Eden to Eternity | Ep. 1

Well, hey everybody, welcome to Eden to Eternity. We're going to spend the next seven weeks walking through the story of the Bible to see how all the books of the Bible kind of tie into one big story, telling us what God is doing in our history, what He's doing in our lives, and what He wants to do through eternity. So I'm excited to share this journey with you. We're going to have a fun time kind of walking through the story of the Bible, and you may get through these seven weeks and think, well, they didn't talk about, you know, my favorite book of the Bible. We're not going to be able to hit everything, but we do want to do just a broad overview of what the Bible is about and what it means for us today. So I'm not alone in this podcast. I have a couple companions on this journey. We've got Derek Snyder, our campus pastor, Sarah Parks, connections with us as well. So guys, we are walking through the story of God's Word, what it tells us. And you know, so we're going to be blitzing through some very large sections. It's going to be a journey. It is going to be a little bit of a journey. We're going to slow down though this first week a little bit to really talk about Genesis because so much of the story of the Bible is established in, you know, what God is doing in Genesis, what we see at the beginning of the story. But before we kind of get going, as you guys think about the story of the Bible, as you think about what the Bible is about, if somebody asked you, hey, what's the Bible about? What would you say? Like what comes to mind when you think of this book that we have here? Yeah, I think even when I was reading some of this on our notes beforehand, that can seem like a really intimidating question, right? Even when, you know, for me, like I've read through the Bible and I've had a lot of study through it, but it can be intimidating because it can seem like there is so much there and there's so much to comprehend in different names and laws and all these things.

I think, but for me, when I think about it, I think just ultimately it's a story about God. It shares about who He is, how He started this whole creation, and who we are as people and how we have royally messed that relationship up over and over and over and over and over again. But it's so much of a story of God's continued grace and forgiveness and that there's this like sustained, continued plan for Him to redeem us as His people and ultimately gives us a future. And so when I think about it and everything we read in Scripture, I think it just ultimately points back to God, His story and His pursuit of us, just because it's not because of our love for Him, but His love for us. That's great. Right. Yeah. I think that sometimes people think that the Bible is very disjointed, but it's actually just one story. And I think that's important for us to establish as we kind of start talking about it, because ultimately it is the story of God and it's about Him. And I think so many times we read the Bible thinking it's about us, but it's not. I mean, it is about us a little bit, how we royally screwed up, but it's a story of God creating and loving this one people, us, and then how we decide to turn away from God. But it's all about God's rescue mission throughout to get us back into good standing with Him and ultimately getting back to how He started it in creation in Eden of, hey, this is the ultimate picture of relationship with God. And the entire Bible is about everything pointing back and getting back to that ultimate Eden experience with God. Yeah. That's so good. What I love about how you guys answered that question is that I think so often we look to the Bible for what it says about us and what we should do.

And there's that kind of popular acrostic or acronym, I don't know which is the right word, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, like this Bible, you know? Gotcha. I've never heard that before. You've never heard that before? No, no, no. Really? Say it again. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Oh, that's been around for a long time. There's actually a song about it, but I don't want to put copyright on this study. We're going to be in trouble. At any rate, we think about it in terms of an instruction book or an instruction manual for life, but really, it's not that, even though it tells us how to live. It's more like helping us understand life, right? Like, hey, this is the story you're in. This is what's going on here. This is what's been happening since before you were born. This is what's going to be happening long after you die, right? I think it's really about helping us understand the story we find ourselves in, is this is what is going on, and this is how I need to respond to it. So with that in mind, let's get started in Genesis. Like I said, we're going to slow down here in the first book of the Bible for a minute and just talk about some of the basics that happen at the beginning of the story, because we all know good stories have good beginnings, right? We know some of the possibilities. popular lines in stories and novels you have, like it was the best of times, the worst of times, things like that. And God's story starts very simply,

but also very profoundly, it's in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So as you guys kind of think through the opening chapters of the Bible, Sarah, as you were talking about like the Eden experience, like what jumps out to you from the first two chapters of the Bible, how God creates the world, what his initial ideal is for us? I think when I first think about God as a person, as a being, I think that he is a God who creates beauty out of chaos and is like very orderly, especially in the way that if you look through the first chapter of Genesis, like he's bringing order to the darkness, he's bringing order to like to this world that he has created. And then I don't like to think too much about like God existing before the creation of the world because it kind of makes my brain hurt a little bit, but we know that there's some things from the start that he creates with order, that he creates with beauty, that he creates with intention, and then he creates good things. And so I think like, even as we start reading the Bible, like to have that in mind, because there's gonna be some passages that we talk about where it's really confusing, that it looks like the Lord doesn't care about his people. But I think if we start with he is good, he is orderly, he loves us, like that helps everything else

that we read have a good framework of, okay, this is the God that we're talking about and this is what the story is about. Yeah, I like that. And I think we had been in a sermon series this year, just talking about the creativity of God. And I mean, that seems like such a simple statement, and maybe it is because I think maybe a lot of times in truthful things, like they're very just straightforward things, but I'd never necessarily thought about that as much as I have this year, just in all of the things that we see around us, we just kind of assume are normal, right? Of like the type of animals, the color of the sky, even I'm driving in on the way to work today. And there's like, there's sun behind me, but there's these dark clouds in front of me. And there are these two beautiful rainbows that just popped up. And I was just blown away by like, man, that is so beautiful. But it's also not the first time I've seen a rainbow. And I've heard it explained in a different ways how that happens, but you just kind of assume that that's fact. But for God, he created those things out of nothing, right? Out of just his thought and his desire and his creativity. And we are included in that, right? That we are included in that.

God created us not only to just exist, but to have like rule and dominion over creation, but also to be most importantly in relationship with him. And so it's just that creativity that God has that I just take for granted, I guess, that man, every type of person, seasons, weather, rainbows, all of these things that God is just so creative in what he does. Very cool, yeah. So Genesis 1 and 2 tells us this opening of God creating everything, right? Six days of creation, he forms and fills everything. Seventh day of creation, he rests. The pinnacle of his creation though is us. Like after he creates the planets and the seasons and the foliage and the animals, he sets to create a creature that he makes in his image that he wants to share his nature with. So as you think about that, the opening chapters of Genesis, what does that tell us about us? How God designed us, what God has designed us for being created and made in his image? Yeah, I think that's a great question because when Sarah talks about God existing before all things, making her brain hurt, this makes my brain hurt, right? It's like, man, what does that mean? Because especially here in Genesis 1 in verse 26, it says, then God said, let us make man in our image, right?

And so this idea that what we would believe that we call the Trinity is God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Spirit of God existing as God before all things, being the beginning and the end, but knowing that they made us in his likeness, right? And so we have certain things that are like him, right? But this fact that like of all of creation, like it's us that he decided that I wanna walk closely with them. Like it is them. And I don't know about you guys, but I think what's so hard for me about that is that I don't always feel like I deserve that. And through Jesus, it's not even necessary that we deserve it, we don't. But the original intention in God's heart and mind. was that I am going to create humans and I am going to walk with them. Just blows, it blows my mind. Yeah, and he didn't have to create us. I think that's something that I think about a lot is like he created us just for his enjoyment of being with us. And I think that kind of to your point, Derek, that we don't always feel like we have to, we feel like we have to earn God's favor so many times. But if you go back to creation, he literally created us because he enjoys us. And so I think that if that's the heart of so many parts of this story,

is that we feel like we don't measure up or not good enough and we're not, but at the heart of it, God loves us because he created us and he created all of us individually with creativity. And I think that's something that I struggle with a lot is like, no, I don't have to constantly feel like I have to earn God's love. He just loves me from the start and he created me out of that love for humanity just in general. That's such a good point though, because I bet even for anybody that is doing this Bible study with us and listening to this, like if we were to ask, maybe almost everybody, like, do you think that God enjoys you? Maybe for a lot of people listening to this, they're like, eh, I don't know. I don't know, because I don't know that I necessarily, I don't know that I enjoy time with myself, much less, but Sarah's right. God likes you more than you like him. Yeah, that's true though, sometimes. But Sarah's right, that's truth that we see all the way even starting in Genesis, first book of the Bible, just talking like, God enjoys that relationship. Even when we have a hard time believing that. Yeah. Yeah, and I think we're gonna talk and see a lot as we walk through the Bible about God's grace, right?

And how gracious and kind he is to us. But I think sometimes when we read Genesis 1 and 2, we skip over the fact that this is grace, and this is kindness, the fact that there is anything, that he doesn't create because he has to, he creates because he wants to. And the fact that we're even here is an act of grace. The fact that we can see rainbows on the way into work is an act of, like it's grace all the way down, is how creation is ordered. So God begins creation, makes everything perfect. We're perfect, we're created in his image. He places us in this Garden of Eden, and gives us one command, one thing to do. And we'll get into the Old Testament, I think next week, and see some of the laws and all that, and be like, why does he give us so many things to do? Well, he starts with one thing. Hey, don't do this. And he tells the man and the woman, Adam and Eve, he says, well, you can eat of any tree in the garden. You can have anything that's here, but do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Simple enough. Yeah, simple enough. Don't do this. In this garden, there are all sorts of trees. There's this tree of life that is sustaining our life that is keeping us in this relationship with God, even.

And this one tree, they're like, stay away from this. Don't eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil. And that doesn't go well. Like, as soon as you tell a kid not to touch a stove, he's like, now I wanna see what it does. Yeah, so God's story begins in perfection. It falls apart a little quickly. We get three chapters in in Genesis 3, and things begin to unravel. So, Derek, kinda walk us through that. What happens in Genesis 3? What does it mean for the rest of the story of the Bible? Yeah, well, in the midst of all of creation, and they're there in this garden, there's this serpent that scripture tells us that, in my translation that I have in my Bible, it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he goes up to the woman and speaks, right? He's literally speaking. Which isn't scary at all. But it also makes me think, this might be my hot take, and this might derail us a little bit. But I think animals talked. And I don't think that was weird that Eve heard the serpent talking. So that's my hot take of the day. I don't know, I don't know. But what the serpent does is that he starts to make Eve question God.

Yeah. Right? And I think that's a big deal, right? He said, did God really tell you that you shall not eat from any tree of the garden? And she says, well, yeah, not just from any tree, like we just don't wanna eat from that tree. So subtle. So subtle. Yeah, just tries to get her off track. And he says, well, it makes her question God again. Said, well, God knows that when you eat of that tree, that you will surely live, and you're not gonna die. Like God said, you're gonna die, you're not gonna die, you're gonna live. And it's not that for anything, like it's because like you're gonna know like this differences between good and evil and knowing all of this wisdom and being, basically he's saying God's trying to keep you from this good thing. Like God has said this one thing to Adam and Eve that, hey, to preserve your life, this is the one thing you can't do. And then this serpent. is telling them, hey, well actually, He's keeping you from fully living. And what do they do? They eat of this tree, death enters the world, they realize they're naked, God's looking for them, and they hide. And all of a sudden, within a matter of a decision, they go from walking with God to realizing their sin, their shame, their guilt, and pretty much understanding that things are gonna be different. Yeah. So Genesis 3 is really the turning point of the stories where

everything begins to fall apart. And even in that moment, we get a little measure of grace, right? Because as God shows up and sees how humanity has disobeyed Him, He gives a series of curses, like this is how life is gonna be from here on out. Like childbirth is gonna be painful, work is gonna be painful, you're gonna be frustrated by everything in life. But in the midst of that is a promise in Genesis 3.15, and it kind of sets the stage for the rest of the biblical story. Genesis 3.15, God is speaking to the serpent, and He says, I will cause hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, he will strike your head and you will strike his heel. And so basically what God is promising in that moment is, hey, somebody's coming who's gonna undo what the serpent has done, who's gonna crush the work and the person of the serpent. Now, he's gonna pay a price for it, right? He's gonna have his heel struck, he's gonna get snake bit, as it were, but he is going to crush everything that has happened here, and he's gonna undo that. And it sets the stage for the rest of the biblical story is, okay, we have messed this up, we need someone to save us, we need someone to redeem us, we need someone to undo the things that we have done. And who is that going to be? Who is that figure who's gonna come and save us? So Genesis 3, we get sin, and we have the introduction of disobedience, and the next couple chapters of Genesis, this is where we start running through Genesis. It all starts falling apart, it escalates incredibly quickly. We go from Genesis 3, we eat the fruit we're not supposed to, to Genesis 4, we have the first murder, as Cain kills Abel, to Genesis chapter 6, where God sees how wicked the world is and decides to flood the earth in the days of Noah, because mankind is just so evil, they can't be allowed to dominate the earth in the way they are. So as you guys think about that, how do the opening chapters of Genesis set us up for how destructive sin is, and why God wants to save us from it? Yeah, I think, kind of going back to Genesis 3 a little bit, I think the ultimate question is, do we trust God's wisdom, or are we going to define good and evil for ourselves? Like, that was the choice that Adam and Eve had to make at that tree of, okay, are we going to trust that what God says is good, is true, or are we going to take this and try to define it for ourselves? And then you see that play out throughout Genesis, throughout the rest of the Bible, of like, okay, it's humanity trying to take control for ourselves and not ultimately trusting what is good and what is right and holy, if we're following Jesus. And so, like you said, you see Adam and Eve's family kind of fall apart with that first murder, you see Noah, and then the Lord

saving a few righteous people, and we just continue to choose destruction and violence, and it's just constantly like, is there going to be, quote-unquote, a new human to make all things right? Because if we're trying to restore us back to Eden, and God's trying to restore humanity, well, we keep messing it up over and over. And so, I just love that the Lord had a plan from the start, like with Jesus, in that verse in Genesis 3 15 of, it didn't catch him by surprise, he was like, okay, I have a plan in motion for a new human that's going to make all this right, even when we keep messing it up. Yeah, the first few chapters, to me, kind of seem like one of those, maybe this is a bad example, I'm going to say it anyway. It's like watching the intro part of a movie, where it's like, you're right in the, they bring you right in the middle of the action, and that scene is going to set you up for what the rest of the movie is going to go after, try to solve. And that's what it kind of reminds me of. It's like, you go through this, they get banished from the garden, and then it's just like, the cut scene, you have the movie title, and then... This is director Derek right now. Then the rest of the movie is them trying to solve this thing. And that's what it reminds me of, because this is one, especially this scene in the garden, is one of the most pivotal things for us to understand when it comes to sin. And that one of the questions that... I guess we could hear a lot, just as Christians. Well, like, hey, I understand that Eve and Adam, they made this wrong decision, but that was their decision. What does that have to do with me? Well, this is where we begin as people. This is where we begin, and it goes all the way up to this guy named Abraham that we're going to talk about in just a little bit, but our capacity to sin and the reason why things are in our world the way that they are is because of what we read here in the first couple of pages of our Bible. Yeah, we look at it and we, well, what's wrong with the world? What's wrong with me? Genesis three, and that's exactly what has happened to us. And I think it's interesting you brought up that we say, well, what does that have to do with me? And I think at the heart of that question, we're trying to pretend like we haven't made the exact choice that Adam and Eve did. Well, it goes back to what Sarah said. Right, yeah. God has shown us His wisdom and His ways, and we're like, eh, this looks better to me, and that's really the heart of all of it is us thinking we know better than the God who put us here. So God has this promise that He is going to bring a deliverer to save mankind, and so the rest of Genesis kind of hones that promise in a little bit. We kind of wonder, well, how's He gonna do

that? When's He gonna do that? And in Genesis chapter 12, God calls a man named Abram, and He tells Abram this promise, leave your native country, your relatives, your father's family, go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. And so God hones His promise in on this one man, on this one family. I am going to make you a great nation. I'm gonna give you descendants that outnumber the stars, He'll promise later. And so we see here the beginnings of not just Abraham's family, but the nation of Israel, as God is saying, it's out of Abraham's descendants that I am going to bring this deliverer. He's gonna bless the whole world. So the rest of Genesis, we don't have time to cover everything. The rest of Genesis covers the stories of Abraham and the beginnings of his family, Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. So as you guys think through those stories, as you think through Abraham, who is 74 when he's called by God, 99 when he has Isaac, all of these things, when you think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what are the stories that come to mind for you? Well, I think of the incredibly long time, at least in a human's terms, it was for Abraham and his wife Sarah to wait on God's promise, like God had promised this thing, and yet God took them through this season of waiting and formation and just developing them into the people that He needed them to be, to ultimately bring Isaac, and then for God to say, hey, okay, now I want you to sacrifice your son. Well, that's a hard story to understand, right? Ultimately, God provided the sacrifice instead of his son, and I was reading just this morning of, hey, God talking to Abraham and saying, hey, now I know, you won't spare anything from me, not even your only son. And just how that points towards the end of Scripture with Jesus that God wouldn't withhold His only son. And so that's one of the first things that comes to mind for me. Yeah, I think of so many times in all three of those stories where they just mess up, and the Lord continues to stay faithful to them, and I think that's really encouraging, especially if you're first reading Scripture and coming from the Garden of Eden, seeing humanity fall, and the result is just, we keep messing up, and I keep saying that, but it's true. We just keep messing up, and there are so many stories in this specific family of people lying and cheating and manipulating, and God continues to stay faithful to them, and I think that's such an encouragement for us of, okay, God's not going to give up on me either. They have done so many crazy things, and the Lord is just continually along the way bringing them back into alignment

with Him because He is committed to them. They might not be committed to God yet. Even Abraham, it took him a while to actually get back in line with the Lord. They made some poor choices. They made really bad decisions, but the Lord's like, hey, I committed to this family, and I'm not gonna give up on them, which is really important because we know that there is a promise of God blessing the world through Abraham, and we know that now is Jesus, and so God continues to work through this family because He knows I have a plan that they can't even see yet. I think that's so comforting for us because the story of how God uses this family and later this nation is really the story of... how he uses us, right? Because we can look through the Old Testament, and certainly there will be moments if you're reading through it where you're like, how is God using this person? Why is God using this person? And I think we have to recognize that all God has to use are broken people, because we're all messed up, we're all sinful. Sin has messed all of us up. And so you'll look at stories of Abraham and be like, well, he's maybe okay, but then you get to stories of Jacob and you're like, this guy is unhinged. What is he doing? Yeah, so Isaac grows up, Abraham's son, Jacob comes along, but he also has a brother, Esau, right? And then you're saying Jacob ends up stealing his blessing. Yeah, stealing the promise and the blessing. But here's the thing though, Esau was really dramatic in saying... Esau's like, I'm about to die, sell me your birthright for soup. Also, it's a pretty bad deal. Give me some of that chicken noodle. Yeah, I don't know if that was quite on Jacob, but I understand what you're saying. I think what you guys are saying is so right. And during this study, we'll probably go back to the fact of like, yeah, these people messed up, we messed up, we're messed up, we're broken. And I think that's one thing for us to speak into right now with people that may be watching us or listening to this, wherever they're at, is that a thing I've heard before, a commentary on Scripture about not reading Scripture is like, man, I don't wanna read this book about all these perfect people doing these things. And it's like, hey, I promise you, I promise you, if you just sit down and take the time to read, I think they'll be surprised. These people, God called them to do some great things that required some great acts of obedience, no doubt, they had some great faith,

but they were not perfect people. They were not perfect people, and neither are we, but it reminds me that as we go through this entire story of Scripture, that the same God who is working in their life is gonna be the same God working in our life. That's true, that's a good word. So we hone in on this family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so many good stories there that we can't talk about. But we do get to one of Jacob's children towards the end of Genesis, and it's here that things seem like they're gonna derail. Genesis has been leading up to... There's a lot of moments where it seems like it's gonna derail, but Genesis towards the end is where it really gets a little bit out of hand, and it involves Jacob's son, Joseph. And Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob. He's the son of Jacob's favorite wife, which is another story we don't have time to get into. A lot of favorites right now. Yeah, a lot of favorites, a lot of favorites. And basically, Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt. They send him off into this foreign nation, and we find as we go through Genesis, it's kind of a picture of the whole story of Genesis, the story of the Bible, is that even in their sinful choice, God providentially moves to save people. Because Joseph ends up going into Egypt, and just by a series of unfortunate events, we'll call it that, Joseph ends up being second in command of all Egypt as a famine is approaching, and is able to prepare not only Egypt, but the surrounding nations to provide food for them in the midst of all that. So we see God, in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our poor decisions, in spite of the bad choices we make, God is working to save lives, that He's working throughout history. The downside of all this is that eventually, Joseph brings the rest of his family into Egypt. And so what we see at the beginning in Genesis 12, God had called Abraham to this land, to Canaan, and Genesis ends with Jacob and Joseph and Abraham's family in Egypt. They are outside of the land of promise. So as you guys think about how God works through Joseph's story, as you think about what He's setting up to do as we'll leave next week Genesis and head into Exodus, what stands out to you about Joseph's story? What stands out to you about what God does in those moments? We had a sermon series recently where our pastor Kyle was talking about Hagar as part of Abraham and Sarah's story, and Abraham and Hagar having a son together, and her being out in the desert and cast off from this family, and her naming God, you are the God that sees me. And that came to mind to me when thinking about Joseph, because here's this kid that is sold into slavery by all of his brothers because they hate him,

because he's his dad's favorite, and then ends up at this guy named Potiphar's house, and is successful in what he's doing there, but then gets accused by Potiphar's wife of doing something he didn't do, then gets put in prison, and then deciphers these dreams, but then he's forgotten about, and then he's finally remembered, gets put into this position of authority, and then has this opportunity to forgive his brothers. brothers and his family and save them in the midst of all of this, and it just reminds me that God sees us. No matter where we're at, and God has an ability to work in ways that we can't understand. At the same time, he saw Joseph and was working in Joseph's life, he was working behind the scenes in a greater way to save his people, and to save specifically Joseph's family. Next week we'll talk about some rough circumstances that they ran into, but it's another one of those examples of God moving his people to a different place, to really a different land, to be able to save them, even in a way for us, it's like, man, I don't know how that makes sense, but we get to see it from the other side. Yeah, that reminds me of one of the last verses in Genesis chapter 50, because Joseph's talking to his brothers, and he says, don't be afraid, am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. And I think that in a way points to Jesus, because throughout the book of the Bible, sometimes we're like, where's the story going? But all of it is leading to Jesus, and then his eventual death on the cross, and resurrection to save us. And then I think about our lives of, sometimes we don't know where the story's going, but ultimately God is moving and working to not only for our benefit, for us to follow him, but also for the benefit of the people around us. Sometimes we don't know how God is moving us in a particular position or in our stories, but all of it is for his glory and for his good. And so sometimes I think of the detours that my life has taken, but I'm like, but no, I think about the people that I've gotten to talk to and interact with, and my story and how it's interacted with their story.

And so I think it's just such a good reminder for us of the detours are okay, the Lord is using all of it and using those things, especially through Joseph, for the saving of many lives. And sometimes that's our lives. Yeah, that's true. Well, it dawns on me that we're probably, people who are watching this now, some are in a season where it feels like, hey, the plan is destroyed, the story is off track. It doesn't make any sense. I don't understand it. I don't like it. I don't know what's happening. And I think throughout the book of Genesis, especially here at the end, we get reminded that, hey, just because it looks like it's off track doesn't mean it is. They're outside of Canaan, they're in Egypt, as we'll see when Exodus opens, they're about to be enslaved as a nation by Egypt. Nothing at this moment seems to make sense. Nothing seems to be going the way they planned. God, you said you were gonna choose these people and now they're being subjected in Egypt. This doesn't make any sense. And so I think there's a good word for us in there that when we feel like things are beyond our... Just because something is beyond our control doesn't mean it's beyond his control. Doesn't mean that he's not working, doesn't mean that he's not doing what needs to be done behind the scenes that we don't understand. That even when the story seems messed up, the storyteller's still working. He's still doing what needs to be done and fulfilling his promise to save many lives and to bring a deliverer onto the scene, as Genesis 3.15 promises us. So that is the book of Genesis. That'll preach. Yeah, that'll start us off in the story.

Give us some assurance here before we head out, like, hey, this story is gonna be... It's gonna be okay. God is gonna work it out. He's gonna make all things come together the way he has designed them to. So Derek, I'll give you the last word. Any last thoughts as we wrap up? No, I think the beginning of the Bible can be intimidating, it can be confusing. There's a lot of stories that maybe we've heard before, maybe we haven't heard before. But again, this is... If you're in a place where you're like, man, I've messed up the plan, I've eaten that fruit in my own life of God saying, don't do that, and I've done it over and over and over again. And if that's someone that's watching this, I guarantee all three of us, we're in that spot, we have been there. Scripture tells us in the New Testament that all have fallen short of the glory of God. But because of what Jesus has done for us, as Sarah had mentioned at the beginning, there is going to... Not only now, but there's gonna be this future where we return to this beautiful relationship of physically walking with God, and we get to have the Spirit of God with us now to help us walk with Jesus even today. And so there is so much hope that's coming, even for those of us that feel like we've messed our own thing up. That's good. Well, thank you guys for joining us here for week one of Eden to Eternity. We'll be back next week looking at the story of how God leads the nation of Israel out of Egypt to becoming a kingdom of God. of their own and how he's continuing to fulfill his promise to bring a deliverer on the scene. We'll see you next time on From Eden to Eternity.