|
Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday the rain came down hard enough to leave empty seats in McCook. Some of you looked out the window at 9:45 and made the call. I understand. But ask anybody who came, or anybody who logged on from the couch, and they’ll tell you the same thing. The Spirit of the Lord was in that room. The rain thinned the crowd. It did not thin the presence. One church, two campuses, one family. Wet shoes or house slippers, you were part of it. CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 3: IT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR A REASONSomebody said it to you in a hospital hallway. Or at the repast, holding a paper plate. Everything happens for a reason. They meant well. And that one sentence kept you quiet about your grief for three years. Sunday we checked the source. That sentence is not in your Bible. What is in your Bible says something harder, and better. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28, NLT) Read it slow. Everything works together for good. It never says everything is good. And verse 29 tells you exactly what good He means: being shaped into the likeness of His Son. Not a better outcome. A deeper you. Joseph got this right. He looked at the brothers who threw him in a pit and sold him, and he said, you intended to harm me. He never renamed it. He left the evil labeled evil and still gave God the credit for what came out the other side. Write this down: Redemption does not require us to call the wound good. Your practice this week: pick one loss. Not all of them. One. Give it five uninterrupted minutes and tell God the truth about it without softening it and without explaining it. Then stop hunting for the reason for seven days. When your mind goes looking, say one sentence out loud: God, I’m not asking You why anymore. I’m asking You to redeem it. Watch the ReplayStayed home because of the rain? This is your seat. Pull it up tonight with your Bible open to Romans 8. 👉 Watch “IT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR A REASON” on YouTube Go deeper: The 5-Day Devotional and the Sermon Application GuideSunday lasts about thirty minutes. Your week lasts 168 hours. Most of what you hear on Sunday is gone by Tuesday lunch. Not because you didn’t care. Because nothing carried it into Monday. That’s the job of these two tools. The 5-Day Devotional. Five days of Scripture and prayer built on Sunday’s message. Read it before you open your email, before anybody else gets a vote on your day. The Sermon Application Guide. This is where the message stops being something you heard and becomes something you did. One verse and one move per day, straight off Sunday’s text. Use one. Use both. Just don’t let Sunday die in the parking lot. 👉 Get the 5-Day Devotional and Application Guide Save the Date: Reconnect Starts October 11Be honest about where you are. You still believe. You still watch on Sunday. But somewhere this year your prayers got shorter than the drive thru line, your Bible became an app you haven’t opened since spring, and the last time somebody asked how you were really doing, you said “blessed” and changed the subject. That’s not a faith problem. It’s a connection problem. And connection does not come back by accident. Reconnect is a six-week Life Group reset starting Sunday, October 11. Each Sunday message sets the theme. Your group talks it through, practices it together, and every person walks out with one challenge for the week. ⓵ Reconnect with God, October 11 Three ways in, so nobody gets left on the outside: In person. A real room, real people, one table. You don’t need to have it figured out. You need to show up honest and take one next step. 👉 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 we’ll place you before launch. This SundayCHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 4: IF IT’S GOD IT WILL BE EASY IS A LIE You already signed something. A lease. A resignation letter. A text you can’t unsend. You signed it because you were sure. Then the money didn’t come, and the first thing that cracked wasn’t your circumstances. It was whether God talks to you at all. Or you’re the other one. You did hear from God. You started. It got expensive, and you quit at month four because somebody told you if it’s God, it flows. Sunday we take apart three sayings that are all over your feed and nowhere in your Bible. God is about to fund the move He told you to make. Speak it into existence. If it’s God’s will, it will be easy. Then we’ll read the one sentence where Paul puts a wide open door and a crowd of opponents in the same breath. And he stayed. Online only this Sunday, September 27, 10:30 AM Central. Bring the one decision you’ve been calling God’s will. Pick your screen: 👉 Website: marshillchicago.org Thank you for holding this house upRain doesn’t cancel church, and it doesn’t cancel what it takes to keep the stream live for the family member watching from a hospital bed, a job site, or a kitchen table three states away. This 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 provision keep both of them open. Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777. Here’s where I’ll leave you. The rain didn’t stop God on Sunday. Don’t let a slow week stop what He started in you. Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr. P.S. If you know somebody who just signed something big because they were “sure,” forward this before Sunday. Four honest tests cost a lot less than one long regret. A word from this week’s sponsor This letter lands in your inbox free, and part of what keeps it that way is the sponsor below. This week it’s 1440, a daily news brief built for people who want to stay informed without losing their morning to it. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. |
You were sure. God wasn’t talking.
