Grace and peace to you this week. This past Sunday we gathered online, and wherever you watched from, your kitchen table, your car, a break room on a Tuesday shift, you were part of this house. One church, two campuses, one family. I mean that every time I say it.
This past Sunday we continued WHO’S IN YOUR BOAT with Week 3: You Reap Whoever You Keep.
It’s 11:47 on a Tuesday night. Their name lights up your phone and your stomach drops before you even unlock the screen. You’ve rehearsed the same conversation with this person in the shower for three years. Nothing has changed except your blood pressure.
You call it loyalty. Your body calls it something else. Tight jaw. Shallow sleep. Sunday dread that starts on Saturday afternoon.
Here’s what we sat in together. Access is agriculture. Every person you let close is planting in you every time you talk. The group chat is planting. The late night vent session is planting. The one who apologizes better than they change is planting.
Write this down: Every person with access to you is planting something you will eventually have to harvest.
“Don’t be misled: You cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (Galatians 6:7, NLT)
Paul doesn’t say you’ll harvest what you intended. He says you’ll harvest what was planted. That’s the whole sermon in one sentence.
This week, name the one relationship producing a harvest you don’t want, and decide what access it loses. Not a list. One name, one access, one decision.
You didn’t pick the crop. You picked the company. The crop came with it.
Watch the Replay
Missed Sunday, or want to hear it again?
👉 Watch “You Reap Whoever You Keep” on YouTube
Go deeper: Unlocking The Boat
If Sunday named a person you’ve been protecting, don’t let the conviction fade by Tuesday. Unlocking The Boat walks you through deciding what access comes down and how to hold the line once you’ve said it out loud.
👉 Unlocking The Boat
Text these numbers, get help before the next 11:47 PM text
Every keyword below is fixed and live on our premium number, 33777. One text, one email, no duplicates.
MARSHILL — the Second Chance Starter Kit. Short, practical, made for the exact week you’re in if you’re starting over from anything.
NOTES — the F.A.I.T.H. Plan. The framework behind the podcast, condensed to one page you can actually use.
MHPRAY — 5 Prayers You’ve Been Avoiding. Prayers for the conversation you keep rehearsing in the shower and never say out loud.
MHGIVE — give straight from your phone. Text it once and you’ll get the full link. Text it again later and you’ll get a quick one-line shortcut, no need to sit through the intro twice.
All four go to the same number: 33777.
This Sunday: I Cannot Come Down
Sunday, August 9 · 10:30 AM CT
Online only: YouTube
Plan your visit: marshillchicago.org
We’re online only this week. No in-person gathering. We close WHO’S IN YOUR BOAT. Bring the name you’ve been protecting. This one’s for what happens after you name it.
Thank you for holding this house up
Being a hybrid church means we’re doing two things at once. We gather in person in McCook, and we open the doors online to people who may never walk through a physical building but still need a place to belong. That takes prayer, and it takes provision. Your continued prayers cover this ministry. Your continued giving keeps both campuses running so nobody gets left on the shore.
👉 Give here or text MHGIVE to 33777.
Stop planting your future in soil that keeps growing thorns. An empty seat in your boat is not loneliness. It is obedience.
Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.
P.S. Next week: four times they told Nehemiah to come down and talk. Four times he said no. The enemy doesn’t always attack the wall. Sometimes he just keeps calling you off of it. I Cannot Come Down. Week 4, the finale. Same time Sunday.
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