How to use
Workshop in development. Teaching text from the supplied workshop materials is gathered here for review. Slides are being revised and are not included.
Perspective shift
Where the heaven and earth overlap is the “already... and not yet” reality of the Kingdom of God.
Colossians 3:1–4 · Philippians 3:10–14
Eternal life
What Jesus offers is not a ticket to heaven, but the eternal life. Heaven is not “a place where you go after you die” in a sense of escapism, but where the presence of God is.
We tend to love gifts more than the Giver. Aiming the heaven rather than the One who makes heaven heaven would be the wrong focus. Believing in Jesus is not a means to an end, it is its own end. The only and the best reward of our faith is the relationship with the personal God, not just a place for our “afterlife”.
How do you understand the eternal life?
What does the Scripture say about eternity / eternal life?
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT
He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NRSV
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
Just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:2–3 NASB
Eternity is life with God and is beyond the limitation of the dimension of time.
Live in God’s story
The storyline of the Bible
Creation → Rebellion → Promise → Christ → Mission → Judgement → New Creation
See Christopher J. H. Wright, The Great Story and the Great Commission
The structure of Planted.
Creation → Fall → Redemption → Future hope → Mission & our response
See Bridges International (Cru) resources, A Hero’s Story
Practice eternity
There’s a season for everything
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
Eternal significance in every moment / season of life
Ecclesiastes 3:9–15
The redefined YOLO life
You only live once, live it for eternity.
Being planted is only the beginning
Being planted is only the beginning, growth is the focus.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Corinthians 3:6–7
Growth = (Truth + Grace) x Time
From Planted to PLANT
Growth is not the end of the story of the seed. When it becomes a big tree, it’s going to bear fruits, sow seeds, and provide shades...
Matthew 28:18–20
Bring it to your group
These resources may be used in churches, small groups, classes, discipleship cohorts, workshops, retreats and personal study. Before you lead one:
- Adapt the examples to your local context.
- Keep the biblical and theological structure.
- Don’t remove the formation practices just to save time.
- Prepare your facilitators before the group begins.
Full facilitator guides, with setup, timing, safety notes and discussion questions, are available on request. For teaching, publishing, translation, partnership or licensing, contact The Garden Project.