Dove World Outreach Center

Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. Nehemiah 3:1

Then the high priest arose, they did it, they obeyed. I don’t think Nehemiah had a bunch of money here, I don’t think. Because he could not even afford to buy his lumber. He had to get his lumber from the King. He had no money, but all these people worked there for him. He had a lot of volunteer workers! I mean, he is not paying them. There is nothing wrong with getting payed. Everyone needs money, but I am sure they were not getting paid. 

It says he arose with his brothers. He brought his family along. If you are here you need to get involved and get other people to be here. If you have brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and Grandma, they need to be here, they need to be involved. The High Priest called the family up. He said you need to be a part of this. Nehemiah has a plan. He is going to rebuild Jerusalem and we need to be a part of this. So get on the plane, get in the car, catch a cab, get on the Greyhound, get on down and be a part of this. 

They consecrated the wall to the towers. Consecrated. The church needs to be consecrated. That means to be set apart. Now to be set apart, that means you stand out. If you are set apart, then you are different. The church needs to be different. One of our greatest sins is that the church has become like everybody else. The church does their marketing plan. But what do they say about us? The Alligator said what we do is right, actually. Actually, what we preach is right, that is true. They just have a poor marketing plan. They don’t know how to sell their goods. 

The church has been reduced not to just preaching the Gospel, not to looking at the Word of God, not to saying what the Word of God says, but the church has been reduced to the best marketing plan. What is the best thing to say to get people to come and to stay? What is the best way to act? What is the best thing to wear? Nowadays ties are out. Nowadays the cool thing is to preach with no tie, and wear one of those T Shirts with all the weird designs all over it. I mean, sooner or later, not long from now, I am going to be almost 60 years old, and I don’t care if it is good marketing or not, I am not going to act like some kid. 

I am not going to try to act and please and dress so you’re happy, so I somehow fit in and I am cool. I thought we were in the church. I thought this was Christianity. I thought our basis was not ties and fancy shirts and T Shirts. I though it was the Word of God. I thought that was our marketing plan, to preach the truth and the Word of God. 

Consecrated, to be set apart, to be dedicated. Dedicated? What does that mean? It means dedicated. The other day someone told me about a guy they saw, he was carrying around a whiskey bottle this big (big!) and it was already half empty, and he was going to finish it off. Do you know what I would call that? That is a dedicated person. I mean, that is a dedicated drinker. You have to exercise that! You’ve got to try. You’ve got to do that a lot. You have to be a dedicated person to drink a gallon of whiskey. 

the Bible says we have to be dedicated. If you are going to be the best in the world, you have to be dedicated. If you are going to be the best golf player, or baseball player, or the smartest person. There is always natural ability that plays in there, but that is not enough. You have to be dedicated. There is the calling of God there. that we obviously have. But that is not enough. It is not enough that I am called, that Pastor Sylvia is called. It is not enough that the church is called.  It’s not enough. 

We have to be dedicated. I have to be dedicated. You have to be dedicated, maybe not to the extent that I am, maybe more is expected of us, but you still must be dedicated. Consecrated means dedicated to God. That is a determination, I am going to do it, I am going see it through, I am dedicated.  Dedicated is not a job. Dedicated is dedicated. Dedicated is whatever it takes, however long it takes, however much it takes, count me in, I’m there. I’m dedicated. I am going to keep going till the bottle is empty.

Dedicated to some purpose. Most people are dedicated to some purpose, most people are dedicated to themselves - obviously not totally wrong, because God created us, he loves us, he is concerned about us, he wants us to have a good life, wants us to enjoy life, but we have possibly gone too far. We must be dedicated to not only that purpose of our well being, which is also good. That is why we exercise, eat properly, take care of ourselves, quit smoking. We do that because we want to live. But we also should be dedicated to God, to the church, to God, to God’s plan. we should be even more dedicated to that, consecrated, dedicated to THE purpose, the purpose of the Kingdom.