned as the first royal priests in the garden.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um moving out of the garden, God established priesthood through the Levitical covenant.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: He established this role of priesthood that's established uh being consistent with this purpose.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: I want to bring heaven and earth together.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now uh we have the great high priest in Christ who brings heaven and earth together.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Together.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now we are tabernacles of the Holy Spirit, Christ in us.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: We are called priests now with this functional role.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this functional role to bring heaven and earth together, uh, using Calvary language, wherever you live, work, learn, and play.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like we are going now as ambassadors, priests, representatives of God, not just to um be kind and love others, we should, yeah, but the objective is to bring a little bit of heaven and earth connection wherever we live, work, learn, and play.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's absolutely correct.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I all right.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: So here's a question then.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: If all of creation in the garden was designed to be this sacred place where the presence of God and human presence meet, and we've we follow this thread from the garden through the Levitical priesthood, through the through the tabernacle, through the temple, to the the function of Christ as our high priest.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now to Pentecost, as you've just described, we get that same imagery.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Now Christ is in us, we are his body, we are his bride, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are now living out this heaven and earth priesthood function.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um theoretically, that should change how we view and how we treat the ordinary places, like our home, our neighborhood, our work spaces.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like how how do we live that out?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think I think we start with the Lord's Prayer: our Father is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come on earth, your will be done, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um so even even in that simple prayer, there's a cosmological connection to heaven and earth overlapping and doing, carrying out the same mission.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I want to do on earth, Lord, what is your will and what brings your name, righteous and holiness.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I want to live that out here as well.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm going to do that, then it's not, it's not just something that I do when I'm doing quote Christian things, like I'm at church or I'm with, like it should impact every aspect of where I go.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I go to work, um if I have the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, I have, I become this tabernacle, I take heaven with me, if you will, um, then everywhere I go, if I go to work, that in those interactions at work should be demonstrating heaven on earth.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It should impact the way I see people, it should impact the way I respond to people, it should, it should impart his will in heaven and on earth.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think if we we should be able to live it out.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Paul talks about take up this thing upon you, let take off these things, put on these things, um, and live a particular way.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that when we do that, um, wherever we live, work, learn, and play, our interactions, the way we see people, we are imparting and infusing heaven on earth by the way we act with people.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I 100% agree.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think it then it means it helps us know what to say yes to, and it helps us better understand what to say no to.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because in a heavenly realm, in a having the mind of Christ, uh, certainly it's going to lead me to honor the first and second commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that's going to change then how I view my neighbor.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, is the fruit of is the fruit of the spirit evident in my life?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Am I patient with those who rub me wrong?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Do I do I see the marginalized and the oppressed?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: And do I extend a hand to them or do I create Jesus always went toward the needy and always stepped into the marginalized spaces?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, do I do that?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or do I shun the fellow employee that everybody else is making fun of as well?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Or do I step into that space?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Do I do I um not go to the parts of town that everybody says is dangerous, or do I step into those spaces?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do I avoid it or I step into it?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so I think it if with that framework, it should change not only what we see, but what we do.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: It should definitely impact what we do.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: If we are bearers of the light, we're bearers of the gospel, um, it should impact what we do and the decisions we make.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: If we are, if we are, if he, if he is tabernacling with us, and then we become these opportunities to take heaven to earth, it should definitely impact the decisions we make, the places we go, the things we engage in.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I I I am I think sometimes that mindset of my role as uh as an ambassador, as a priest, connecting heaven and earth, um sometimes it it just slightly shifts the way I listen to people.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh give you an example.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: So um I was long story short, but I had an opportunity to go to Fort Benning this last week for some men's Bible study.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was great and ended up having some unexpected free time to take a tour with a member of our church in their area of Fort Benning.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: It was awesome.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: I got to see some things that I've never been able to see equipment, tanks, all this kind of stuff.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: So at first hand, I thought that unexpected mission was just about one of our core values, intentional relationships.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to be intentional, spend some time with this fellow brother, and kind of step into his world a little bit.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: And certainly that was a win.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: However, in in our tour, we got literally flagged down from a distance from another uh soldier.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: So he takes a truck and drives over to the guy who's flagging him down, and it ended up being somebody that I knew.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that the guy that I was with didn't know that it was like this weird triangulation.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know him, and how do you know him?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like the Spider-Man thing.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of one of those moments like, well, we all know each other.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: How does this happen?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: But in that moment, that individual who flagged us down pulled me off to the side and said, I need to talk to you.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, I really need to talk to you.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: And they began to share some heaviness, some challenges, crisis, whatever word we want to use.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, I was able to listen and um help that person live out some biblical wisdom.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that was a heaven-met earth moment.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I I think those opportunities where you live, work, learn, and play happen potentially more frequently than we realize if we just have the eyes to see it and the willingness to say, you know what, my schedule or what I'm doing may not be as important.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be a little flexible to what the the opportunity that the Holy Spirit is bringing into my life because this is a moment, priesthood.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm I want to help this person connect with God in this moment.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: My life verse, Proverbs 16, 9, man plans his way, but God directs his steps.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think that what you've described is you had a plan, you had your day planned out, you had calendaring of things, and all of a sudden things start shifting, and it's in those divine appointments where we get to live this out in ways that weren't planned.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just taking the next step that God brings before me, and it happens to lead in this way, um, which is really an awesome, awesome thing, awesome way to live.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I I just wish for most of us, truthfully, perhaps for all of us, it could become the rule and not the exception.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I uh this is probably something if I confess I need to do more, more, more gooder, more gooder, I need to do better at, yeah.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Is just praying that the Lord gives me the eyes to see those moments and and then the will to step into those moments.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it's my my life experience, I confessionally can say I have found myself in times where I have not taken that step.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like I could I could tell that this was an opportunity, but for whatever selfish reason, fear, my appointment, I had scheduled, I had other things I wanted to get done today, whatever it was, I let take me out of that potentially priestly opportunity.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I mean, I think that's something we wrestle with, but I think part of being sanctified, part of that being transformed into the image of his son, um, is where that happens it less frequently, and we begin to be more like Christ more frequently, um, until eventually we're like Elijah and God just takes us on home.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be awesome.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's opportunities for us to live out the mission um that's sort of encased in this chapter two about Eden and what it's like to really be Eden dwelling creatures.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I pray that we can.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: I I hope you're hearing us today explore some thoughts.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've even give you some reference material of one of the sources through the Bible project where we've kind of learned some of this stuff so that you can maybe explore it later.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: You've heard us confess toward one another on what this looks like in our life or when we don't do it well, which is healthy for you to do as well.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I hope you're encouraged and blessed by this conversation today.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're you're spurred and encouraged to study and explore more.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I am loving this Genesis series.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: I love the Genesis story, I think it's fantastic.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh more foundational, more foundational than I think we have given it credit for over the years.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, to your point, like I am, and this is nothing to do with me or with you or with us.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: This is all glory to God, but almost weekly, not necessarily daily, somebody in the church is saying, Yes, man, I've yeah, I've been in church all my life and I've never heard of this stuff before.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's just it is a deep well, which is why we're going so slow through this journey.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's absolutely great.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for joining us again.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Ricky.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: This is Alan, the High Dog Podcast of Calvary Baptist Church.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, in in the show notes, you can find our website address to our church.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: Check it out, find out more about us.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you live in the area, we would love to see you in person as we uh pursue Jesus together through intentional relationships while we carry hope to the world.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: We'd love for you to be a part of that journey with us.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: If you are watching or listening somewhere in the in the world, hey, we're glad you found this resource.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: We pray that it blesses and encourages you.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: We would love to help you find a local church in your community.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you can also use our website to get in touch with us.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: We would love to help you find that place.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but until next time, bye.