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• Life: God is the creator of all life and created humans with the unique ability to be in relationship with Him. Genesis 1:26-27

• Place: God created humans to live in community with each other and Him. Our first home was Eden. Gen 2:8-24

• Purpose: God intends for our lives to be full and meaningful. He created us with a purpose. Gen 1:28

• The Fall: God initially denied humans one desire: eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and his wife ate from the tree they broke the relationship between God and themselves causing the earth to become cursed. With the exception of Jesus Christ, every human since Adam and Eve has broken their relationship with God. Gen 3:1-19; Rom 3:23

• The Covenant: God seeks to renew the relationship between Himself and humans through His covenant.

  • He made the covenant first with Adam and his wife by placing the priestly robes on them. (Genesis 3:21)

  • It was later renewed with Noah after the flood (Genesis 9:8-17),

  • Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:1-14), 

  • The nation of Israel, (Exodus 19:5-6) 

  • The whole world through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. (Matthew 26:27-28)

• The Greatest Commandments: The covenant with God is available to all of humankind, but it is not unconditional. It requires that followers:

  • Love God with everything we have (Deuteronomy 6:5). Loving God means living in obedience to Him, recognizing that all we have is His and being willing to give up all we have to follow Him. 

  • Love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). When we broke our relationships with God we caused damage in the world. The covenant requires that we help restore that damage by reflecting God's image and love in the world. We do this by building and strengthening our relationships with others and making disciples through those relationships.   

our Leadership: