Get this Party Started!
Message Listening Guide
Guiding Question: What’s the point of trying to make this world better if it’s all going to be destroyed anyway?
Our ultimate hope is to return to the place we lost…
Since the fateful first bite in the Garden, humanity has been exiled from Eden and barred from the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22–24). We live with a deep ache for restoration—a longing for a world made right. In Revelation 22, the Tree of Life reappears at the center of a garden-city, where healing flows from God’s throne and His presence is constant and unhindered (Revelation 22:1–5).
Application: Knowing that Eden will be restored by God’s power alone guards us from both fatalism (“nothing can be fixed”) and triumphalism (“we can fix everything now”). We work, rest, and hope with confident realism.
…to walk with the God we left…
Exile is not just geographical—it’s relational. Even after the physical return from Babylon (Ezra-Nehemiah), Israel still experienced spiritual exile: the glory of the Lord had not returned to the temple (cf. Ezekiel 10:18–19). Jesus came as Emmanuel (God with us) and began the reunion. Revelation 21 brings it to completion: God’s dwelling is now with His people, and they will see His face (Revelation 21:3; 22:4).
Application: Because we know how the story ends—with God dwelling fully among us—we live now with courage and endurance. God will win, and His presence will fill the earth.
…and to become the people we were meant to be.
In the beginning, God called humanity to serve as royal priests—working for Him and representing Him (Genesis 1:28). Jesus, our Great High Priest, restores our calling, and Revelation’s vision of the New Jerusalem—adorned with the same stones as the high priest’s breastplate—shows this vision completed.
Application: We are called to live out this vocation now: reflecting God’s character to the world and offering up its praises back to Him (1 Peter 2:9–10). Though imperfect, we grow into this calling as we become more like Christ and serve His world in love.