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Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday we closed CHECK YOUR SOURCE online, and the Spirit of the Lord was in that room. I felt it on the other side of the screen. If you were there, thank you. If you missed it, keep reading, because I’m not letting you miss what He said. One church, two campuses, one family. CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 5: GOD SAID NOFive Sundays ago we started checking the sources on sentences church people repeat like Scripture. God won’t give you more than you can handle. God helps those who help themselves. Everything happens for a reason. If it’s God, it will be easy. Sunday we took on the last one, and the one underneath all the others: if you have enough faith, you’ll get it. Not one of those is in your Bible. Now you know what God said, and what He never said. Paul begged God three times to take the thorn away. The thorn stayed. Nobody in this house questions Paul’s faith. And God did not go silent on him either. “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.'” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT) Write this down: Faith that only survives yes was never faith at all. Your practice this week: say the no out loud to one trusted person, then keep praying anyway. Not the person who will fix it. The person who will not flinch. Watch the ReplayMissed it, or watched it and need the middle part again? This is your seat. 👉 Watch “GOD SAID NO” on YouTube Go deeper: Your Three Weekly Growth ToolsSunday lasts thirty minutes. Your week lasts 168 hours. By Tuesday lunch, most of what you heard is gone. Not because you didn’t care. Because nothing carried it into Monday. Three tools do the carrying. Every week. Use all three. ⓵ The Spotify Worship Playlist. The worship set from the series, ready for your commute, your kitchen, your 5am. Put it on before you put on the news. 👉 Play the CHECK YOUR SOURCE playlist ⓶ The 5-Day Devotional. Two minutes a day, five days, built on Sunday’s message. Read it before you open anything else on your phone. You’ve spent longer than that on worse. ⓷ The Sermon Application Guide. This is where the message stops being something you heard and becomes something you did. Keep it next to your Bible. 👉 Get the Sermon Application Guide Every message, every week, is also waiting for you at marshillchicago.org/messages. Save the Date: Reconnect Starts Sunday, October 11Five weeks of CHECK YOUR SOURCE cleared out what was false. Now we build with what is true. Here is the honest question. When was the last time you had a real conversation with God? Not a grace before dinner. Not a prayer in the car because you were late. A real one. If you have to think about it, you already know why this exists. Reconnect is a six week Life Group reset. Six Sundays. Six honest conversations. Six next steps small enough to take. The Sunday message sets the theme, your group talks it through and practices it together, and every person leaves with one challenge for the week. ⓵ October 11: Reconnect with God Week 1 asks for ten quiet minutes with God, on three days. Thirty minutes total. You will spend more than that scrolling before you get out of bed. Three ways in, so nobody gets left outside: In person. A real room, real people, one table. You do not need to have it figured out. You need to show up honest and take one next step. And to every Life Group leader who said yes: you are not teaching a second sermon. You are asking good questions and making room. That is the whole job, and it matters more than you know. 👉 Your move today: reply to this email with the word IN. Tell me whether you want an in person group, a virtual group, or the self guided track, and our team will get you placed before Sunday. This Sunday: Our Monthly In-Person GatheringThis is our monthly in-person Sunday. Come to the room in McCook, bring your friends, or come as you are. The same service streams online, so wherever you sit, you are in the house. RECONNECT, Week 1: NO BARS You have not missed church in months. You also cannot remember the last time you talked to God about something real. You didn’t walk away from God. You stopped checking the signal, and now you’re surprised it’s weak. Sunday we open John 15 and look at a vine that stops drawing from the root. It doesn’t die today. It just stops bearing anything worth picking. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, NLT) Sunday, October 11, 10:30 AM Central. In person at 7941 47th Street, McCook, Illinois, and online at the same time. Pick your screen: 👉 Website: marshillchicago.org Thank you for holding this house upThis is a hybrid church with two campuses: the room in McCook and the campus that’s wherever you’re sitting right now. Your prayers and your giving keep both of them open. Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777. Here’s where I’ll leave you. The lies are checked. The thorn is in the light. Now go reconnect with the One who never needed you to earn a stronger signal. See you Sunday. Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr. P.S. Know somebody who drifted quiet with God and is too embarrassed to say it? Forward this to them. They don’t need a lecture. They need a seat at the table on Sunday. A word from this week’s sponsor This week’s sponsor is my own Substack. I write there for people carrying real weight: leaders, builders, and professionals who want faith that holds up on a Monday morning. No theory. Straight talk from someone who has survived what I write about. Take ten seconds and see what’s there.
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Now you know what God said. And what He didn’t.
