Working Down at The Dung Gate

Church Family: 
Where do you want to be used by God, at the Tower of Ovens or down at the Dung Gate? The Tower of Ovens is most likely along the baker’s street in Jerusalem (Jer. 27:21) where much baking of Israel’s delicacies took place. Or you could serve at the Dung Gate where all the city’s stinky, nasty refuse was carried out and dumped. Or maybe you would like the Fish Gate, or the Sheep Gate or the Horse Gate, all equally difficult in their own way.

In Nehemiah 3, Nehemiah is used by God to unite the people of God to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. God used Nehemiah to call forty groups of God's people to rebuild forty different sections of the wall. Some were called to pleasant places and some were called to difficult places. However, this project was much more than just rebuilding a wall. God called His people to rebuild the wall that protected God’s city, the City of David, the city of Solomon’s Temple, the place where God had “chosen to make His name dwell” (Deut. 12:11, 21). In the Old Testament this is the place where God was worshipped, sacrifices made, sin atoned for, and the presence of God was found. This was a God-sized task that the people of God had been defeated to complete and then just simply ignored God's calling to complete it. This was a most important task that required a uniting of effort and humbling of heart by all His people.

Sometimes God calls you to serve Him at the Tower of Ovens and sometimes he sends you to the Dung Gate. How do you finish the calling of God upon your life when you get the call to the Dung Gate? Well, the answer is simple and yet it can be the most difficult task to carry out. You do your work at the Dung Gate knowing that you are working for the Lord and not for man. Your difficult place of ministry is to make God beautiful and enjoyable and that heart attitude will also make the Dung Gate beautiful and enjoyable for all. The Lord Himself is the One who calls you to work at the Dung Gate and yes He makes His call evident through other people and circumstances. He calls you to be the best Dung Gate worker the world has ever known. And while you do Dung Gate work, you do it with the best of your ability with extreme joy knowing that God has promised you an eternal inheritance. God must be your motivation at the Dung Gate not man. If the difficulties of Dung Gate work start to over power the joy of God's calling, you must remind yourself that God is doing a mighty work in you building your endurance, your character and multiplying your hope to endure whatever the next task may be that God assigns to you (Rom. 5:3-4). “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24).

When God calls you to a difficult place of ministry like the Dung Gate, remember that His purpose is never just for you to work at the Dung Gate. You are serving the Lord Christ. Is God getting glory in your difficult calling? Are you growing in endurance, character and hope?

See you Sunday, at the Tower of Ovens: Steve