A New Revival

Amen. I want you to turn to the book of Joel here this morning, just very quickly. The book of Joel, if you find Daniel, then you have Hosea, and then you'll find Joel.

Daniel, Hosea, and the book of Joel. We're in this short brief series called A New Chapter. Part one, we dealt with a new chapter.

Part two, we dealt with a new anointing. Last week, we dealt with a new guidance. Here this morning, I want to, as we read from Joel chapter two, I want to deal with a new revival, and I believe I'll conclude this morning.

Joel chapter two, reading from verse 23. I want to take a bit of grounding in the book of Joel, but I just want to read from this section. Verse 23, Joel chapter two, and verse 23.

Be glad then ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vat shall overflow with wine and oil, and I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army, which I send among you, and ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God that has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed, and ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens, and those days will I pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the Word of God again. We thank you for your wisdom, your counsel, your direction, that in the darkest storm, Lord God, in the darkest days, days of apostasy and heresy, of confusion, of apathy, Lord God, when it seems your church is almost lost, when she's lost her power, when she's lost her vitality, when she's lost her zeal and her joy, her peace and her confidence, Lord God, in an hour where your remnant has been scattered and battered down, when the storms come, when the judgments are poured out, Lord God, when the wild locusts come flying, when armies march against her, Lord God, when it's a day of great tragedy, Lord God, when it's a day of controversy, you say again to the preachers to blow the trumpet, to call a solemn fast, Lord God, to call your saints back to weeping and to mourning and to brokenness, to repentance, to a rending of their hearts, so God, to call to cry out to you in brokenness over sin, over rebellion, over apathy, Lord God, you call us to such a thing that we might see a restoration, an outpouring of your Holy Spirit, a recovery of what is real, to see the joy of the Lord come again.

Father, we're asking of you right here in this church again, Lord God, will you bring a brokenness, Lord God, we have been downcast over our discouragements, our own despondencies, our despairs, our depressions, Lord God, but rarely is it that a man rends his heart and weeps over his own sin and rebellion against you, oh God, I'm asking of you that you move deeply in our hearts, Lord God, that our hearts would be downcast because we grieve over our lightness and our apathy and our lack of commitment, oh God, that we had weep hot tears of repentance because of our sin against you, because of our known disobedience, because we're so lacking in seeking after you earnestly, oh God, we know that this is the pathway back to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, your word says it, oh God, you promise that you're a merciful and a gracious and a kind and a good God, that you're very gracious and loving and Lord God, in your tender mercies and that if we turn on to you, that you will turn on to us, that you would again pour out your spirit, your desire, oh God, is to restore your church, to revive your church, to awaken your church, to bring in a harvest, oh God, to give us the harvest of new wine, Lord God, to grant us that harvest of anointing oil, Lord God, to bring in the harvest, the wheat, Lord God, that we might have plenty to eat, Father, I pray this morning, oh God, that amidst the tragedy of this generation, that we're going to see one last thing gathered, oh precious souls, before you come, in Jesus' mighty name, we bless you and praise you, amen, amen. A new revival, what is revival? Revival is God suddenly, supernaturally, mightily, spiritually, coming to his church in power and reality. Revival is God intervening in his church, because his church cannot recover itself.

Revival is God's rescue mission of his church. It is him rescuing his church for himself, for his own glory, to do his work. It's when the church gets to a place where it cannot recover itself, that without an intervention of God supernaturally, its power is gone, its vitality, its seal, its vision, its ability to evangelize, its ability to live wholly, to pray as it ought, to walk as a testimony in the earth.

When it loses its original purpose, the reason why God birthed the church, when it doesn't line up with what's written in the word of God as a normal, healthy, functioning state, it's time for revival again. The Bible says this, it's time for you to work, Lord. There's certain signs, there's certain times where it's time for the Lord to work again, time for you to pour out your spirit, revive your church, to rescue again your church.

On my shelf, I've got hundreds, literally hundreds of books, and like I always say, you're not getting them, okay, so don't ask. I've got hundreds of books of the history of revivals from 2,000 years. The church isn't always in that condition.

At times, it's very infrequent, but when a real revival comes, it is so astounding, it stops cities in its track. Nations are brought to their knees. Vast multitudes of population turn to Christ overnight.

Politicians within nations take note of it, mention it in Parliament, talk about it in the history books. I'm talking about Ireland, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, America, and the nations of the world. I'm telling you of the history of what's happened regularly.

If you go to Belfast, you'll see in the state national political books, if you open it up to 1921 and 22, it's written there by the politicians, we expected civil war, but God sent a gracious revival. Do you know what he done? He raised up a preacher, a rough preacher, a man who had once been an alcoholic, a seafarer who traveled the oceans of the world. He was a fighter, a drunkard, a hard man, a rebel against God, but God saved him, made him a preacher, sent him to the towns of Northern Ireland, and in 1921, he went from town to town, and you know what? Those towns are only 20,000 big, or 10,000, 15,000, and you know what happened? Every single town he went to, within a week or two weeks, 2,000 men would get born again, men, women, children, but predominantly working class men of about 40 years old, the hardest age to reach in any society.

That was the generation he reached. Since it has happened, and I can give you hundreds of incidents just off the top of my head. I don't need to study it.

It's within me. I know my church history. See, when I speak about revival, I'm not talking about some myth.

I'm talking about something that God has done regularly in intervening in the darkest hours in church history, not when everything is okay. He doesn't send revival when everything's okay. It's when things get to their lowest point, when it's hard to find a real church, hard to find real preachers, hard to find real Christians, then God takes it in hand.

He comes in a supernatural, earth-shaking way. There's many terms for revival in our Bible. It talks about the Lord reigned in the heavens and coming down.

That's a term for revival, a visitation of God. It's when sinners, the worst of sinners say, God has come. God has drawn near.

The Bible talks about it's when God marches through the land and makes his power known. So, I'm just giving you a little bit of feel. I want you to know what revival is.

Like in 1904 in Wales, when such apathy came to the nation. The church was asleep. It was dead.

It was dry. Do you know what God done? God says, I'm going to send a revival and rescue my church. Do you know where he started working? There was many hearts he was working in, but he laid his hand on a young 26-year-old man in Wales.

It was a Bible college. He'd never preached a sermon, but he was training for the ministry. And in that college, God's hand come upon him so mightily that he would spend six hours every night praying.

He didn't even sleep at night. All he could see was an entire nation going to hell. And he began to pray and pray and pray for the souls of millions of people on their way to hell.

He was burdened. He was broken. He was gripped by heaven to such a point he couldn't even do his studies in the classroom.

He couldn't study. And he had to stop his academic pastoral studies to go home to a small community. He says, God has sent me home.

And he went back, spoke to all the ministers in his community. None of them would let him preach in their church. But one of them very kindly thought, well, he can't do any harm in the youth meeting.

Here's 17 young people in a youth meeting said, you can speak there for just one night. That night, as they repented, as he preached a simple message with four points, dealing with sin. They're teenagers, a bunch of youth.

And as that young firebrand who's preaching for the first time, he's never preached in the church before. And he begins to deal with sin, sin in the heart. And simply say, it wasn't an eloquent sermon.

It was clear, precise, dealing with the heart. He said, why don't we repent? And as those young lives began to cry and repent before God, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit fell. And you know what began to happen? It impacted that little village and then the country areas and then the surrounding villages and then the towns.

And within six months, a hundred thousand people in Wales cried out for real salvation. The top politician in the country who was later prime minister of great Britain. He actually said it was the year that God lifted the entire nation heavenward that an earthquake, a spiritual earthquake came to the nation.

God stepped in. That's only one brief story. I could give you thousands of testimonies, how God changed cities, nations, generations from sin.

Let's go to the word of God this morning. I've got three points for you. And this message, a new revival.

My first point here, the locust years, the locust years. Look with me at Joel chapter two and verse 25. It says, and I, God speaking, will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten the canker worm and the caterpillar and the Palmer worm.

My great army, which I sent amongst you. Look at what God says here. This is a time God finds a young preacher called Joel or Jewel.

He finds a young man who can hear from heaven. Do you know what we're lacking in the church here in this generation? Life's that hear from heaven to where God lays his hand upon them and they see reality. They see heaven, eternity.

They see God and they come as flame and fire with a message to the church of this generation. Educated heads won't do that. Here was this young man, Joel.

It was a dark day amongst God's people. I mean really dark. For years now, God had sent judgment to try and wake the people.

Real judgments. But here's a time he comes as a trumpet call. This young man is literally like a trumpet blasting in the ears of a whole generation.

And he brings a promise. I will restore. The word restore here makes to make amends, to pay back, to give back in absolute fullness, to reinstate, to restore everything that's been lost, neglected, stolen, cast away.

So the Lord says, I will restore the years. Here's a promise for God in a very dark, very apathetic day when God's people are not what they're meant to be. God makes a promise, not to a repentant people, but to an unrepentant people.

And he says, if you listen to me, I will restore everything from years. The locust, the Palmer worm, the caterpillar, all of these have spiritually eaten into your life and your nation. When you look at your life, you can see you've lost years, years spiritually.

Can I tell you something in the church of this generation? When you look at the church, we've lost years of power, years of effectiveness, the compromise, the games, the flashing lights, the entertainment, years of it. We've destroyed an entire generation in the church. And here Joel begins to, in chapter one, chapter two, he begins to speak about the judgments in the previous years of judgments on their sin, not sinners on the streets, not alcoholics out there, but in the house of God, people who know the gospel, who know about God, who are raised in this, he begins to deal with their sin, their rebellion, their backsliding.

God for years has been trying to deal with his people. The same sense he speaks time and time and time and time again, there's no change. He preaches to them, shows them mercy, shows them kindness, still no change.

And so there's been years of judgments, years of punishment. Do you know, if you're a child of God and you're in sin, God punishes you or chastises you. He does that or else you're illegitimate.

You're not a child. You're on your way to hell. I would rather be in the wood house with God sorely getting chastised than to be unchastised, doing what I want and a child of wrath on my way to hell.

I don't want that. There were many judgments that he talks about, but I want to concentrate on just one, the Lucas years, the years the Lucas have eaten are stolen. These Lucas had literally stolen years from God's people.

And you know what? Spiritual Lucas can steal years from your life, literally years. They'll eat up everything of any spiritual good. And this is what we're going to deal with for a moment here this morning.

Lucas could consume a nation's food supply within days or weeks. And even modern technology still cannot deal with Lucas. They destroy nations.

It says in Joel chapter one, verse one to 12, it speaks about not just Lucas, but more talks about the plague of Joel's generation. He had grown up in this. This is all he knew in his lifetime.

He had never known a previous revival. All he knew was plagues going through God's people in their land. Water droughts, rivers dried up, famine for food, fires burning through the forest, the loss of everything.

It says in chapter one, verse six, a nation has come upon the land among without number whose teeth are the teeth of a lion. An entire nation from the North was swooping down on this little nation of Judah. It was marching right now.

They were burnt out, starving, freezing, lacking, no harvest. They had lost everything, but they're God's people. No power against the enemy, no power against the judgments of God.

All of this going on, but they're still God's people. They're still a remnant. They believe the word of God.

They want God. It says in chapter one, verse 13 and 14, that the seed is rotten under the clouds. They'd sow the seed.

It just rots in the ground. Nothing ever grows there. And then the word of the Lord comes through Joel, God's trumpet man, warning about an invasion of this army marching against them.

Judgment on a disobedient nation. I believe it's happening to the church of our day. It's not sinners he's coming to judge at this moment.

What does Peter say? Judgment shall begin at the house of God. Before God judges the world, do you know what he does? He judges the church. And until he judges the church, he cannot judge the world.

And believe me, when God comes to his church to judge it, it is a terrible day. You'll either flee and run out of the church or you'll run to the altar and get right with God. You'll do one of the other.

There won't be an in-between. When we see this judgment coming on a disobedient nation, this army that's marching is first literal, but second of all, it is spiritual. It is a picture of the day of the Lord, the final day of judgment, when God is going to return for his people.

And judgment after judgment after judgment coming. It's also a prophecy about what's going to happen to Israel very shortly, but we're not dealing with that. We've taught on that before and I don't want to deal with that here.

It's talking about a day in Joel's day when the temple was stripped of all of its offerings. There was famine in the land, fire was burning around the country, crises on every hand. And so he begins to prophesy of judgment and of disaster all around.

But I want to concentrate on the locust years. See, locusts are a judgment from God in the Bible. Listen to what the Bible says about locusts.

In the life of a locust, there's about six stages in its life cycle. In Nahum chapter three, verse 15 and 17, we have listed five stages in the life cycle of a locust. And in fact, in Nahum, it's talking about locusts, talking about the attackers on the city of Nineveh that came to destroy it, being like locusts.

Also in Isaiah 33 and four, we read about the attackers against the city of Babylon being compared to locusts. So here in Joel chapter four, or sorry, Joel chapter one and Joel chapter two, we have four stages in the life of the locusts. Four names given all for the same creature, this little vermin, this locust.

In the Hebrew culture and language of the Middle East and the Arabic, they have six different Hebrew and Arabic names that name every area of the life of the locust because it's so distinct. They mark it out as being unique. Here in the Bible, four of those stages are stated clearly.

Look in Joel chapter one, verse four, it talks at the beginning of this message of Joel, it mentions this. That which the palmer worm has left has the locust eaten. And that which the locust has left has the canker worm eaten.

And that which the canker worm has left has the caterpillar eaten. Not four different animals, but the same animal at four different stages. And look with me what it says at the end of verse 25 of chapter two.

It talks about this army of locust, canker worm, caterpillar, and palmer worm. What does God say? My great army that I sent among you. The locusts were actually God's army.

It wasn't the devil. God's army. In other words, they came at his command.

He sent them. He has a purpose. They're there to do a task.

We all think that things that come in, it's all the devil. No, it's not always. God allowed this plague of locust to come in on the nation, to eat up everything, to devour their food source for one reason, to get their attention.

The attention of the church is so important to God. He'll do anything to get the attention of Jonah. He'll wreck that boat with a storm.

He'll send a storm. He'll kill every shipman on that boat, every sinner, every idolatrous false God worshiper. He'll destroy them all to get a profit to the right place.

He prepares a large fish to swallow Jonah. That's how much he wants your attention. And he wants the attention of the church in this generation.

We are very distracted. You are very distracted. And so we see this army of locusts were actually prepared by God.

It wasn't the devil. And he had sent it to get the attention of the church. There's nothing worse than the church being rebellious, disobedient, casual, and yet blessed.

It's a very dangerous thing because you begin to presume in it all. Do you know if God loves you and cares for you, he'll start to remove everything and bring you to a crisis where you go, I cannot continue the way I am. If you're happy and going on and yet not committed, there's something wrong.

I actually believe it's God that when we love him and desire him and want him, but everything isn't okay. And then everything comes to a crisis point. Actually, it shows the love of God.

It's the rod of God, the chastening of God. And the more desperate he gets for us, the more it shows his kindness and his mercy. What sort of God would let you go to hell? If you're in here this morning, you don't know Jesus.

God has been very loving to you by somehow getting you in here. Because you know what? If God let you go on your way to hell, oh, what a tragedy. So these locusts, sorry, it says that Palmyra, not which the Palmyra worm has left the locusts eaten and not which the locusts have left the kankworm eaten and not which the kankworm has left the caterpillars eaten.

See a locust, what is a locust? It looks like a grasshopper. But the experts say it looks like it, acts like it, uniquely at a very unusual hour. And what seems to be a normal grasshopper becomes a locust.

It's a bit like a grasshopper gone awfully wrong. A locust in its solitary stage, and it has this, it is a solitary creature. It doesn't like to be around others.

It likes its space. It likes its own life. That's what a locust normally is like.

It is mild. It likes to blend in. It has the color of green amidst green grass.

It is a peaceful creature that eats, minds its own business, lays its eggs. Do you know the eggs of a locust can lie on the ground 20 years before they hatch? Just sitting there, sitting there, unhatched, nothing happens. Doesn't seem like there's any locust.

Just wait. Scientists still don't fully understand a plague of locusts coming in on a nation, because when they swarm, it is unbelievable. They impact an entire nation, or our world, in a dramatic way.

Scientists don't fully understand it. It's only in recent times they began to guess why locusts get stirred up, because they like their isolation. They like their space.

They're very innocent and harmless, but from camouflaged green, suddenly something chemically is triggered, and they turn yellow-brown. Their color changes, but their nature changes. They become insatiable in breeding and in eating.

Changed. Do you know locusts can lie dormant for generations? I mean generation after generation. Going back to your grandfather, just lie there, unstirred, unaffected, innocent, undangerous, for generations.

Lie there, but something suddenly happens, and they begin to multiply into a great plague that impacts a nation. Small groups began to merge together, then they begin to swarm. Now you've got a problem.

They get into bands, and before you know it, they can get into colossal clouds that black out the sun over a city. It's happened down through the years. It is a remarkable thing.

This can last for days, weeks, years, or even decades, that they swarm and eat everything within sight. Often these crowds of locusts can be as strong as several million. Strong, swarming together.

They don't understand it. It is a strange thing. Lying dormant for generations, and then suddenly, you know what the Bible says? God uses things to get the attention.

See, we don't believe that in today's generation. The old preachers, when they planted the plantations in America, and the Puritans and the early preachers went over to America in the colonies. Do you know if one murder took place, the entire community went to humbling themselves with fasting and prayer and repentance.

One murder in the entire community, it brought the church to its knees. Now we have great crisis, and the church is unaffected. You go home, switch the television on, you can watch anything, go to your bed at night, you don't even get on your knees and cry to God anymore.

Church, the church has changed. Don't tell me we're normal, we're healthy, we're okay. We're not okay.

Listen to me this morning, we're not okay. We ought to get on our knees and cry aloud. See, these plagues are utterly remarkable.

They can cover a 40-mile-wide distance of these locust plagues. They consume everything, and when they pass, everything is eaten, food-wise. Do you know when the last plague really hit strongly in our world? The beginning of 2020, when COVID began.

It wasn't just COVID, there were mass plagues, mass fires. Everything began to break out. I'm only dealing with the locust years.

Don't tell me locust plagues breaking out at the beginning of 2020 was natural. It wasn't natural. It wasn't normal.

We had right across the world natural disasters, nature disasters, earth disasters, everything. It began to hit. Don't you realize there's someone behind that trying to get the attention of the church, and yet the church has just carried on the same.

Never have we seen such things. In 2020, the news broadcasters kept putting out. They said, this is a plague of locusts in biblical proportions.

It was so massive, it eventually covered 23 nations, not just Africa. It was Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, elsewhere, but also India, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 23 nations, and Ethiopia is a large country.

It's a massive country. Kenya hadn't had a plague like this in 70 years. It was its worst.

Ethiopia, it was their worst plague in 25 years. It was an infestation. It even moved across oceans into South America.

Since this is not a natural thing, and here what you have in the Bible is a warning about the locust years, because in the church, something has happened that's equivalent to that. Where's all the souls? Where's the revival? Where's the gifts of the Holy Spirit in today's church? Where's the healing power of God? Where's this generation? Where are all the churches? Where are the preachers who preach holiness? Where is the fire? Where's the message that used to be preached in churches 50 years ago? It has been blanked out. We've never had so much media, so much money, so many people in the church, so many people claiming to be Christians, and never have we had so little power.

Today's Christian can't even punch their way out of a paper brown bag. No power. They don't have enough power to sneeze.

Since I'm telling you, something has happened, and we sit here like we're okay. We're like Samson. The hair has been cut.

The power is gone, and now the enemy's gonna dig out the eyes. That all began somewhere. Don't tell me it's okay.

It's not okay. The last plague before 2020 of such a significance was 1875. It was a plague of locusts in America.

It covered 198 square miles. They estimate there was about 12.5 trillion locusts. Massive.

It was a national disaster, and they congregated and swarmed overnight. They had an appetite for destruction, and an appetite to breed, to destroy the crops, eat them, leave everything barren. They marched through the entire land, destroying everything.

Here in this verse, God himself gives four different stages of the locusts. There's the canker worm. That means newly hatched hopper.

It devours fruit by licking and lapping. Such a small thing. See, this is where it starts.

God's trying to get your attention. You know how? He sends the canker worm to eat your fruit. You're losing your fruit.

They destroy the fruit by licking the fruit, by eating the fruit, nibbling. Just a little bit, 11, destroys the whole lump. Second of all is the caterpillar.

This is the next stage up. It goes through five stages of losing its body, changing its body as it keeps changing. The caterpillar is the next stage.

It eats up everything on the ground. I mean, everything. It becomes insatiable.

Then there's the palmer worm. This is a young locust. It breaks forth with its wings, and it begins to fly and cuts the leaves, and then eventually locusts.

And the scientists can't work out the mechanism of locusts worldwide in history. I can. God says, my mighty army.

We need to wake up to natural disasters and what happens in our world again, and earthquakes. Now, I'm not putting everything down to God. You know that.

That's stupid. Everything isn't God, any more than everything isn't the devil. But I'm telling you, we've lost the fear of God, not in the world, in the church.

We don't tremble anymore. We don't stand in awe anymore. We don't search our hearts anymore.

We can casually come to the Lord's table. We're not even embarrassed over sin anymore, or our own rebellion anymore. But look what God says in these locust years.

There had been years of attack by locusts in Joel's day. It had devastated God's people. I want to tell you spiritually in the church, there's been years of locusts, and palmer worms, and caterpillars eating up everything.

Nobody seems to know. Where's the fruit? Where's the food? Where's the wheat on the table, in the sermons? Why is there no preaching anymore? Why isn't there any gifts anymore? Where's the fruit of the Holy Spirit anymore? Don't you see an army of locusts has come through, and we are not the same that we used to be? In fact, we've got many in the church, they create false revivals, pushing people over, laughing, joking. Gold has fallen.

Do you know why? Because there's no revival. Then the other bunch who are very sound biblically say, oh, we don't believe there's going to be another revival. This is just the way it is until Jesus comes.

And we're the sound ones. No revival, because that's God's will. I disagree.

What does God say? Through Joel, I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. I'm going to restore everything. Years of it all being stolen because of the plague of locusts, spiritually in the church.

Years. When's the last real revival that shook Limerick? Ireland? Europe? When's the last real revival? When thousands were converted in single sermons? When's the last time that happened? When's the last time 3,000 got born again in one sermon? When's the last time? Don't tell me that some unusual thing only happens every 2,000 years. Do you know what the Lord actually calls them to here? He makes promises.

I'm going to restore. I'm going to restore everything. Since, listen, in your life, in your Christian life, what have you stolen? What have you lost? What's been eaten in your life? The least of healing, the fruit on the bar.

What's been stolen? All your daily time in the Word of God, reading McShane's. Some of you haven't even done that in so long. You don't even have a schedule for reading the Word of God.

Who stole that from you? I tell you, you're in a locust invasion. You're not being fed. You're not happy.

You don't have any peace. You're not satisfied. You're not okay.

Everything isn't all right. You're not evangelizing anyone. You're not winning anyone to the Lord.

Do you think that's normal? It's not normal. These are all signs, but the Lord gives a promise. I'll restore it all.

I'll restore everything. Years, I'm going to restore to you overnight. Years of lost years.

All of the harvest, all of the eating, all of the fruit, I'm going to restore onto you. What does he say in verse 12 of this chapter? He actually gives you the pathway to it. Let me read it.

Therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all of your heart. Now, therefore now, since he gives you promises of restoration and revival, but he says now this is what you need to do. Does anyone in this church want to get back the fruit? The lost years, the stolen time, sermons, time with the Lord, evangelism, the power, the joy, the blessing of God.

Therefore also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting. Is fasting a part of your life? And with weeping and mourning. I've spoken to people say, oh well you can't just weep.

Rubbish. It's a command of scripture. Go to James.

Mourn you sinner. Weep you sinner. I've heard people say the Bible never calls a Christian a sinner.

That's false. There's once my Bible calls real Christians sinners and it's in James because they need to cleanse their hands and it's very pointed. It's two believers but he says cleanse your hands.

Most times we're not called sinners because we're not sinners. But see when sin is there, he'll call you a sinner. Cleanse your hand you sinner.

I'm not a sinner. Then why are you doing this? He goes on. He's calling you to weep.

You know what I've met Christians say, oh you can't just weep. You can't turn tears on. Your heart is cold.

It's a command. Get on your knees and begin to weep. Oh you can't turn it on.

You better. You better rend your heart. This is talking about a desperate getting back to God that he can restore again.

You can either stay there and say, well I'll wait for him to do a sovereign work. Let God do it. I can't do anything.

Rubbish. The Bible says weep and mourn and grieve and rend your hearts. Not your garments, your hearts.

And rend your heart and not your garments and turn on to the Lord your God for he is gracious. Aren't you glad? And merciful and slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil. Who knows if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him.

Even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion. See amongst God's people.

Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people.

Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children.

Yes all the children as well. And those that suck the breasts. Don't leave baby at home.

Bring baby to this meeting where we're going to weep and cry out to God. We're going to fast. Oh children come fast.

Yes they can. My mommy taught me how to fast as a kid. I watched her fast.

Let the bridegroom go forth of the chamber and the bride out of her closet. You're going to cut your honeymoon short when this begins to happen. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar and let them say this is God's command.

He said do this, do this, do this, do this. If you want to get back. If you want me to restore years onto you as individuals you do this.

I promise you in this church if you do this God's going to restore years. It's economically wise. And give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them.

Wherefore should they say among the people where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people. Yea the Lord will answer and say unto his people behold I will send you corn and wine and oil and you should be satisfied thereof. Since there is a then, a when and a then.

Now let's seek the Lord. That's my first point here this morning. We need a new revival.

I mean a real new revival again. It's too long since. Our nation needs it.

This church needs it. This city needs it. Our world needs it.

I'm tired of the false revival. I'm tired of all those since 94 up through the 90s. Toronto all the rest.

Now they've got all these revivals in the universities America. No preaching. No holy ghost preaching.

Thank God the university students are stirred. But where's the preaching? Don't call it a revival. It's not a revival.

It's a stirring of hearts. But who knows where it goes. My second point.

A revival of restoration. A plague of locusts. The locust years.

But secondly a revival of restoration. Look at verse 23 for a second. It says be glad then ye children of Zion.

It's not all weeping. Do you know the only time God wants you to weep is to make you glad. Weep over your sins and God will make you glad.

Do you want to rejoice? Do you want to be happy? Do you want to enjoy your Christianity? Do you want to be glad in heart? Do you want to be vibrant and bursting and overflowing? Then mourn. Weep. Some people never get happy because they never get sad.

Rejoice in the Lord your God for he has given you the former rain moderately and will cause to come down for you the rain. The former rain and the latter rain in the first month. How is God going to restore years that have been lost? This vast locust plague that has destroyed the nation.

All the food. All the oil. All the wine.

All the weight. All the blessing. All the prosperity.

Everything is gone. The locust plague has destroyed it. How are you going to restore years overnight? How is God spiritually going to restore his church in one moment of time? I'll tell you it says here in verse 23 what it is.

In these verses we're told it's the called the former and the latter rain. The rain is always a picture of the Holy Spirit and more than that it's a picture of revival of the Holy Spirit being outpoured. Look at verse 28 and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

Saints Joel is speaking here about this locust devastation across God's people and he says how do you get back by repentance and by weeping and by seeking the face of God again and if you do you're going to experience an overnight restoration. What is that restoration? It is the outpouring of the former and the latter rain. The former rain and the latter rain was the rain sequence in Israel throughout its entire season of harvest.

To bring in the harvest you need a former rain to soften the ground that's when you sow the good seeds. Then at the end just before the harvest you need a latter rain. If you don't get the latter rain the entire harvest gets destroyed.

Can you imagine having a former rain and you sow the seed and do all the work and everything is good and there's no latter rain to bring in the last harvest. You could lose all of your work because there's no last revival no last harvest. Do you know what happens on the day of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 when 120 in the church meet in an upper room.

Do you remember what they're like? They're a sad bunch. They're a scared bunch. They're hiding behind locked doors.

Their master's been crucified. They lock the door because they're scared of being killed themselves. They've lost the boldness, the fire, the fervency, the courage.

120 that's not much. I thought Christ when he was here was preaching to crowds of 10,000. He was.

I thought he healed them all. He did. Casting out demons.

Entire nations, cities, the nation turned upside down. Now what's left? 120. Hiding behind closed doors.

It is a day of darkness. Remember Peter, great apostle, denied Jesus three times. All of them ran apart from John.

All of them slept in a prayer meeting when Christ said, come pray with me for one hour. Look at the church in that hour. It is worn down.

It is tired. It is weary. New courage, new power, new holiness, new strength of reality.

It's not touching its generation. It's hidden in upper room. Hiding.

Going, oh God have mercy. I denied you. Thomas Stann says, I didn't believe he rose from the dead.

All of this is up there. I fell asleep when he said, pray with me one hour. I'm in agony of soul since you had all of this going on around.

And then listen. Suddenly in an upper room, what does Acts 2 say? The Holy Spirit was outpoured. He fell upon them.

A wind suddenly blows. Tongues of fire suddenly fall. And on 120, the Spirit of God suddenly descends as an entire group.

This is revival. This is God restoring his church. How is he going to do anything with Peter? What's he going to do with Thomas, and with Matthew, and with the rest of them? They scattered, they ran.

How is he going to restore his church to evangelize the entire world? I'll tell you, he'll pour out his spirit. He can restore years in one moment of time. Peter stands up in the day of Pentecost.

They're all saying, what is this? Tongues, supernatural, the power of God, the fire of God. Acts 2.16. But this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass that in the last day, saith God, I will pour out my spirit.

That's only the former rain. Two years of harvest, 2,000 years. Peter stood and preached in the former rain at the beginning of harvest.

We're at the end of the harvest. We're 2,000 years later, and Jesus is coming, and there's no rain. And the church is in a very bad way, and our nations are in a bad way.

If you can quickly turn to James chapter 5 before I close. James chapter 5, or listen to what I'm about to tell you. It's very important.

James, the half brother of Jesus, a servant of the Lord, is preaching, and he prophesies about our day. Listen to what he says. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.

Look what he's talking about, the coming of the Lord. Jesus coming back again at the end of the age. Behold, the husband man, that's Jesus, the farmer, waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth.

What's Jesus doing now? Why hasn't he come yet? He's waiting. The farmer, the husband man, is waiting. What's he waiting for? The precious fruit of the earth.

And he has long patience for it, long patience, until he received the early and the latter rain. Why hasn't Jesus come yet? Because we haven't had the latter rain, or at least the latter rain is not fulfilled. Be also patient.

Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth now. While Peter is preaching in Acts chapter 3, this is a different sermon than Acts 2, but in Acts chapter 3, he gives us four important words. Note them.

Repent, refreshing, restitution, and send, or return, just to make it four hours so you remember. Repent, refreshing, restitution, and return. These four words span a period from Peter, when he preached in Jerusalem, repentance, until the time when Jesus Christ returns again.

These four words cover 2,000 years, but he explains that between these two points, the beginning to preach repentance and the restitution of all things, there's going to be seasons of revival. Listen to what it says in Acts chapter 3. It says, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts chapter 3 says this, Peter, times of refreshing.

The word refreshing there means the recovery of breath or revivals. God is going to send seasons of real revival, like the Welsh revival. Pentecost was the first.

That was only the beginning. It wasn't the fulfillment. It was the former rain, not the latter rain.

Peter did not experience the latter rain. He experienced the former rain. It was the beginning of harvest, but there's going to be seasons or times of revival leading up to Jesus Christ coming again.

He also says in Acts chapter 3 about times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of his prophets. Restitution means restoration, to restore back, to give everything back to its normal order or its best order. So, there will be continued times.

He doesn't say there'll be continuous revival. No, he didn't say that. He said there's going to be certain set seasons or times of revival between Peter preaching and Jesus coming back.

There's going to be times of refreshing, and in those times of refreshing, things are going to get restored, like Joel prophesied. Things are, everything the prophet spoke are going to get restored again, time after time after time. This is going to happen.

Of the things spoken by the Old Testament prophets, and this will continue until the Father shall send Jesus Christ. It is also clear from this that these times are not continual without break. They're distinct times, and in between them there'll be apostasy, heresy, confusion, falling away, apathy, barrenness, plagues of locusts in between.

Third and finally, let me finish. The immediate fruit of a revival. It says in Joel chapter 2 verse 24, and this is the fruit.

What's going to happen when he pours out his Holy Spirit? And the floor should be full of weight. You've just come through a locust plague where everyone gets eaten. There's nothing on the floor.

There's nothing, no harvest being brought in. But he says when I pour out my Spirit, the floors are going to be full of weight. I mean full.

You won't even have room for that, for it all. You're going to be like Peter and his friends, pulling in the nets. Remember Jesus, they're fishing all night.

Do you catch any fish? No, nothing. Throw it over the other side. Peter the fish man goes, you don't do it when the sun comes up.

But I'll do it in obedience to you. So rather than throwing out nets like Jesus told him, he only threw out a net, and all of a sudden it was filled with fish. And it started to break.

He should have listened to the master. He didn't believe. He only partially believed.

And then he comes and repents and says, forgive me master. You can actually obey God and not believe him. You only partially believe him.

But you don't think it's actually going to happen. All the fish aren't going to jump in the net. Don't be silly.

Revival? Are you kidding? Oh yeah, Lord send revival. But we don't really believe it's going to happen. Not here.

Not Limerick. Not now. Not with us.

I mean it couldn't actually happen. But we'll pray for it because it's a good thing to pray for. Do you know what it says here? The floors are going to be full and the and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

Three things. The wheat represents the preaching of the word. The wine, the Holy Spirit.

The oil, the anointing for ministry. And you know what? You have abundance. Everything suddenly comes in in an amazing way.

In Joel 2.18 says the Lord will be jealous for his land and pity his people. Ye, the Lord, will answer and say unto him, behold I will give you corn and wine and oil and ye shall be satisfied. Do you want to be satisfied? Do you want the joy restored to you again? The oil of joy.

The wine of God. The wheat that satisfies our souls again. The Lord actually says in this restoration you will be satisfied.

My name will be sanctified and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. But I will be among you and I will remove the northern army far from you and will drive it into a barren desolate land. What happens when revival comes? God brings in a harvest.

What's the latter rain for? To bring in the harvest. Why does he pour out the spirit? To bring in a harvest. Let me close with this.

James 5 verse 7-8 again. That the husband man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and he has long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Jesus is not coming back without the latter rain fully being poured out.

One last time. One final time. And he says, this is what he says to you.

Be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. I want you to see the revival, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit like on the day of Pentecost or in the Welsh revival or in the 1959 revival.

Do you know Henry Grant in Guinness stood out in these streets and preached before that revival and he started a riot. He wasn't part of the drinking company. He was a part of that family but he was a teetotaler, a preacher, a man of prayer and he stood out in these streets and began to preach in the open air and he started a riot and they put it in the limerick leader for the population.

Watch out for that man. He's trouble. Just after that he went to Belfast 1859 and crowds of 60,000 gathered to hear him preach and thousands were being saved at a time through one sermon as that same man that started riots out here went to Belfast and he shook the city and another unknown young man from London called C.H. Spurgeon came over and they said Spurgeon had nothing on Henry Grant and Guinness.

Guinness was the preacher of that revival not Spurgeon and he shook the city. See revival is real. It's genuine.

We need it again and you know what this spiritual harvest. Jesus is not come yet because he has patience because the harvest isn't ready. There's one last harvest to come in.

He's not sitting in apathy. It's not going to get worse and worse and then Jesus just rescue a few. He's waiting for a harvest.

He's waiting for the latter rain. He's waiting to revive his church and he'll restore the years the locusts have have eaten. You've lost years.

You're thinking and the church thinks in this hour we can never cover the ground but I want to tell you in all my reading of revival and it's come up time and time again. I've read of people in revival in 1859, 1904, 1906 and they said we would rather have six months in genuine revival when the Holy Spirit is out poured than have 30 years in very successful ministry because they saw that in six months you get a harvest that no preacher could bring in. We see that the former and latter rain brings in the precious fruit of the earth.

Without the rain the spiritual harvest will perish. The result of the former and the latter rain being granted to the church for the purpose of producing a spiritual harvest is written in James chapter 5 by the brother of our Lord. Every time the rain came down in the book of Acts multitudes of souls were born again.

Thousands through single sermons. From the first mention of the first and the last rain in the bible it is granted with one purpose to bring in a spiritual harvest and you know what? It's not over yet. Saints it's not over yet.

We are at the end of the age. Jesus is coming. We know all the signs are saying he's coming.

Apostasy is increasing. Things are getting worse. Deception is getting worse in our world.

A flood of iniquity is breaking through this generation. But don't tell me it's just going to get worse and there's no revival. That's unbiblical.

This is a spiritual prophecy that Christ is coming again but he's having patience withholding himself because he wants a harvest. A harvest of souls in the 21st century. Oh yes he's coming previous generations but they are gone.

This generation's never had a revival. Not like this. Not an earth-shaking revival.

It's not happened. The church is a shame and a mockery to the name of Christ in this hour. Where's the fruit? Where are the guests? Where is the power? Where is the joy? It's all a sign that we again need a restoration.

He says if you wait, if you mourn, if you put things right, I'm going to restore instantly years. Saints some of you are sitting here and you've lost years and you can never work that back. You can never earn it back.

It's gone. But I'll tell you a way you can weep it back and repent it back and seek the Lord and he says I will restore. I'm going to give everything that's been taken and I'll give it back to you and you're going to have joy and you'll have a harvest and your face is going to shine and the peace of God is going to come to your mind.

Stand with me. Let's begin to seek him. Let's just seek him here for a second.

Oh Lord Jesus open up your heart. Just ask him where you are. Just ask him.

Let's not have worship. Let's just seek him. This altar is open.

Saints if you know God is speaking to you bow the knee before him. Just ask him this morning. Let's not leave this place.

We're not having an afternoon meeting. We're not doing anything else. We'll go to our various homes.

Saints of God it's time to seek the Lord until he comes and rains righteousness upon us again. We need the Lord. You need a restoration in your life.

You need a spiritual revival again. You need to be filled with the spirit of God. You can have personal revival when no one else does.

A church can have a church revival when no other church does and we can have a national revival where God moves in power. Father we're praying right now. My God we as a church need to rend our hearts.

We need to repent. We need to begin to weep. We need to begin to seek you and yearn.

We need a new revival again. We need a restoration. We need a harvest of souls oh God the like of which this building could never hold.

My God we're asking for a harvest in Limerick. Lord God that new building in this city center can hold. That there'll be so many souls that we'll have to call for others to come and to help.

We'll have to seek out building after building. My God but let it begin here. Lord God like with Evan Roberts in 1904.

My God dealing with a young man. Dealing with a teenager group. Lord God that began to repent and to seek you.

Lord God work again in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. We need you our God. We desire you in the name of Jesus.

Turn our hearts this morning. My God grant repentance in this room. Grant a brokenness again.

Oh God restore holiness. Restore fire again. No God we have no power.

Nor God we confess it before you. We want to see this city tremble under the power of God. We want a genuine revival just one time.

My God just one time pour out your Holy Spirit. Do what you've done in other ages. My God incline our hearts this morning.

Do not pass us by. Oh God we ask of you for the backsliders oh God. Restore them again.

Do a work in our midst oh God that will impact every backslider that's fallen out the back door. My God let repentance come here for our pride. Our attitudes.

Our sloppiness over your word and your truth. My God forgive us again oh God. Restore us again.

Make us broken over our sins. Over our indifference oh God. No God bring holiness to these lives.

To these marriages. To these homes oh God. To the children in this church.

Nor God start a revival amongst the children. Nor God let the wind of God blow on the children. Nor God stir up their hearts oh God.

That they get converted by the power of God. They be saved by the power of God. That holiness would come.

That the Lord would visit the children again. Raise up preachers oh God who speak with fire and unction again. Nor God bring forth the gifts of your Holy Spirit.

My God we can't tolerate that there's no gifts. It's not the gifts we want. But oh God the sign the signature of your hand upon us.

My God shine forth in your church again. Nor God come with power again. In the name of Jesus hallelujah.

We need you our God.