Back To the Water Gate

A wind-blown 4 a.m. wake-up, a providentially untouched job site, and a pastor’s overflowing gratitude set the stage for today’s message: Back to the Water Gate from Nehemiah 8. After seventy years of exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, Ezra stood before men, women, and children to read the Law at the Water Gate during the Feast of Trumpets. As the people listened, they stood, lifted their hands, fell in worship, wept under conviction, and were urged to rejoice—because the joy of the Lord is their strength. Here we explore why worship begins with the Word, how the Levites helped the people understand, and how God used a season of loss and rebuilding to restore identity, unity, and joy.

The Water Gate pictures what Scripture does for us: it refreshes and it cleanses. This message calls us to trade Babylon’s identity for God’s, to bring the Word into our homes, to raise children in truth, and to repent where we’ve compromised. Don’t just play church—let the Word convict, comfort, and change you. Open your Bible to Nehemiah 8, remember God’s faithfulness from the wilderness to the feasts, and meet Him in the “valley” where growth happens because the stream still flows. Watch to be stirred back to the place of the Word, worship, and wholehearted obedience—and to find the strength, clarity, and cleansing you’ve been longing for.