The Lord wants us to work in team. Marriages and leadership must work in team, says the Lord. Those who are employed by people must work in team. At the end of the Book it says we win—but the question we need to ask is, “Are you prepared to play on the team?” Isaiah 6 says, “Here am I, send me, I’m available.”
God is doing a process of restoration in the Church. He wants to restore some truths, massage some old truth into us and ask us this question, “Are you prepared to stand in the gap in the wall?” Are you prepared to play your part (because two are better than one)? As a team, are we going to play this thing together? The team always wins—that’s the wonderful part—but are we prepared to play on that team? That is a most important question at this time. In Nehemiah we see the phrase, “Next to him.” It’s “Next to him, … and next to him, … and next to him.” The people worked together, shoulder to shoulder.
But what is this team working on? We are going to study the ten gates in the book of Nehemiah and see some of the ways in which we can apply this to ourselves today.
- The Sheep Gate
- The Fish Gate
- The Old Gate
- The Valley Gate
- The Dung Gate
- The Fountain Gate
- The Water Gate
- The Horse Gate
- The East Gate
- The Inspection Gate
We want to see these things lived out in the life of the church, in team, together, with the rest of the people from the church. Do we want to be part of the team or are we just going to keep coming here Sunday after Sunday as spectators? God is saying, “No ways, I want everyone to play their part.” Now the next question to ask yourself is, “What part can I play in this local church?”
God wants us knitted in, and part of the restoration process is that everybody understands that God has called us to play in team and that our contribution is vital. We don’t want to see our church as 95% strong with 5% who have chosen not to play in the team—because when the enemy comes he will go straight through “the hole in the wall” (we need to build the entire wall—the wall that contains the gates we are going to study). We build the wall for the day of battle of the Lord, not so that it looks nice: God has given us something to work with—it’s going to be inspirational, it’s going to be exciting, line upon line, a restoration of truth.
PDF Book – Rebuilding the Gates
