Lord of revival, restoration

 THE METHODIST CHURCH IN ZIMBABWE.

45TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

SERMON 

READING: PSALM 85:6 "Will you not revive us again, That your people may rejoice in you? Show us your mercy, Lord, And grant us your salvation"

JOEL: 2:25 "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter. The great army sent among you".

THEME: THE LORD OF REVIVAL AND RESTORATION. 

INTRODUCTION. 

1. Most Bible Interpreters are in agreement that Psalm 85 was written soon after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. 

2. The Psalmist felt that God had been very favourable and gracious to His people, and while considering the goodness of the Lord in restoring them to the land, he breaks out in prayer for revival of spiritual power among them.

3. They returned to a ruined city, a fallen Temple, and a mourning land, where they were surrounded by jealous and powerful enemies. The enemies and adversaries didn't want them rebuild Jerusalem. 

4. After God's people returned  from the Babylonian captivity they were suffering new afflictions and new threats.

5. Thy cried to God in prayer and what they cried for is that they maybe revived. "Will you not revive us again: -This is a simple and wonderful prayer for revival.

6. The prayer recognizes that revival is not man-made, but given by God. Yet it also recognizes that one may and should pray for revival, and pray with godly expectation.

7. The prayer for revival implies that the people who were alive once; have died in a spiritual sense, and now need to be given spiritual life again. And so how do we define revival?

WHAT IS REVIVAL?

1. Revival is re-awakening and re-igniting the flames that are dying. The flames which fuel the Mission of God, the Flame of the Holy Spirit within the church. The Holy Spirit who is the way paver, the voice that says to the church, "Here is the way and the path of God, walk in it".

2. Revival is a spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy or stagnation in the life of the church, especially when the goal is simply perpetuating the past and when stagnation is interpreted as stability. 

3. It encompasses the resurfacing of a love for God, an appreciation of God's holiness, a passion for His Word, and His Church, a convicting awareness of personal and corporate sin, a spirit of humility, and a desire for repentance and growth in righteousness.

4. Revival invigorates and sometimes deepens a believer's faith, opening our eyes to the truth in a fresh, new way.

5. Revival generally involves the connotation of a fresh start with a clean slate, marking a new beginning. 

6. We are not only crying for revival but for restoration as well.

WHAT IS RESTORATION?

1. Restoration is taking something that has left its place, dusting or cleaning it off and putting it back where it belongs.

2. The assumption is that the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe starting from this Conference should ask God to help us correct perceived shortcomings of the current church.

3. The shortcomings may seem to fulfil John Wesley's prophecy that this church may continue to exist but without power.

4. In Joel 2:25, God promised to restore the years eaten by locusts. But lost years can never be restored literally. Time once past is gone for ever. The locusts did not eat the years but ate the fruits of the years' labour, the harvests of the fields.

5. Methodist Church in Zimbabwe cannot have its time back but God can give back wasted blessings. 

6. There is power to restore which is beyond all things. No man, by wisdom or power, can recover what has been utterly destroyed. God alone can do for us what seems impossible. 

-We sit in this Conference to seek His face and not to display our thinking capacity or exhibit our eloquence in speeches. But to say Lord without you we are nothing and even our wisdom is folly without you.

- Who will deny that this Conference has sharp minds, who will deny that there are many delegates endowed with wisdom, who will deny that we have a perfect strategic plan but with all these, our productivity is questionable.

7. The locust has eaten our Stipends, our SAMU, our healing power, our integrity, our oneness, our moral life. We plough and sow but reap nothing. 

8. We pray for the restoration of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe. 

APPLICATION 

1. Apart from the challenges they were encountering on their return from Exile, the Jews were aware that their relationship with God was disturbed in Babylon especially through intermarriages and idol worship. Their return was mercifully provided by God not that they deserved but that God wanted to remain faithful to His promises. 

2. For the past two years we were literally in Babylon and our Nebuchadnezzar was COVID-19.  

3. Our faith was shaken.

4. It was in Babylon where prophetic utterances about the future were vehemently announced and so the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe in its captivity in 2021 prophetically raised a theme for 2023, "The Lord of Revival and Restoration ". 

5. God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us to revival in a number of situations. 

6. We cannot be the same after passing through the fire of COVID-19 so we need to rise with new strength and new determination to worship our God who has gone through the waters with us. A higher level of gratitude must be shown.

THE CONTEXT OF PSALM 85.

1. The context of Psalm 85, tells us when to pray for revival:-

a) We should pray for revival when we remember the great things God has done in the past and when those things are no longer happening in our day. 85:1-3.

- It's up to this Conference to remember those things or not.

b) The prophet Habakkuk says (3v2) "Oh Lord I have heard what you have done, and I am filled with awe. Now do again in our times the great deeds you used to do. Be merciful even when you are angry".

c) How we wish the coming back of those days when MCU would embark on MBUSERERE, preach the Gospel, heal the sick, drive out demons and would leave an offering each time they meet a demanding situation and sinners would follow them back to church. Where are these MCUs? The locust ate them.

# When we extinguish the fire of the Gospel, sin finds its place. And sin takes away the anointing.

d) How we wish the coming back of a rare breed of Ruwadzano Manyano women who would sing and the Holy Spirit would come down. Where are they? Havachadhakwi naMweya Mutsvene asi newine as they frequent evil parties of our day.

e) We desire the coming back of Easter revivals when the youths would dramatise the crucifixion of Jesus and the congregation would shed Holy tears because the youths of those days persued holiness and could touch hearts of men and women.

f) We should pray for revival when we sense we are under a cloud of divine displeasure or an evident lack of blessing. 85:4-6

g) We should pray for revival when we realise that the whole business of Conference is on how much money did we raise and how much did we save instead of discussing who was saved.

SITUATIONS 

1. We need a revival starting from this Conference and it starts by acknowledging that we are no longer in the rightful place and that we need to repent. 

* We need to accept that we no longer stand as a bearer of God's light and as the salt that seasons the world.

* We must acknowledge that we are a source of dishonour and a causer of pain where we must be a healing balm.

2. We need a revival because the people of faith are being secularised by the world and so many of the people of faith now believe that the Bible has errors. Revival should start within Ministers because our belief in the completeness and holiness of the Bible is no more. The Ministers who should defend the inerrancy of the Bible are the very people telling our congregants that the Bible has errors. 

* We need a revival especially when clergy is so learned and there is nothing bad about being learned but that we become Bible Doctrine Experts and not have spiritual illumination. We become Bible students and scholars and not Bible believers.

3. Who can deny a revival in the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe when church politics is so dirty and wicked without any difference to that in the world. And the dirty politics is exacerbated by the increase of moral decadence and growth of carnality even among clergy to the extend that Ministers Retreats which should attract blessings are gatherings to receive curses. Hate and gossip is taking centre stage and a general lack of sisterly and brotherly love is taking root. What will come out of such a church.

4. Who will deny a revival when a National 2022 BCU convention fits in a High school Hall instead of spreading all over the school open grounds. 

5. Who will deny a revival when a GCU and Manyano Convention is over and what you see being posted on Facebook pages are their uniforms without any reflection on the Word they received. 

6. Who can deny a revival when year in year out what tops the agenda of conference is our failure to pay stipends without talking about our failure to take care of widows, opharns and the poor. Maybe our stipends are cursed because we have used benevolent fund to top up the stipends. Where is our concern for the poor.

5. We need a revival to deal with the problem of compromise and we compromise with the world in the name of inclusivity.

Jesus didn't eat with sinners and tax collectors because He wanted to appear inclusive, tolerant and accepting. He ate with them to a changed and fruitful life, to die to self and live for Him. His call is transformation of life not affirmation of identity. 

6. God would like to raise Methodist Church in Zimbabwe to be a church which accepts everyone not to keep them in their state but to transform them into model Christians and citizens. A church which says come as you are but agree to be changed by the true Word of God.

7. Are we not giving locusts and the destroyer more space as we squiz time for the reports on Ministry and Service and give more time to elections and appointments and continueeach and every year in an election mode. Isn't our Conference a tip of the ice bag as we mirror our societies that notices are given almost if not more time in some instances to that of the preacher. 

EXHORTATION.

1. No revival shall take place without the power of the Holy Spirit. It is entirely something that God does.

2. No revival shall take place unless we accept that we have erred and we need the grace of God to lift us up again and sit us in heavenly places with christ Jesus.

3. We will be revived once we vacate the seat of God and let Him be in the driving seat of His church.

# God would like to revive and restore back. But notice that this revival and restoration follows upon a true and genuine repentance. Without that this National theme will ring like a bell without meaning. 

4. A piece of furniture that is to be restored is sanded down first before it is repainted. We have to give ourselves over to God so that He prunes off all that is irrelevant. It is painful but that is the only way we can then be purified and restored for His glory in Jesus Christ Name Amen.