Announcements Vote on Tuesday! 2023 Budget Presentation after morning worship on November 13th. Church Christmas Decorating: November 20th after morning worship. Big Idea A well-ordered church is led by elders who teach and protect God’s people. Read: Titus 1:5-16 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. 10For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. ...

Announcements Men and Women in Prayer is this Saturday at 8:30am November 6th: Lord’s Supper and Fall-Back Sunday Big Idea God can be trusted; therefore, your life can be built on who God is and what God has done. Read: Titus 1:1-4 Discussion Questions What was the most impactful thing from the text and the sermon this week? Read vs. 1. Paul identified himself as a “servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Why do you believe these two titles are significant and what does this teach us about our identity? Read vs. 2. What does the fact that God cannot lie reveal? How does this aspect of God’s nature affect or encourage you? Paul called Titus his “true child”—what can we learn from the relationship between Titus and Paul? Next Steps What do you hope to learn from our study in Titus? Take time this week to read through this short letter and write down three things you want God to do in your life. ...

Announcements • Faith Promise Commitment Sunday is next Sunday. We will not be collecting commitment cards, but we do ask that you and your family will commit to help fund our mission efforts. • Secure the Knot is this coming Saturday. October 23rd is the last day to register for this important event. Big Idea Life under the sun is complex but doesn’t have to be complicated if you fear God and obey His commandments. ...

ANNOUNCEMENTS Mission Emphasis next Sunday. Please get food truck tickets only if you’re planning to stay for the missionary presentations after lunch. Secure the Knot is Saturday, October 29. Please sign up by the end of this week—cost is $30.00 per couple and is a small but great investment in your marriage. Faith Promise Commitment Sunday is October 30. Pray about how much you will generously give to support CrossPointe’s mission program for the next 12 months. Big Idea Whether you are young or old, enjoy life because death is coming. ...

Question 3 Once again the Preacher is honest about the troubles of life, both physical and psychological. He also has some advice for us: we should do what we can to remove discouragement from our souls and to minimize damage to our bodies. This is not a call to deny the very real suffering that everyone experiences. Nor is it a call to escape pain by living for pleasure. Rather, it is a call to take care of our mental and physical health. If we are getting discouraged by various vexations, and if we are tempted therefore to become depressed or disillusioned, we should do what the Preacher says and remove those vexations from our hearts. This starts with refusing to feel sorry for ourselves. Rather than dwelling on all the things that are going wrong, we should count our blessings. We should also seek the care of a pastor or the counsel of Christian friends—brothers and sisters in Christ who are sympathetic to our situation but also able to see our situation for what it is and tell us what we need to hear, especially from the Scriptures. But the very best remedy for vexation is to go to God in prayer, telling him all our troubles. “Do not be anxious about anything”—or vexed about anything, we might say—“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” This command is then followed by a promise: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7). The Biblical way of removing vexation is to cast our cares on God. ...

Big Idea Incomplete knowledge is not always a reason for inaction. Read: Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. 3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. 5As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. ...

Big Idea Life is filled with risk, so choose wisdom over foolishness. Read: Ecclesiastes 10:4-20 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. 5There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves. 8He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. 10If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 11If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. 12The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. 13The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. 14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? 15The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. 16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! 17Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! 18Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. 19Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 20Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. ...

Question 3 Listen to the talk that goes on in your home. How much of it is impatient and unkind? How often are words spoken out of selfishness and personal desire? How easily do outbursts of anger occur? How often do we bring up past wrongs? How do we fail to communicate hope? How do we fail to protect? How often do our words carry threats that we have “had it” and are about to quit? Stop and listen, and you will see how much we need to hold our talk to this standard of love, and how often the truth we profess to speak has been distorted by our sin. ...

Making Sense of a Crooked World Big Idea God is not to blame for this crooked world. Read: Ecclesiastes 7:15-29 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. 19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. 21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. 23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? 25 I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. 26 And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. ...

The Dash in the Middle Big Idea Life is serious business Read: Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. 2It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. 3Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 4The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. 6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. 7Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 8Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9 Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. 10Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. 11Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. 12For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. 13Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. ...