Restoration

I preached a series of sermons a few years ago on the subject of restoration. The word restore means, “return something to previous condition: to bring something back to an earlier and better condition.”

Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

I began to realize that the church in general needs restoration. We have gotten away from the true principles and basic ways of what made the church effective. Just because we have a large congregation doesn’t always mean the church is effective. It may be effective in reaching numbers of people, but is it effective reaching souls and causing them to mature in the faith?

I sincerely believe that in our efforts to “grow” the church we have left many basics of true growth out. As I began to survey the condition of our church I began to see certain things that needed to be restored. Yes, we were a good church. We had good music and talents along with great teachers and departmental leaders. We came to church each service and went through the motions of “church.” But I knew our church was not an exception to most evangelical churches out there. So after prayer I came up with a series on “restoration.”

I preached several sermons from A-Z. I am sorry I am not able to share these sermons because somehow they were lost in the process of moving. But I did come upon my rough draft which listed my titles from A-Z. Maybe you can get some inspiration from this list and maybe want to share them with your congregation. Who knows, you may preach them better than I did!!!

A- Restore our anointing

B- Restore our burden for the lost

C- Restore our compassion

D- Restore our desire- for God’s house, and to work for God

E- Restore our effectiveness

F- Restore our faithfulness

G- Restore our glory- our true glory- what makes us stand out- makes us shine

H- Restore our hunger- for God and the things of God

I- Restore our illumination- Christ illuminating through us

J- Restore our joy

K- Restore our kindness

L- Restore our love

M- Restore our motivation

N- Restore our newness- freshness- out with the old cut and dried

O- Restore our optimism- opposite of pessimism

P- Restore our power- also, restore our prayer life

Q- Restore our quality- character

R- Restore our relationships- with God, with one another

S- Restore our sincerity

T- Restore our talents

U- Restore our unction

V- Restore our victory- there are too many defeated Christians.

W- Restore our worship

X- Restore our X-altation- when we exalt God in our church

Y- Restore our yearning- for God, for heaven, etc.

Z- Restore our zeal

If we will do these things, I believe we will have re