Walls and Gates

I am going to now invite you to join me in the Word of God,

Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 17.

Nehemiah 2:17

We are continuing our series on Arise and Build.

Arise and Build.

Praise God.

And we're reading now from Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 17.

Nehemiah 2:17

This series, which is based on the vision, the theme for the year,

Arise and Build, is based on the book of Nehemiah

and the vision and the plan and the success that God gave this man

in rebuilding and restoring Israel to its glory.

This is what the Word of God says,

Then I said to them,

See, you see the distress that we are in,

How Jerusalem lies waste,

And its gates are burned with fire.

Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem

that we may no longer be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of my God,

which had been good upon me,

and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, so the people said,

Let us rise up and build.

Then they set their hands to do this good work.

With the help of the Holy Ghost,

I want to preach today on the thought,

Walls and Gates, Walls and Gates.

Church, let us pray right now.

Let's ask God to speak to us.

Father, I thank you for your spirit that is in this place today.

Thank you for what you're doing this hour

within the apostolic movement,

within the apostolic church,

God, which we are so blessed to be a part of.

And I pray God that you would speak to us today,

that you would anoint the ears and hearts of every here in this place,

that this word would fall on good ground.

And I pray God that you would anoint my lips of clay

and feel my heart in my mouth with your word.

God, we take authority and we bind every contrary spirit to that of yours,

and we cast it out of this place.

God, confusion, doubt, God, misunderstanding, all of that.

And we just release clarity and understanding and wisdom

in the house of God today.

Let your name be glorified.

Can everyone say amen in Jesus' name?

You may be seated in the presence of God.

The city of Jerusalem was originally surrounded by a wall

that included 10 gates.

But the walls and gates had been reduced to a pile of rubble

as we have been reading and looking at in the story of Nehemiah.

Now, whenever we teach on Nehemiah,

we usually focus on the walls and rightly so.

But I want to inform you today that that's only part of the revival.

That's only half the story.

Gates also need to be restored.

And when Nehemiah went to survey the condition of Jerusalem,

he noted in his own personal journal,

which the book of Nehemiah is actually his personal diary.

It's his journal that he wrote.

And in his journal, he notates his observations

and along with the walls that were destroyed,

he also again and again makes emphasis on the condition of the gates.

So what I want to point out today is that walls and gates

are important to the rebuilding of God's kingdom

or to the rebuilding of his people.

Walls and gates serve two different but equally important purposes.

Walls are important because they keep the wrong people and things out.

Amen.

Gates are also important because they let the right people and things in.

Amen.

In my experience, people and churches as a whole tend to lean.

There's a tendency to lean either one way or the other.

They're either all walls or they're all gates.

People either tend to have massive walls, great big fortified walls,

and tiny little gates, leaving them isolated from people,

from evangelism, from relationships and outreach,

or on the other end they have massive gates but tiny little walls,

leaving them exposed.

Yes, they may love people and be socially inclined and inclined to talk to others

and have massive gates but because they have such tiny walls,

they're exposed and spiritually weak.

Now I want to tell you today that neither extreme is right.

We need both walls and gates if we are to build the kind of church

that God wants in this hour.

I want to tell you something church that without walls,

we'll never grow up.

That's the case.

We need walls if we're going to grow stronger and if we're going to grow upward towards God.

If we're going to fulfill the first and the greatest commandment,

which is to love the Lord, our God, with all of our hearts, our souls,

and our strength and our mind, then we need strong walls.

Someone's saying amen for that.

Gotta have strong walls.

Without walls, we won't grow up.

But without gates, we won't grow out.

So without walls, we won't be able to love God successfully,

but without gates, we won't be able to love our neighbors as ourselves successfully.

And this gives us a picture of what Jesus commanded us to do.

The first and greatest commandment, you shall love the Lord your God.

Have some strong walls that lead upward to God,

but also the second, which is just as important, to love your neighbor as yourself.

So what I've come today to preach is that as we reach up,

we need to reach out. Somebody say amen today.

We cannot do one without the other.

We cannot be all about reaching out that we don't reach up,

and we can't be all about reaching up that we don't reach out.

We need walls and gates in the church.

Amen. We need walls and gates in our families.

Amen. We need walls and gates in our marriages.

We need walls and gates in our personal lives.

We cannot be all walls and we cannot be all gates.

We've got to have both to be the fortified city,

the functional city that God has called us to be,

a city on a hill that is full of light and glory.

Amen. Somebody.

So our text today picks up towards the end of Nehemiah chapter two.

And just for a moment, I want to paint the picture of the experience,

the spiritual experience that Nehemiah has

as he embarks upon this vision, this calling that God has given him.

And then towards the end of Nehemiah chapter two,

it describes his journey from his palace to Jerusalem,

where he began to survey the damage and assess the situation.

He got boots on the ground to look up close and personal at ground zero

to see exactly what was going on.

No different than when a world leader such as the president of the United States

will visit the site of a hurricane or even 9-11 when President Bush

went to ground zero to get a firsthand picture of the condition of what has taken place.

Nehemiah does the same, but in verse 13,

he writes about how he proceeded to look at where things were at.

He writes how he started his inspection by entering through the Valley Gate.

You can read it on your own, Nehemiah 2 and verse 13.

He mentions the name of the gate that he starts his survey, the Valley Gate.

Everyone say Valley.

And this was located on the southeastern end of the city.

Now, I meant to get a picture and I failed to do it, so I apologize,

but you can look at an old map of the city of Jerusalem, an old Jerusalem map,

and you will see that there are 12 gates throughout the city.

And the gate where he was was on the furthest southern western side.

And it was the furthest gate from all the other gates.

It was kind of by itself an isolator or desolate, and this is where he was.

And the Valley Gate was the name of that gate.

As the name implies, the Valley Gate, it was facing a deep and narrow valley,

a valley that was called Himnon.

And this valley is interesting because the name Himnon means wailing or crying.

So I want you to picture in your mind, in the mind of the Spirit,

that this is where Nehemiah begins to assess the need for the rebuilding.

He enters through the Valley Gate, a valley that is connected to wailing and brokenness.

And through that Valley Gate, this is all significant.

We see a picture of the spiritual journey that we are called to go through.

It is very hard for anybody to get a full grasp or a fully internalized

and fully owned what God is calling us to do

and make the mission of Christ and the mission of the church personal

and real in our lives unless you go through what Nehemiah went through, which was a Valley Gate.

He felt in his depth of his being.

He felt in the core of his spirit this present need that existed in front of him.

And I feel like it was symbolic, it was emblematic of the condition of Jerusalem at that time.

And through the Valley Gate, it shows us that if we're ever going to make the kind of impact

that God wants to do, not only in our lives and in our families and our homes

and then those that we're called to reach, we're going to have to go through a valley.

We're going to have to experience and feel what God feels

and go through the steps from heaviness to healing and from brokenness to blessedness

and start in the Valley, but work your way towards where God is calling us to make an impact.

Every, can I tell you, every revival, every miracle, every testimony starts in the Valley.

It starts in a place where God can speak to you. Oh, hallelujah.

It starts in a place where God can deal with you.

It starts in a place where God can get ahold of you.

I need somebody today for God to get ahold of your heart and God get ahold of your spirit

and go through the Valley Gate.

Can you clap your hands and give the Lord some praise today?

Oh, he didn't start in other prestigious gates.

There were better gates that probably he could have started, more symbolic gates,

but he went through the Valley Gate and it shows me that the greatest revivals that God does

always starts in the least expected places.

Oh, God always starts in places you never think he would start.

God always begins his greatest work in the lowest and the darkest places.

Thank God, because if that's where you are today, you're St. Pastor, I'm in the Valley.

I've got good news for you.

God's getting ready to show you something powerful.

God's getting ready to do something in your life.

Somebody ought to give God some praise today.

Oh, I feel something in my spirit today.

Somebody say preach.

I want to preach today if that's all right.

And he was in the Valley.

And through the Valley is where Nehemiah viewed the broken walls.

You'll never see and internalize and personalize that what God wants you to do

if you don't go through that valley and if you don't go through that testing

and feel it in your heart.

And that's where he viewed the broken walls and the burned down gates of his city.

And then he boldly declared in verse 17 of Nehemiah chapter 2, he said,

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

come let us build, let us build this place back to where it needs to be.

And the first thing he did was build the wall.

Someone say walls.

He built a wall.

He built a wall.

You know, I've only got two points today.

I wonder if you can guess where they are.

We need walls and we need gates.

Amen.

But he first built the wall.

It starts with the walls.

The walls are essential and walls are important and they serve a variety of purposes.

But there are two that I'd like to point out today.

The first purpose of a wall is for protection.

Someone say protection.

Amen.

We need spiritual walls.

Amen.

For protection.

Amen.

Both in Bible times and in present day situations.

A city without walls is vulnerable and defenseless.

It is weak and it is exposed.

And in the case of ancient Jerusalem, walls provided a physical barrier between the people of God and the enemies of God.

They needed walls to protect that which was sacred, that which was precious,

not just the temple and the things of God, but their homes and their families.

They needed this wall and Nehemiah's heart broke over the condition of the walls.

Why?

Because it was symbolic of the lack of protection and the lack of barriers that God's people needed.

It was symbolic of a nation with no spiritual protection or covering.

And he knew that if these people are going to preserve their future, they needed to build a wall.

Hallelujah.

And that wall had, and so does the church of Jesus Christ.

In the 21st century, the apostolic church has got to have apostolic walls that are built up and fortified.

You need them in the church and you need them in your home and you need them in your marriages and you need them around your children.

My God, I wish I had some help here today.

We need walls.

We've got to have them and the nation of Israel today is not protected by a visible wall like it was thousands of years ago,

but an invisible wall.

Even today, the nation of Israel understands this principle, but they have what is known as the iron dome.

Have you heard of the iron dome?

This is an incredible work of mechanics and technology.

The iron dome is a highly advanced missile defense system that detects and shoots down enemy fire in the sky.

Through a combination of radar, communication and precise counter fire, the iron dome has a 90% success rate of intercepting enemy rockets.

We have probably seen, if you have seen the news in recent times with a war between Israel and these terrorist organizations,

this iron dome has been non-stop and it's intercepting of enemy fire.

This is a recent picture from the war that's been happening over there.

What I saw the iron dome that Israel is using to protect themselves, it's invisible, but it's real.

It made me think about the iron dome that exists over the child of God when they find themselves in the presence of God

and they find themselves in obedience to God.

There is a spiritual iron dome that God, oh my God, my friend, let me tell you we've got an iron dome.

The Psalmist said, he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress.

How many of you are thankful today that you've got protection?

You want to give God some praise right now?

You want to open up your mouth right now?

You want to thank him?

My God and him will I trust?

Come on, let's give him some praise.

How many of you are glad you've got an iron dome?

And you want to be under that iron dome?

You've got to dwell in the secret place of the most high.

If we're going to have sustained revival and growth that we need to be and find ourselves some spiritual walls,

we've got to build some spiritual walls around our lives, our marriages, our families and our ministries,

or else those rockets at the enemy, those fiery darts the enemy is sending our way.

We'll be able to penetrate our hearts and our lives in our churches, but the devil is a liar.

We've got protection in the name of Jesus.

And the second person or excuse me, the second purpose of a wall is separation.

Everybody say separation.

Amen.

Separation.

The wall is a line of distinction.

It is a border.

It is a contrast between the people of God and the outside world.

You see, without this wall, there is no separation.

There is no distinction between those that are in the city and those that are outside of the city.

And in many cases, even today, even in a modern day context, if there is no border in a country, then there is no country.

If there is no border, there is no nation.

It is impossible to maintain the identity, the culture and the values of a nation without a proper border.

And I'm here to tell you that it's the same in the spirit.

If we don't have a spiritual border, then we don't have a church.

We've got to have a line of distinction between that which is of the world and that which is not.

Can I hear an amen today?

If there is no separation, there is no salvation.

If there is no border, then there is no difference between who we are and who they are.

But I remember what the Bible says that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous life.

Come on and help me out here today.

I remember that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, his own peculiar people.

We are not like everybody else. Hallelujah!

We've got some spiritual walls that we've got in our lives.

Amen, somebody, and we are called to build these in our life.

We are called by God in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17.

2 Corinthians 6:17

He says, come out from among them and be separate.

He says, you've got to be separate. You've got to be separate, separate.

There's got to be walls.

This is the definition of holiness.

To be holy is to be separated and set apart unto God.

We heard a little bit about that in our midweek Bible study this week.

Brother Marni was talking about holiness and separation.

And this is exactly what it looks like. There is a wall.

There is a border of distinction between us.

And if we're going to have sustained revival, and if we're going to have God-honoring revival,

and if we're going to have healthy growth, and we're going to see great victories,

and miracle signs and wonders, then we have to have a wall.

And I know that there are people, look, I'm going to talk about gates in just a moment.

And there are a lot of Christians, you know what, they want all gates and no walls.

They want all gates and no walls.

I'm going to preach about gates in a moment.

But let me just ask you all gates people a question.

What do you think those gates are swinging on?

What do you think those gates are? What's holding up those gates?

I'll tell you what's holding up the gates, the walls.

Oh my God. And our gates will only be as strong as our walls.

And as long as we don't compromise our walls, then we can have as big a gate as we want, brother.

Oh, I feel something in my spirit today.

Don't tell me that we have to sacrifice our walls so we can have bigger gates.

I'm telling you, as long as we've got strong gates or strong walls, we can have strong gates.

But how do we build these walls?

Before I move on, let me suggest what I believe through my understanding of Scripture and how God works.

The most powerful tool for building up the walls in our life.

I'll tell you what it is.

And I'll show it to you through a reverse example.

What do I mean by that?

Let me give you a reverse example of the power of building and tearing down walls.

A reverse example looks like the people of God, the children of Israel, when they stepped into the land of Canaan.

My God, I want to preach this so bad.

They stepped into the land of Canaan.

And their first city they were going to conquer was Jericho.

And they went around Jericho.

Remember the story?

And they marched around it just as God said.

But then it was through the power of their voice when God says, open up your mouth and shout.

That's when the walls came down.

So the Holy Ghost began to speak to me, brother.

He said, if this same voice can tear the walls down, it can build the walls up.

If you don't believe me, the Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue.

And there's somebody here today, you've got to learn how to open up your mouth and declare what God says of the Lord.

Somebody ought to give God some praise today.

Somebody ought to thank Him.

Open up your mouth, brother.

If the walls can come down with our voice, they can be built up.

You build the walls in your family every time you speak the Word of God, every time you declare the goodness of God,

every time you open up your mouth and worship and praise and adoration unto God, you know what you're doing.

You're building up the walls, my God.

Every time you speak the name of Jesus in prayer, you're building up the walls.

Every time you declare, my God, His Word in your family, you're building up the walls.

We've got to build the walls.

Someone say, build it.

Build those walls.

And we build it by speaking the Word.

And how does faith come?

Faith come by hearing the Word of God.

So if you want to build faith, I'll hear me, husbands and fathers, mothers and wives.

Speak the Word of God into your children.

Speak the Word of God into your home.

Speak the Word of God into your marriage.

Speak the Word of God on the workplace.

Speak the Word of God to yourself and watch how those walls will begin to be built up in your life.

That the enemy won't know what to do without walls.

We are like Proverbs 25 and verse 28 says, whoever has no rules over his spirit is like a city with broken down.

It's like a city broken down without walls.

If we don't have walls, we'll eventually not have a city at all.

If we don't have walls, we won't have a family at all.

If we don't have walls, we won't have a ministry at all.

If we don't have walls, we don't have a church or a platform at all.

It's our walls that give us our stability.

Amen, somebody.

But if we build the walls, the Lord showed me this verse in Isaiah 60, 18.

If we build the walls, violence shall no longer be heard in your land.

Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders.

But you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise.

Clap your hands and give the Lord some praise today.

Hallelujah, somebody shout, hallelujah.

Not only were the walls of Jerusalem broken down, but its gates were burned with fire.

They had no gates anymore.

So Nehemiah specifically asked the king in chapter 2 and verse 8,

a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make the beams for the gates of the citadel.

He said, king, I can't just go over there and build walls.

God's called me to build gates.

And I've got to see the keeper of the forest.

God give me another message.

I'm going to preach it someday about the keeper of the forest.

But I just imagined that Asaph, all his life, never knew that one day the man of God was going to show up at his place

and ask for the thing that he had been working and planting and building up.

Oh, that's another message right there.

You never know when God's going to call your number.

I want you to be ready.

My God, hallelujah.

Don't go steal my message, brother. I'm going to preach it one day.

And he says, give me, I need access to the trees because we have to build the gates.

Someone say the gates.

Let me spend the remainder of my time talking about the gates in the biblical era.

Nehemiah was living in, the gates were important.

They were significant.

They were so significant.

This itself is a message all by itself.

They were significant cross sections in the culture.

They were central.

Gates were central to moving society forward, often serving as strategic middle ground for business transactions,

marriage arrangements, as it was with Boaz and Ruth.

And other weighty matters which had to be judged were done at the gates of the city.

In other words, words, worlds, I should say, lives and fortunes and destinies were changed or could be changed at the gates.

The gates represented life turnaround.

The gates represented where the decision could change someone's future.

The gates oftentimes were also where wars would break out.

This was a strategic place.

Jerusalem's gates in particular were not only for entering the protection of the city,

but also as a worshiper to enter to the presence of the Lord.

These gates were important.

And just as critical for this, just as critical as it is for the city to have walls,

to keep the bad guys and the bad stuff out.

It also was critical to have gates to let the right people in.

Those that were seeking refuge, those that were seeking safety,

those that were running to the strong tower in order to be saved.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower, amen?

And the righteous run in and are saved.

My question is, who's letting them in?

You've got to have gates to let these in.

So my question to you today is how are your gates?

Are you all walls?

Huh? And no gates?

You need gates in your life to connect with the right people.

Amen.

To connect with the right people, to let them in.

You need gates to socialize, to network, to evangelize, to witness to people.

Gates are all about our horizontal relationships.

And there are so many ways you can take and apply this to your life.

Primarily I'm looking at this just through the lenses of evangelism, of outreach,

but you can apply this to all human interactions and relationships

that God wants to give us, or that would be healthy and good.

But walls without gates, you know what those are called? Castles.

Hey, hey, hey man.

You know, there are some.

Did you know, did you know there are castle Christians?

They're protected, but they're isolated.

They're secure, but they're distant.

Hey, my God.

They know how to win arguments, but they don't know how to win people.

God forbid, brother, that we be all walls and no gates.

Hallelujah.

God forbid that we go to heaven, but we don't take anybody with us.

This attitude of having all walls and no gates has consequences

that don't announce themselves immediately, but over time,

we will pay the price for being personally or as a church, all walls and no gates.

This attitude not only shuts out people, but it eventually shuts out God.

You say, well, how is that possible?

May I remind you of the picture that John gave us of Jesus?

Where was he knocking?

Where was he standing?

I wonder how he got there.

Hallelujah.

I wonder how he was standing on the outside knocking.

So don't tell me that as a result of the way we live, our attitude, our action,

that Jesus is not on the outside of trying to get in.

Oh my God.

Now it's going to get quiet on me now.

Amen.

But what good would it be to be all walls and no gates?

Hallelujah.

Even Noah's art had a gate.

It didn't go in, but he preached it.

Amen.

And he welcomed people.

Hallelujah.

So this attitude will eventually shut God out.

So we've got to have gates, openness in our hearts and in our lives,

not only for people, but eventually it's those same gates

that give us a sensitivity to the heart of God.

It's those same gates that make sure that we don't become so fortified,

so inverted, so castle-like that not even God can get in and move in our midst.

No wonder that Psalmist David said these words,

Lift up your head, O you gates,

and be lifted up, you everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in.

Amen.

Oh my God.

Hallelujah.

If we will have opened gates, not only are we opening up ourselves to the right people

and to the right connections and to the right places that people could come

and we can have healthy horizontal connections and relationships with people

for the kingdom purposes, but also so that the glory of God,

he said, Lift up your gates.

Hallelujah.

The Bible says we enter his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise.

We need gates.

We've got to have them.

Maybe your gates, however, have been burned with fire.

I'm almost done.

Maybe your gates have been burned with fire.

Nehemiah, he went, he saw what he had heard, that not only were the walls broken down,

not only were, was there rubble from the walls, but also that the timber of the gates,

the gates had burned down.

You know that gates are easier to burn than walls.

You know why?

Because they're made of wood.

They're made of wood.

And we know that wood burns, right?

You see, when the enemy can't destroy your walls, and the enemy knows this,

do you know the enemy knows that he's not going to get you to reject your walls.

In fact, he's not going to stop you from building your walls.

But if he can burn your gates, you say, well, what does that matter?

So he gets to my gates, and as long as I've got walls, and as long, I'm going to be all right.

But that's not the case, because oftentimes, many times, in military conflict,

if a city loses its gates, eventually it loses its city.

If you don't have the right gates, you lose the city.

He who controls the gates controls the city.

Why?

Because you control what comes in and what goes out.

You can shut it down.

Could it be that some of you might be shutting out the blessings, the opportunities,

the thing that God wants to do, simply because you may have strong walls,

but you haven't repaired the gates.

You haven't repaired.

And then when I saw the wood, I'm giving away my whole message that I'm going to preach one day.

But when I thought about the keeper of the trees, I thought about what did my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, die on?

God, he died on a tree.

What's the cure to rebuilding the gates?

I'll tell you, it's the cross.

It's Jesus.

Oh my God, it's the Lord.

It's Jesus Christ.

He gives us everything we need through the gospel.

Oh Lord, through His love, through His power, through His mercy and His grace,

to rebuild the gates of our lives.

The devil's a liar.

He wants to destroy.

Yes, he wants the walls.

But if you can't get the walls, he's like, well, if I could just shut down their gates.

And some of you, maybe your gates have been burned with disappointment.

People have upset you.

Life has upset you.

Your gates may be burned over delayed or abandoned answers and life goals.

Your gates may be burned over people burning you and stabbing you in the back.

Your gates might be burned.

Oh my God, I just feel like a ministry to somebody right now.

Your gates might be burned for putting yourself out there and not being valued enough.

Your gates might be burned for trying and failing and just going back to what you're used to.

Your gates might be burned because you don't know if you have what it takes.

But I've come to tell you that God wants to restore the walls, my God, and the gates.

This is why I love where God has taken us as a church.

And I'm going a little over my time here.

But listen, this is why I love because in our city groups and our new school of discipleship that's coming,

it's going to serve both purposes in building walls and building gates.

Our school of discipleship, for those of you who want to be disciples, re-disciples.

I mean, everybody is welcome to join this.

You, we're going to strengthen the walls.

We're going to build up those walls.

We're not just going to build walls in our school of discipleship.

We're going to show you how to build gates so that we can reach others for Christ.

And then in our city groups, we're going to do the same.

We're going to, we're going to build walls.

Why? Because we're strengthening as iron sharpens iron.

We're building each other up, edifying one another with prayer in the word.

But we're also building gates because we want to reach others and welcome them in to the love of God.

Would you stand with me here today?

Let me show you something as you're standing.

The Lord showed me this because I started thinking more about these walls and gates.

I said, Lord, why is this important?

I mean, Nehemiah, that's an old book, God.

We don't live in those times anymore.

Is it really relevant anymore?

What Nehemiah did?

I mean, an old ancient wall with gates.

I mean, God, we're in the 21st century.

How is that relevant today?

And then the Lord took me to Revelation and he said, no, no, no, no, you son.

This is how God talks to me.

You son, you got, I'm not just talking about, you're thinking I'm talking about the old Jerusalem.

No, no, no, no, you need to preach this because I'm preparing my people for the new Jerusalem.

And then the Lord showed me, put the scripture brother, then the Lord showed me what John saw when he saw that city come down from heaven.

And he described this celestial city.

Oh my God, who's builder and maker is God.

And he writes this and he says in Revelation 21, 12, it's not there for the, there he goes.

He says this, this is what he saw in the new Jerusalem, the new destiny, the forever home of God's people.

He writes and she had a great and high wall.

How many of you see the wall there?

Amen.

Y'all see the wall?

And what else does it have?

And gates.

God showed me we've got to build walls and gates here because that's what our eternity is going to look like when we get there.

This is what the church ought to look like.

Oh my God, hallelujah.

Somebody give God some praise today.

This is a picture of our eternal home.

This is where we are headed.

This is our destiny.

And I believe today that if we would give our hearts to God right there where you are,

I'm going to invite you if you just begin to pray with me.

I feel the spirit of God moving in this house today.

Oh, I feel something.

I felt it from the moment that I stepped into this house.

I felt it from the moment that I drove into the parking lot.

Something was calling to me.

I felt an anointing.

I felt something moving in my spirit.

And I felt like God was wanting to do something here today.

God wants us to be a people of walls and gates.

But we need to offer ourselves to God today.

We need to render ourselves to God today.

We need to, oh, hallelujah, present ourselves to God today.

A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service.

We need to come before God with an open heart.

We need to come before God and assess the condition of our walls and our gates.

And say, Lord, have your way in me, God, so that we can have greater revival.

I'm asking for somebody to pray with me right now.

I feel the spirit of the Lord here today.

I feel God is raising up the walls so that he can put up the gates.

And I want those gates to be great gates.

Oh, my God, I want them to be powerful gates.

But it starts right here.

Somebody build up those walls today to heaven.

Somebody lift up that name today.

Somebody worship and exalt that name right now.

The name that is above all names.

The name that has his name every knee shall bow.

Every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

He is the God of this city.

He's the God of the New Jerusalem.

He's the God of city light.

He's the God of your life.

He and he is worthy to be praised.