Emasculated, Mutilated, Illegitimate, and Lost | Sunday, October 16, 2022

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In my mother's womb, I was loved by You before I took a breath. When I doubted, Lord, remind me I am wonderfully made. You're an artist and a potter; I am the canvas and the clay. You make all things work together for my future and for my good. You make all things work together for Your glory and for Your name.

Well, in our recent studies in Deuteronomy, I have to say I feel a little bit like a skipping record in my redundancy. The section of the book we find ourselves in is a portion in which Moses is reiterating some of the stipulations of the law that he had previously given to the children of Israel some four decades prior to the book of Deuteronomy, back in the books of Exodus and Leviticus.

These laws are difficult for us to make sense of, especially as we try to bridge the cultural context. Not only do we have to consider the cultural context, but we are also over 3,000 years after Moses. Bridging that time distance and cultural separation makes some of the material we encounter in these passages seem rather bizarre.

For example, today in the text before us, we are going to see statutes from Moses concerning emasculated men, nocturnal emissions, and where you can and cannot go to the bathroom within the camp of Israel. I will also address runaway slaves, ritual harlotry, and charging interest for loans, all of which are covered in this passage in Deuteronomy chapter 23.

As much as I would like to make perfect sense of each of the strange stipulations we find here and try to draw out present-day applications, it is not at all easy. In some cases, the Hebrew language and the stipulations are so difficult that even the most well-versed scholars are left scratching their heads when they come to passages like this. For instance, when we read in Deuteronomy chapter 23...

In verse 1, we read these words: "He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the Assembly of the Lord." There are questions among scholars and commentators as to what exactly "emasculated by crushing or mutilation" really means. This is not the only extent of the questions; there are also further inquiries about how we should interpret the phrase "the Assembly of the Lord."

The term "emasculated" seems basically clear to us. A man who has, shall we say, lost his manhood appears to be the person in focus here. However, the question among scholars is whether this individual was born this way, became this way by accident, emasculated himself, or was made a eunuch ritualistically. It is also possible that this person was taken as a prisoner of war and subsequently made a eunuch as a result of captivity. There is really no agreement among scholars on this point, making it nearly impossible to determine a perfect meaning or what we might even call a proper interpretation of this text.

Moving on to the phrase in verse 1 of Deuteronomy chapter 23, where we read "the Assembly of the Lord," there is again a question among scholars about what this means. Some scholars see this as simply being accepted among the nation of Israel, suggesting that the Assembly of the Lord refers to the whole of the nation and all the people of Israel. Other commentators and scholars believe that the Assembly of the Lord was some sort of ruling or judicial body within the nation of Israel. Still, others interpret this as referring to appearing as the people of God before God at the Tabernacle and later at the Temple.

So, what exactly is the Assembly of the Lord? There is no good consensus or agreement among commentators. This lack of clarity does not improve when we move from Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 1, to verse 2. In verse 2, we read, "One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the Assembly of the Lord." This introduces the idea of not entering the Assembly of the Lord a second time, stating that even to the tenth generation, none of that person's descendants shall enter the Assembly of the Lord.

The Lord speaks a third time. At first reading, it seems to us that this is a fairly clear statement: a child born to an unmarried mother, an illegitimate child, cannot enter the Assembly of the Lord. However, we don't even know what the Assembly of the Lord is. It still seems simple; someone of illegitimate birth cannot enter into the Assembly of the Lord.

Except that the word translated as "of illegitimate birth" here in the original language, which was written in Hebrew, is the Hebrew word "manser." This word is only used one time in the Torah, specifically in Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 2. Its meaning is really hard to determine, and there is no clear agreement as to what it means. In fact, there is a term in linguistics for a word that only appears one time in a large body of texts. Linguists would call this a "hapax legomenon," which sounds kind of funny to us, but it means "once spoken."

A word that is only used one time is difficult to understand because you cannot see how it is used elsewhere for context. In this instance, there is no way of knowing from the Scriptures what the term "manser" means. This kind of uncertainty drives us crazy in our hyper-know-it-all society. We don't like to confront things where we just don't have a clear answer.

All we can say with certainty here is that we don't know what "manser" means or what it meant. However, I think we can be sure that Moses and those who were listening to him understood what it meant. Whatever "manser" was, those who were identified as such were not to enter the Assembly of the Lord. This group of people, whoever they were, were prohibited from entering the Assembly of the Lord for ten generations. This long time frame is just a way of saying that they are never allowed to enter the Assembly of the Lord.

Because of what we see in verse 3, we know that "to the tenth generation" means forever. The descendants of a "manser," whatever that is, cannot enter the Assembly of the Lord forever. In verse 3, we read that an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the Assembly of the Lord.

The Lord speaks of a third group of people who cannot enter the Assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. This idea is reiterated: none of their descendants shall enter the Assembly of the Lord forever. These first few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 23 are quite clear. If you are emasculated or castrated, whether it was done to you or you were born without the ability to have the use of those parts, or if you did it to yourself, you shall not enter the Assembly of the Lord.

If you are a member of a certain group, such as a Moabite or an Ammonite, you shall not enter the Assembly of the Lord ever. The Assembly of the Lord may imply that you cannot be counted among the children of Israel, rendering you completely outcast from the nation of Israel. It could also mean that you cannot go to the temple or the Tabernacle, or that you cannot serve within some sort of judicial council in the nation of Israel. We do not fully understand what these passages mean, and therefore, they are not easy to apply.

When we encounter passages like this, we start to wonder if they are pointless for us to read. Sadly, some people avoid teaching through books like Deuteronomy because they do not see any application to our time and situation. My problem is that I read passages like 2 Timothy 3:16, which states that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is useful or profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, so that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Because of this, I believe there must be something in Deuteronomy chapter 23 that God wants to communicate to us.

So, is this passage pointless? Should we just move on to the Book of Joshua or somewhere else and leave Deuteronomy behind? Obviously, if you have tuned in for any length of time here at Cross-Connection Church online, you know that I could not possibly bring myself to do that.

What, then, is the point of this passage? If you look at the opening verses in Deuteronomy chapter 23, you will find that entrance into or association with the Assembly of the Lord is mentioned six times in the first seven verses. We do not fully understand the particulars regarding these matters.

We don't fully know what the Assembly of the Lord refers to, nor do we understand the illegitimate birth of Mansaire. What does it mean to be emasculated by crushing in this passage? What exactly are these things? We don't have all the answers to those questions, but there is something that seems clear to me as I read and think through this passage in Deuteronomy chapter 23.

Under the law, not everyone was permitted to appear before God. In religion, there are always what we might call purity tests, and that's what we find in this passage—a kind of purity test. There are people who are not able to come before the presence of the Lord. They are either unable to be among the people of Israel, unable to come to the Tabernacle or, in later times, the Temple, or unable to serve within the ruling councils of Israel. They were separated and set apart from the people, and they could not appear before the Lord.

Look at what we read in verse 9: "When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing." Again, we have these purity tests in passages like this. The simple interpretation of Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 9, is that when you are in enemy territory or outside of the holy nation of Israel, Moses says to the people of Israel that they need to be on guard. They must not, in any way, harbor or take unto themselves any wicked thing.

Religiously, there are people who become or are unclean. This includes not only individuals like the Moabites and the Ammonites or the emasculated individual mentioned in this passage, but there are also things that are counted as evil according to the law. Under the law, the people of God were to be untouched by those things that were unclean or wicked. They had to maintain purity; they had to be holy.

Many times in the law—when I say "the law," I mean the capital L Law in the Torah, specifically the first five books of the Bible, including Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Exodus—we see the call to be holy. For example, in Exodus chapter 11, verse 45, we read, "For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God."

Shall therefore be holy, for I am Holy. God calls His people to be set apart; He calls them to be separated and holy. He calls them to be consecrated to Him. Under the law, not everyone was permitted to appear before God. There were some people who were not holy or who had become unholy by touching something wicked, as we see in verse 9 of chapter 23.

There are purity tests for the people of God, and the statutes and judgments of the law, which we have been studying in the book of Deuteronomy, were intended to make the people of Israel holy unto the Lord, set apart to the Lord. Again, from Leviticus chapter 11, we read, "For I am the Lord your God; you shall therefore consecrate yourselves, set yourselves apart, and you shall be holy, for I am Holy."

Under the law, not everyone was permitted to appear before God. Holiness and separation from anything unclean were essential. Let me say that again; this is really important. This is something we clearly see in the text of Deuteronomy, throughout Leviticus, and throughout Exodus. Under the law, holiness and separation from anything unclean were essential.

We read back in Deuteronomy chapter 23, beginning at verse 10: "If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night," we don't really know exactly what that means, but you might be able to use your imagination. If he becomes unclean, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp. But it shall be when evening comes that he shall wash with water, and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp.

Also, you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall have an implement, a tool among your equipment. When you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. You have to cover up your waste, for the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you. Therefore, your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you.

Those are certainly some interesting stipulations in God's law that Moses gives. He says that if you become unclean by an occurrence in the night—which might be termed a nocturnal emission, which you can interpret for yourself if you need to—or it may be that somehow in the night you soiled yourself, then as a...

As a result, you are unclean and must go outside of the camp to separate yourself from the camp of God's people. This is necessary so that you can be made holy, cleansed, and returned to the camp the following day. If you need to relieve yourself, which we all do from time to time, Moses instructs that you must go outside of the camp and cover your refuse to maintain purity within the camp.

I don't think it is all that unclear what is going on here. Under the law, you must keep yourself from every wicked thing and be holy. The requirements must be met to maintain purity and holiness. This idea, this concept, isn't unique to Moses, the Torah, or the children of Israel. Under the law, requirements must be met to maintain purity and holiness for all human beings everywhere, in every civilization, at every time throughout history.

We are naturally religious; every human is instinctively religious. Modern 21st-century science even acknowledges and recognizes that we have a religious inclination. Some researchers have even called this the "God Gene," which means that even in a highly secularized society such as ours, we will be inclined toward religious thinking and ritualistic practices.

Why is this? The evolutionary biologists might say that this is a product of evolution, but the reality is that we default toward religion because God has made us this way. It is hard-coded and programmed into us by our Maker. Just this last week, I saw a perfect example of this in the news. There is a theoretical physicist and outspoken Evangelical atheist by the name of Lawrence Krauss, who wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal titled "Now Even Science Grants Must Bow to Equity and Inclusion."

In the article, Krauss states that starting in fiscal 2023, which began on October 1st, every proposal responding to a solicitation from the Office of Science is required to include a peer plan, which stands for "Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research." This plan describes the activities and strategies of the applicant to promote equity and inclusion as an intrinsic element to advancing scientific excellence. In the words of the announcement, the complexity and detail of the peer plan is expected to increase the size of the research team and the number of personnel.

Supported when I read this new requirement, Krauss says he went back to the last grant proposal from our group, which involved exploring gravitational waves, the early universe, physics, neutrino cosmology, dark matter detection, supersymmetry, and black hole physics. What does any of this have to do with diversity and inclusion? Nothing, Krauss asks. Are we at the point where the heart of the nation's scientific research enterprise is to be held hostage to ideology? Will the U.S. government refuse to fund major national laboratory initiatives to explore the forefront of fundamental and applied science because scientists show insufficient zeal for fashionable causes? Quite frankly, the answer is a resounding and clear yes.

And why is this? I would suggest to you it is because we are inherently religious. Now, the new secular religion in the West has a deep ideological woke worldview. There will be a woke religious purity test for admittance into the public assembly of our culture here in the West. If you think that this is crazy, also in the news this last week was PayPal, the company that offers you the ability to send money online to various people. PayPal's most recent updated user agreement came under scrutiny this last week. Why? Because there are progressive purity tests and holiness requirements, which, if not met, might cost PayPal users up to twenty-five hundred dollars in the form of a fine.

Now, PayPal is in the process of trying to walk back and reverse all these things that came out in this most recent user agreement because it instantly cost them more than five billion dollars in stock losses in the stock market. But the impulse to add a statute to their law code goes back to this desire that we all have, or this impulse that is in every single one of us, to be religious and to be holy. Under the law, the requirements must be met to maintain purity and holiness, whether it was within the assembly of the Lord thirty-four hundred years ago through the law code of Deuteronomy, or within the assembly of the academy today, and all of the universities and colleges across the country, or within the sciences to get funding from the national resources to fund your laboratory experiments. Even within the corporate world, there are these purity tests that people give.

We are all inherently religious. Moses goes on in this passage, adding more to the list of things that are abominable, things that are accursed, and things that are to be separated from. In Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 17, it states, "There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God."

Because of the religious impulse that is in every single one of us, we will always feel the pressure to keep ourselves from every wicked thing that we possibly can. Whatever wicked thing might mean, you can always expect that the list of wicked things will always be an increasingly large list. To the point that the list of things that are abominable and accursed, which you have to keep yourself from, becomes so large and heavy that it is too heavy to bear.

As I shared last week in my message, that's exactly the point. The list of abominations and wicked things is an ever-increasing burden until it breaks the backs of those who endeavor to bear it. According to the law, as we see in this passage, eunuchs have no place in God's assembly. Those of illegitimate birth, the mamzer, whatever that means, are excluded. People who come from the nation of Moab or Ammon are rejected. Prostitutes and perverts are shut out. Wicked things are accursed, and uncleanness must be purged. Holiness is required.

According to the experts of the Torah, the law of Moses ultimately consists of 613 statutes and judgments. It's not just the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. It's not just the statute to love your neighbor as yourself in Leviticus chapter 19. It's not only the Ten Commandments; that's just the beginning. There are 613 total commandments in the Torah.

In addition to the 613 commandments in the Torah, there are countless amendments, customs, and traditions that have come from the rabbis and experts in the law for more than a thousand years after Moses. Under the law, the burden is greater than we can bear, but only if we assume that the law's...

The purpose is to make us holy before a perfect God. You see, the heavy weight of the law is not intended to make us holy; rather, it exposes our inability to bear it. Just as the Apostle Paul writes in the New Testament, we are not and cannot be made righteous or justified by the works of the law. Under the law of Moses, we find ourselves in bondage to sin, bound by sin leading to death.

But the story doesn't end there. Nearly a thousand years after Moses, the prophet Isaiah writes these beautiful words in Isaiah chapter 56: "Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, 'The Lord has utterly separated me from His people,' nor let the eunuch say, 'Here am I, a dry tree.' For thus says the Lord: 'To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.'

And also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast to My covenant— even them I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, 'Yet I will gather to Him others besides those who are gathered to Him.' Some 800 years after Moses would give the law that states eunuchs are separated from the people and that foreigners like Moabites and Ammonites cannot be a part of the assembly of the Lord, Isaiah foresees a day when even the descendants of Moab and Ammon find a place and a name within the assembly of the righteous. He foretells a day when even the emasculated eunuch is brought near and not cut off.

Just prior to those words in Isaiah 56, in verses 1 and 2 of the same chapter, Isaiah says, "Thus says the Lord: Keep justice and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come."

Righteousness is to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing evil. Even if that person is a Moabite, an Ammonite, a Memsair, or someone who is emasculated, I cited it last week, and I want to share it again because it is such an important thing.

Paul, in the New Testament book of Galatians, asks the question, "What purpose then is the law? What purpose does it serve?" He then gives such a great answer in Galatians chapter 3, verse 24: "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." That word "justified" means made righteous or made right with a holy and perfect God. You see, you and I, in and of ourselves, by the law, will never be just and righteous.

Galatians chapter 3, verse 11 says that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God; it is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." The law is holy; the commandment is holy, just, and good, says Paul in the book of Romans. However, the law is also a burden so great that we cannot bear it. Again, in the book of Romans, we read, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

You see, what the law does, it does really well: it exposes unrighteousness by being a burden so great that you and I cannot bear it. It looks forward to a day when righteousness and salvation are revealed only in Christ. Again, back to the book of Galatians, chapter 3, verse 13: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,' so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Here is the beautiful thing: the law of Moses—Deuteronomy, Exodus, Leviticus, the first five books of the Bible—is powerful. It is powerful to reveal the extent to which we fall short of God's holy and righteous standards. But it isn't only the law of Moses, the Torah; it is also the law that is written upon our hearts in our conscience.

Conscience accuses us and renders us guilty before God. Then, you add to that the crazy moral codes that we devise in our cultures. They too become a burden so great that we cannot bear them. Whether it is the woke dictates of progressivism in 2022 or the crazy guidelines of our organizations, institutions, and corporations, whatever sort of crazy moral standard we come up with becomes a burden too great to bear.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans Chapter 2, says, "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judges. For in whatever you judge another—whether it's the moral standard of the law of God and the Torah, or the moral standard of your conscience upon your heart, or whatever moral standard you devise within your culture— for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. You are unrighteous; you are not perfect or pure. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things."

Do you think, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the richness of His goodness, His forbearance, and long-suffering, knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath for the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds.

If you try to live up to the 613 commandments of the Torah, you are completely sunk. If you think that you can devise a better law code than what we find in the Torah, whatever you come up with will only serve to bring you to a place of further bondage before a perfect, holy, and righteous God. You will not be able to escape His judgment—the judgment of a perfect, righteous God—because the standard that we measure up to is not the standard of another person and how good they are. The standard is the perfect righteousness of God, and none of us stand up to that.

Ultimately, it isn't the law that is the problem; it's just that the law does a really good job of exposing what the problem is. The problem is us. The problem is sin within us. For the wages of sin, Paul says in Romans 6:23, is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. What we find when we come to passages like this is that under the law, we are all dead.

Sin, and only in Christ, is there forgiveness and life. You see, when the law comes down to it, we don't really need to try and figure out what "emasculated" means in Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 1. Scholars aren't really sure, and we may never fully understand what the "Assembly of the Lord" is; it can remain obscure. We don't need to try to come up with a genetic test to determine who the Moabites and the Ammonites are or to fully define what wicked things are so that we can try to keep ourselves from all those things.

The purpose of the law is to render you and me guilty before God so that we might find righteousness in Christ. You see, all the religions that we find in the world, whether it's the sacred religion of something like Judaism or the secular religions of something like wokism, leave you and me in the same place: guilty before a holy God. Those religious practices cannot make you right before a holy God; they reveal how guilty we are before Him and how much of a need we have for His forgiveness and grace, which is found only in one place. It's only found at the foot of Calvary's cross, at the nail-pierced feet of Christ.

There is so much more that I would love to say about this passage. I would love to talk about the fact that there are Moabites and prostitutes in the family tree of Jesus, revealing just how gracious and awesome God is in Christ. I could also mention that one of the early notable converts to Christianity in the book of Acts was an emasculated Ethiopian. However, those stories will have to wait for another day.

For now, I think it is enough to say that under the law, we are all emasculated, mutilated, illegitimate, and lost. We are all dead in sin, and only in Christ Jesus is there forgiveness and life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, and I hope that you know that truth.

Father God, I pray that You would minister that reality to anyone who will hear this message, whether it's on the day that it releases or months or years from now. Lord, reveal that whatever thing we are trying to do, whatever law code we're trying to follow—whether it's trying to follow the ancient law codes of something like Judaism or the 21st-century law codes of some crazy woke ideology—none of those things are going to make us right before You. They only reveal how far we are from You and how much we need Your grace, and that grace is only found in You, Jesus.

Thank you that You who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive Your righteousness. God, help us to put our trust fully and completely in You, not in some other method of trying to be better or do good, but to put our trust entirely in You. You took our sin so that we might receive Your righteousness. Help us to trust in You, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

I am wonderfully made. You are an artist and a potter; I am the canvas and the clay. I know nothing has been wasted, no failure stays. I am wonderfully made. You are an artist.

And a Potter, I'm the canvas and the clay. You're an artist and a Potter. Thanks for joining us for our broadcast today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our services at Cross Connection Church campus at 8:30 and 10:30 every Sunday. If you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, go online at lifeinkconnection.com.

Good morning, Cross Connection! It's Pastor Garrett here, and I'm so glad that you could join us this morning for living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. This month, we have a couple of things coming up that I want to inform you about.

First, if you are a junior high or high school parent, sign up your kids for the Youth Olympics coming up on Saturday, October 29th. It's going to be from about 10 o'clock to 3 o'clock. We would love to have your kids there; it's a great time, especially if they're new to the youth group or just getting plugged in. You can get them signed up at events.lifeinconnection.com, where you can find all the information. It's going to be a really great day.

Second, we have Halloween right around the corner. Part of living life in connection here at Cross Connection Church is that we've started a tradition of redeeming Halloween. We create a harvest home in our front yards as trick-or-treaters come by. This gives us the opportunity to meet our neighbors, set up a table for hospitality, and talk to them while giving out snacks, coffee, or candy. If you want more information about that, go talk to Pastor Nick as you're leaving the sanctuary today. You can also see an example of what those tables would look like.

As we quickly approach the holiday season, my favorite time of the year, I know it's probably your favorite time of the year as well. This is one of those times during the year when we can show love to our community and to the world. Our vision is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We connect with the world in all kinds of different ways, but one of the ways we do that is by making Thanksgiving baskets for our local community. Our youth group prepares these baskets to share the love of Christ with local businesses and to be able to...

Maybe share a little bit about the gospel with them. We are going to be having our Thanksgiving basket outreach coming up here in just a little while. We will be asking you to provide some empty baskets, but also to provide some baked goods to go into those. I want you to be thinking about that because I know there are some people in our church who know how to bake amazing cookies and all kinds of really good things that may not be very helpful for our weight, but they might be a great way to share the love of Christ with some in our community.

We will be asking you to bake some things in the coming weeks. On top of that, we have missionaries that we are blessed to partner with around the world. At this time of the year, when they are separated from their families, one of the ways we can encourage them is to send them a Christmas card to let them know that we are thinking about them and praying for them. In the coming weeks, you will see that we will have some Christmas cards available out in the patio area here on Sunday mornings. You can take a card, fill it out, and send it to the missionary to bless them at Christmas.

Additionally, our other Christmas outreach, as we have been doing for many years with Samaritan's Purse, is Operation Christmas Child. Pastor Nick will be sharing with you a lot more about that in the coming weeks. I just want you to be thinking about some of these things that you can be involved with to help us connect with the world and maybe connect them with Christ. I look forward to those things, so please be praying about it. Thank you, guys.