God's Desire & Design for His Church
Adapted from a message by Pastor Daryle Williams · September 6, 2026
Over and over in Scripture, patterns emerge. One of those patterns tells us a great deal about what God expects from His church. It begins on the first page of the Bible.
“It Was Good” — and Then God Planted a Garden
Genesis 1 opens with creation. Day after day God speaks, and day after day He looks at what He has made and says the same thing: It is good. Light. The heavens. Dry land and seas. The sun, moon, and stars. Life in the waters. Land animals and human beings. Then the chapter closes:
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
— Genesis 1:31
If everything was already good, why did God do one more thing?
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
— Genesis 2:8
He wanted a place set apart for fellowship with His creation — a place where divinity and humanity could meet. That is the line from the garden God planted to the church Jesus is building. What belonged in the garden belongs in the church because God desired it and designed it. What did not belong there — a serpent talking someone out of the Word of God — still shows up among the people of God.
Church Is God’s Idea
“On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
— Matthew 16:18
Someone found the land, designed the building, chose the paint, wrote the songs, and built the instruments. Part of church is man-made. The gathering itself is not. Jesus did not say, “You will build a church.” He said, “I will build My church.” This is never my church or your church. It is God’s church.
A Place of Fellowship
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
— Genesis 3:8
The garden was holy because God met His people there. The church is meant to be the same.
In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:22
You can try to live for God alone. That is not His plan. In Acts He meets a gathered people. In Revelation Christ walks among the lampstands. Peter calls us living stones fitted into a temple. When we come into the house of God, more than we experience anyone else, we should experience Him.
Adam and Eve took the garden for granted. More than 60 percent of Americans claim to be Christians, and on a given Sunday fewer than 20 percent will be in a church house. That gap is both an indictment and a challenge: make church what God wants it to be. First, a place where He comes to fellowship with His people. He is still zealous for His house.
A Place of Freedom
They could eat from every tree but one. Then the serpent came in — and Satan still shows up for church sometimes. He called the one command oppression. Jesus calls His Word freedom.
“If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
— John 8:31–32
People walk into the house of God looking for freedom from the past, from anxiety, fear, and worry. The serpent promised freedom and delivered a new bondage. Jesus, through the cross, gives real freedom. This house should sound like freedom.
A Place of Life
The tree of life stood in the middle of the garden. Access was lost in the fall. Through Christ we have been given a new tree of life: the cross. It looked like death. It was the place of life.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
— John 10:10
Yesterday may have felt like death. Today there is life in Jesus Christ. And you have not yet received all the life He wants for you. You have not exhausted His love, His riches, or His joy. This house should always be a house of life.
A Place of Dominion
God told them to be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, and have dominion. After the fall that authority fractured. We can still build dams and skyscrapers and put people on the moon, and still fail to govern our own homes.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”
— Matthew 28:18–19
What Adam and Eve lost, Jesus took back. That is why we pray — in 21 days of prayer, on Saturday mornings, when we call for the elders as James 5 says. I have seen too many miracles to pretend they do not happen, including families told they could not have children who later stood on this platform to dedicate those children. I do not understand every unanswered prayer. I do know this: I refuse the dominion of darkness. I choose the King who has authority.
A Place of Purpose
God did not put Adam in the garden and say, “Have fun.”
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
— Genesis 2:15
Children’s ministry, feeding the hungry, sports ministry, the parking lot, security, a hospital room — the assignments differ. The fact of assignment does not. No one in the church of God is there without a reason.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
— Ephesians 2:10
A Place Where Families Are Built
God placed Adam in the garden, put him to work, then formed Eve from his side. The church is supposed to be a place where families are made and strengthened. If church is optional in your life, you teach your family that it is optional. If it is God’s desire and design, you come because this is the place of fellowship, freedom, life, dominion, and purpose.
Church is not a nice idea someone had about Christians meeting now and then. Look at the garden and you will see what the church is supposed to be. It is His house. Do not take the garden for granted.