Break Up Your Fallow Grund

Chapter 10 I'm going to read in Jeremiah chapter 4 first a lot

Jeremiah 4 · chapter mention

here in the book of Jeremiah. And tell you what, Jeremiah had

a very difficult job. His job was to try to get the

the nation of Israel, the children of Israel, to turn back

to God and to understand that God had so much for them if they

were just willing to turn back to Him.

And yet over and over and over we see that all the way through

the time in the wilderness and all the way through the time as

they came into the land that God had promised them.

And over and over and over the blessings that God promised to

the children of Israel that they could have if they would just

follow Him. And yet they turned away from.

Him so many times. And God told them over and over

and over again, here's the curse that's going to come upon you if

you don't follow my way, if you don't live for me, if you don't

do it my way. They knew what was going to

happen, and still they turned away from God.

And it's very easy for us to look at them and say, how

foolish can you be? God told you what you could have

when you live for Him. He told you what's going to

happen if you don't. And still you chose not to.

And yet here we find ourselves in the same situation many

times. We read all the way through the

New Testament of all the things that God promised for those who

love him and follow Him and and serve Him.

And all the things are going to come and upon and happen to

those who don't live for Him and who don't serve Him.

And yet we choose often not to choose his way.

And in Jeremiah chapter 4, the Bible says this in verse #1 If

Jeremiah 4 · chapter mention

thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord.

Return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out

of my sight, then shalt thou not remove, and thou shalt swear.

The Lord liveth in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness.

And the nation shall bless themselves in him, and in him

shall they glory. For thus saith the Lord to the

men of Judah. And Jerusalem, break up your

fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Hosea chapter 10. Hosea chapter 10, verse #12

Hosea 10 · chapter mention Hosea 10 · chapter mention

right along the same lines. He says this Sow to yourselves

in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for

it is time to seek the Lord till he come and reign righteousness

upon you. So you fallow ground, we don't

really call it that much anymore.

I suppose maybe if you're a farmer and you live in that, in

that reality or in that profession, I guess you would

probably call it fallow ground. But it's land that's allowed to

lie idle and waste. During a growing season, it's

land that that that usually would have something planted in

it that usually would be producing, that usually would be

giving forth good fruit. And yet it's just sitting there

getting harder by the day, not plowed up.

It's allowing thorns and weeds to take over.

I grew up in the northwest corner of Indiana, not too far

from Chicago. But our property was nestled in

between cornfields and bean fields.

And, and almost every year the farmers would get out there and

they would plant and we, we would help them from time to

time if they were baling hay and those kind of things.

We, you know, but, but, but we were used to it.

We knew what was going to happen.

But every so often, every few years, those farmers would leave

one of those fields. To just sit and it has to have

that, it needs that because it, it has to, you know, the ground

has to get some of those nutrients back into it and

things like that. But the, the ground up there in

Indiana where we grew up was good ground, but they would

allow that field to sit. And as you, you just watch it,

the weeds would grow up and the ground would get hard.

And, and as I mean, we had some pretty, pretty harsh summers as

well. And, you know, we were not far

from Lake MI, so we had a lot of the, the, the heat, the lake

effect, you know, the, the humidity and all of that kind of

stuff that came and, but, but you just watch that ground get.

Harder and harder and harder. It would get dry and cracked in

a lot of places depending on how rough the summer was.

And you just think, wow, what a, what a what a wasted

opportunity. You had a you had opportunity to

plant in this entire field, and yet it just sat there empty,

doing absolutely nothing. Become the following season that

farmer would get out there with his plow and he would get that

thing down deep into the soil and just drive back and forth

and you would see as the as the rotors just turned over that

dirt and what was a really light brown, dusty cracked earth would

turn into this deep dark brown dirt that was very good for

planting and they would go through and they would plant the

things in it again and. Few weeks, few months later,

you'd see the corn start to shoot up, the beans start to

shoot up, and the next thing you know they had a full harvest

again in that field. But that's what the Bible is

talking about. Your fallow ground is ground

that could be productive. It's ground that for whatever

reason has not been broken up. It's not been tilled and plowed

and prepared for planting. And the prophets here, Jeremiah

and Hosea, both speaking the word of the Lord, are commanding

the people to break up that land spiritually and to plow the

plowable land that they have. Jeremiah is saying that this

uncultivated land needs to be cultivated and the Christian

life needs to be planted in order to grow.

He's saying that you have been long uncultivated in

righteousness. Let true repentance break up

your your fruitless and hardened hearts.

And so many Christians say that they want to grow in Christ.

And, and I think that that most Christians mean it when they say

that. I don't think that that you're

lying when you say you want to be a good Christian.

I don't think you're lying when you say you want to grow

spiritually in your life. But we don't make plans for it.

A farmer that sees a a field that needs to be plowed is not

going to have a plowed field by just thinking, boy, it sure

would be nice to have a field that's plowed over there.

Sure would be nice to have a lot of good stuff growing up in

there that I could harvest. Sure, would be nice if the

harvest would just walk into the barn, right?

But it doesn't happen that way. The farmer can't just wish that

these things would happen, or hope that they're that those

things will happen, or want those things to happen.

He's actually got to get out there and do the work of plowing

in that field if it's going to be land that's useful.

And yet so many Christians live their lives the same way.

They have fallow ground that's either unusable or ground that

is being unused. Turn over to Matthew, chapter

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

13. So many reasons why that ground

is hard and unused or even sometimes unusable, but the

command is there. Jeremiah said break up your

fallow ground and sow not among thorns.

Hosea said sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy,

break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till

he come and reign righteousness upon you.

But the Lord Jesus spoke of thorny soil in Matthew chapter

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

13. And verse #22.

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth

the Word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of

riches choked the Word, and He becometh unfruitful.

I went back and read some of the old preachers and what they had

to say about that, and Vance Havner said, I'm convinced that

much of our preaching and teaching in the church today

amounts to cultivating briar patches.

The word of God is sown in the hearts unprepared to receive it,

and the ground is never broken unto repentance.

God does not rain righteousness upon us, because the ground has

never been made ready for his showers of blessing.

Charles Finney. Fallow ground is ground which

has once been tilled, but which now lies waste, and needs to be

broken up and mellowed before it is suited to receive grain.

To break up fallow ground is to break up your hearts, to prepare

your minds to bring forth fruit unto God.

Spurgeon. If a man will not sow wheat, he

shall not have a crop, for the weeds will spring up in an

increase to the fallow field shall become a wilderness of

thorns. And Breyers Vance Havner again,

if people's hearts are not plowed up in conviction, and the

thorns and weeds exterminated by confession and cleansing, we are

really cultivating human briar patches with just enough wheat

here and there to make them appear religious.

Jeremiah lamented that there had been no blessing because the

people had the face of a woman of the street and they could not

blush. He said that back.

If you go back in Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse #1 they say

Jeremiah 3 · chapter mention

if a man put away his wife and she go from him and become

another man, shall he? Return unto her again.

Shall not that land be greatly polluted?

But thou has played the harlot with many lovers.

Yet return again to me, say at the Lord.

Now listen, we don't like to think of ourselves that way, but

that's exactly what's happening. That's exactly what you're doing

when you are giving your love to other things besides Jesus

Christ. Oh, we don't like to think about

it like that, but he's telling Israel very plainly.

Oh, you have you talk about all these other things when it comes

to the physical, he said. But you, you, you're, you're

condemning these other people for doing these things in a, in

a physical way and, and going off and putting your wife away

and marrying somebody else and all of these different things.

But you've done the exact same thing to.

Me is what God is saying. Thou has played the harlot with

many lovers because you've gone after other things instead of

seeking after the Lord. Verse 2 Lift up thine eyes unto

the high places, and see where thou has not been lying with in

the ways. In in the ways hast thou sat for

them as as the Arabian in the wilderness.

And thou has polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy

wickedness. Therefore the showers have been

withholding, and there has been no letter rain.

And thou hadst the horse forehead.

Thou refuses to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry

unto me, my father? Art thou the guide of my youth,

or thou art the guide of my youth?

Will he reserve his anger forever?

Will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou has spoken and done

evil things as thou couldest. The Lord said also unto me, in

the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which

backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up upon every high

mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the

harlot. That's the way it is in America.

We used to blush when we were ashamed.

Now we're ashamed if we blush. Always see that happening so

many times. Today, though, much preaching is

wasted on church members because they're stubborn and they're

worldly and and they live in in conscious sin.

Worldliness and rebellion and bad attitudes and carnality are

rampant in many of our churches today.

And what a shame if it's rampant in a church like this.

We've got to be so careful to make sure that we don't allow

those things in. And if they come in, we've got

to get them out. Somebody said this, we feed them

cream puffs when they need bitter medicine first.

They need surgery, not sunbaths. Christians are are are many

times told about their position in Christ.

And it's it's a wonderful position that we have knowing

Christ, we have that grace, we have the the mercy.

But very little is said about the condition of a Christian's

life in daily living and consecration.

And I don't want to be a pastor that's guilty of telling you the

love of Christ and not reminding you that Christ is coming and

that you need to be prepared. For when he does, Vance Havner

again said, I suppose that if wheat is sown in a briar patch,

a little would spring up, but you'd still have a briar patch.

We're cultivating church members with a little religion here and

there, but we are not raising wheat.

We are cultivating briars. That's what happens when you

have just a little bit of wheat in a briar patch and you go out

there and you try to throw some miracle grow on the wheat.

It might help the wheat a little bit, but you're just cultivating

the briars. You've got to get the briars out

if you want to have wheat that's useful.

The same is true in our lives. The the unconvinced heart is

like fallow ground. It's, it's, it's ground that's

capable of improvement, but it's fallow.

It's until then, because of that, it's unfruitful.

If we're going to farm, we have to break up the fallow ground.

And if we're going to be spiritual Christians that God

can use, we have to break up the fallow ground as well.

So the question this morning is this, do you have fallow ground

in your life that needs to be broken up spiritually in order

for you to grow? I guess maybe a better question

would even be this. Do you want to grow spiritually?

I said that I think probably if I were to ask you in this room

who wants to grow spiritually, you would all raise your hand

because I think you do. I think you do.

But do you really? You are as spiritual right now

as you want to be. Oh, no, no.

I'm so far. From who I want to be, I'm so

far from what I could be. If you really wanted to be

spiritual, you would be. You are as right with God right

now as you want to be. What you need is to ask God to

give you a heart, to be more spiritual and to be more like

Him. He's not something He's going to

keep from us. The title of my message is

simply the command from the lips of Jeremiah and others.

Break up your fallow ground. Break up your fallow ground.

Let's pray. And I give you a few thoughts to

consider this morning about how we can do that.

Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness.

And again, we thank you for the opportunity.

We have some to spend time together this morning around

Your Word. I pray that it'd be a profitable

time for us and that you'd speak to our hearts.

God, may we have hearts that are willing to be plowed up by the

Word of God so that we can be useful in your service.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

I want to give you 3 thoughts this morning.

And this is not a fancy message at all.

It's not alliterated points in the the really the outline

doesn't, doesn't, doesn't flow all that well, I don't think.

But I want you to think about a few things.

Turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 #1 is this.

We only have one God to account to for all of eternity.

We only have one God to account to for all of eternity.

One day we're going to be standing on the brink of

eternity, and the choice and what we'll do with Christ must

be made before we leave this life.

Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse #10 says, For we must all

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

appear before the judgement seat of Christ.

I believe the people that Jeremiah referred to as sowing

among thorns are those perhaps who are trying to do everything

they can. To earn God's favor on their

own, they read the the Bible, they go to church, they they

take some time to pray here and there, they give to the

ministries of the church, they get baptized, they they help

people in need and they're genuinely nice people.

They do all these things to try one day to hopefully have an

opportunity to get to heaven. And then hopefully they've done

enough good that God's going to say, come on into heaven when

you stand before him. But it's all in vain because

they're throwing seed down on hard ground.

I'm not saying that those things are bad, but they're not the way

of salvation. John chapter 14 and verse 6.

John 14 · chapter mention

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

And I'm not trying to be a smart aleck, but Jesus did not say, no

man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And baptism. No man cometh unto the Father,

but by me. And baptism, no man cometh unto

the Father, but by me. And good works, nobody cometh

unto the Father but by me. And following this religion or

that religion, He didn't say that nobody cometh unto the

Father but by me. It's only.

Through Jesus Christ that you can enter heaven.

Amen. That's Jesus Christ plus

nothing, or you have nothing. You are nothing.

You have no hope of ever entering heaven when you die.

Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Many of you probably know these verses, but the count on Jesus

Christ plus anything else is to say that Jesus Christ death on

the cross was not enough to take you to heaven, that we need His

death plus everything else we can do.

I have no power on my own. No number of good things I can

do can get me to heaven. Ephesians chapter 2 verse #8

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

makes that very plain. For by grace are you saved

through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God. And he says very plainly in

verse #9 not of works, lest any man should boast.

Most people that I share those verses with, even when they find

out that that goes against what they've heard or believed their

entire life, they find out then do they find it to be such a

huge relief that the burden is not on them to earn their way to

heaven? There is nothing that you have

to do because there is nothing that you can do to earn your way

to heaven. Jesus Christ has a burden on Him

to follow through with what He said He was going to do.

He said He's offering us the gift of eternal life.

He said He's the one that has the power over death and hell.

He said His blood has the power to take us to heaven and forgive

our sins. The the burden is on Him.

It's not on us. Now, should we try to be good

people? Absolutely.

But it's not on whether we're good or bad or whether we're

great or or terrible. As far as how we're going to get

to heaven. It's all on Him to do what He

said He was going to do. It's on us to just believe that

He is going to do it because He said that He would.

First John, chapter 5 and verse #13 by the way, it's not a

1 John 5 · chapter mention

burden for him at all. The burden's on Him.

But it's easy for him to carry it.

He can handle it. He's done it all already.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of

the Son of God. The Bible says in first John

1 John 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 and verse 13 that you may know that you have eternal

life. We can know that we have eternal

life and the only way is if we do it his way.

Turn over to second Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

I will say this to those who are still hardening their hearts

against the gospel. Maybe you have been convicted,

and maybe you. Are close to making a decision

for Christ. Maybe you know that you need to

be saved and your ground is so hard that you just won't let the

word of God plow into it. Break up your fallow ground,

because opportunities are. Fleeting, and we cannot afford

to let another day pass without complete surrender to the will

of God. First Peter, sorry.

Second Peter chapter 3 and verse #9 The Bible says the Lord is

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

not slack concerning His promise, as some men count

slackness, but His long-suffering to us.

Word not willing that any man should perish, but that all

should come to repentance. Simply hearing the truth is not

enough. If the heart is hard, it's not

going to receive it. If the heart is preoccupied, the

truth will soon be forgotten or even ignored.

The heart must be soft enough to receive the truth of the Word of

God. We have to allow the plow to

break up that fallow ground. That Word of God is so simple in

the Gospel, and we've been talking about this on Wednesday

nights, but we're all sinners. Our sin is what is condemning us

to hell. But Jesus Christ died on the

cross to pay for that sin. His death on the cross was not

so that we can learn how to live.

It was not so that we can learn how to love or any of those

things. It was to pay your sin debt and

to pay mine. If you die and go to hell, you

die and go to hell with your sins already paid for.

He's already done everything that needs to be done for you to

have eternal life. He's already done everything

that needs to be done for your sins to be forgiven.

He's already done everything that needs to be done for Jesus

Christ to be your savior. You just need to let Him and

He'll do it. Somebody said this.

Longfellow could take a worthless sheet of paper, write

a poem on it, and make it worth $6000.

That's a genius. Rockefeller could sign his name

to a piece of paper and make it worth $1,000,000.

That's capital. Uncle Sam can take can take a

piece of paper, stamp an eagle on it, and make it worth $20.

That's money. An artist can take a $2.00 piece

of canvas, paint a picture on it, and make it worth $1000.

That's art. But God can take a sinful life,

wash it in the blood of Christ, put his Spirit in it, and make

it a blessing to humanity that salvation.

That's what Jesus Christ has to offer us.

And if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, I beg of

you today to let the Word of God be planted in your soul.

And at the end of the service, I can take a Bible and show you

how you can know for sure that you're on your way to heaven,

that Jesus Christ is your Savior, that your sins are

forgiven. He wants to do that for you, but

you have to let that seed be planted in that ground.

Break up the follow ground. We only have one God to account

for, to account to for all of eternity.

But I want you to see this as well #2 and if you will turn

over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, we looked at the first part

of this verse, but I want to look at the second part when I

say this. We only have one life for all

eternity. We only have one God to account

to for all of eternity, but we only have life, one life for all

of eternity. If we're saved, then we're going

to give an account of the use of our life and for our usefulness

to God. Second Corinthians chapter 5 and

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

verse #10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of

Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in His

body according to that He had done, whether it be good or bad.

And I'm afraid that the majority of Christians are going to be so

ashamed of how they live their life when they stand before God.

Most Christians have a little corner of the property that they

allow God to plow and use, but the rest of it they keep for

themselves. God, you can, you can have that

little corner. That's the, that's the corner

that that sticks out where everybody can see it.

That's the corner that that everybody drives past.

And you can have that one, you can plow that one.

Let everybody see that there's something growing up in there.

But all the rest of this is mine.

You don't touch this. We allow just enough to be

cultivated so it looks like we're willing to be used, and it

looks like we may be a good Christian, and it looks like we

belong to Jesus Christ and yet we're nowhere near as useful as

God intended for us to be. And I wonder how many Christians

are sitting in this room this morning that have unplowed

places in their life that they just have not given over to God

yet. Or maybe it's something that you

had plowed. Before and God was using and

you've taking it back for yourself and now you just let it

sit there. No plow is going to touch that.

God can't touch that. That's mine.

That belongs to me when you. Lose your desire to live for the

Lord. Your ground has become hard.

When you lose the desire to be at church, your ground is hard.

When you lose your desire to pray and your desire to read the

Bible, your ground is hard. And I know sometimes there are

things that that come in our lives that that are difficult

circumstances that sometimes make it hard to pray, that

sometimes make it hard to concentrate on reading our

Bible, that sometimes make it hard to sit in church and things

like that. But when you lose your desire

for those things, your ground is hard.

When you lose your desire to be out here on Saturday, we have

outreach and we have visitation. We have opportunities to go

share the gospel with the lost and dying world.

And when you lose the desire to do those things, your ground is

hard. Oh, you could come up with all

the excuses you want to come up with why you can't do this, why

you can't do that, why you can't be here, why you can't be there.

But I'll tell you the main reason why is your ground is

hard and it needs to be plowed up.

You need to give God access to it and let him cultivate that

thing. Let him grow it into something.

You'd be surprised at what will grow up in your life if you

allow God to plow that ground. Oh, I'm too shy or, oh, I've got

this going on or oh, this is, this is so important to me.

You just don't understand. These things are so important.

No, I'll tell you, what's important is the work of God.

Everything else is going to be burned up someday.

You got all the, the hobbies and the things that you like to do

and the things that you want to do and you put those in front of

serving the Lord and living for the Lord.

You're going to be sorry one day when you stand before God and he

says, how come you weren't there to go out and knock on those

doors? How come you weren't there to to

help give out the Bibles? How come you weren't there to go

out and reach these college kids on the campus?

How come you weren't there to go help bring young people in

through a bus ministry? How come?

Well, I you just got to understand.

I really enjoy hunting. I really enjoyed fishing, I

really enjoyed politics. I really enjoyed Fill in the

Blank with whatever it is that you're using as your excuse to

not be here, giving out the gospel when you have the

opportunity. To do it, your ground is hard

and you need to allow God to plow it up.

When you stop fighting against sin in your life, your ground is

hard. We're all going to fight sin.

That's part of what we face when we still have the old flesh

living with us. But you ought to be fighting it.

You ought to be daily crucifying your flesh.

You ought to be daily coming to God and begging Him to help you

with the thing that you are struggling with, whether it's

anger or bitterness or lust or greed or whatever it happens to

be. There's so many things that we

face every single day in our lives that come up as, as things

that try to keep us from being everything that we can be for,

for God. We fight it for a while, but

then we get tired of fighting and we finally just say, you

know what? I'm tired of dealing with it.

I'm tired of fighting it. I'm just going to give into it.

Nobody knows about it anyway. I'll tell you this My my job is

your pastor is to study my people.

And I, and I don't say this in a, in a, in a prideful way at

all. I hope it doesn't come across

that way, but to know my people, that's, that's the one of my

jobs as the pastor. And I can look around and see

what you used to be and what you are capable of and know that

there's a good handful of you whose ground has been hard and

uncultivated. What you're capable of and what

you're doing is far from what God wants to do in your life.

And it's time that we cultivate that ground.

It's time that we give God access to it.

Let him have it. If you only understood what God

could do with that ground over what you think you can do with

it for yourself. I know you and I know what you

have been and what you are capable of and I.

Understand that some of you are capable of so much more than

what you're allowing God access to in your life.

But I'll be honest with you, there's a lot of it that nobody

knows but you. There's a lot of it that it

looks good on the outside to everybody else, but it's ground

that's uncultivated and you know it, and you're the only one.

You and God are the only one that know it.

And maybe maybe the things that are visible to everybody else,

that the fields that are visible to everybody else look good and

they look like they're flourishing and they look like

they're producing. But you've got a plot there in

the center that only you can see from the top that you're not

allowing God to have access to. Are you going to let God have

that? That's the part that nobody else

is going to know but God does. That's the part that one day

it's going to be brought to light and it's not, listen,

every one of us are going to have things that we're

embarrassed about or ashamed about when we stand before God.

It's not like I'm going to stand there and say, wow, I had no

idea. I can't believe you were that

horrible of a person. It's not we're going to do that.

It's not that we're going to be ashamed because everybody else

knows about it. It's just that we're going to be

so ashamed that the one who died on the cross to pay for those

sins, that God who commended his love toward us in that.

While we were yet. Sinners died for us and we're

going to have to hang our heads in shame before him and say, I

can't believe I lived my life that way.

I can't believe I didn't give you access to those things.

I can't believe I didn't allow you to have that so you could

use it. That's that's why we're going to

be ashamed when we stand before God, not because, oh, everybody

else is going to find out about it and that's going to be part

of it. But how ashamed we're going to

be to think that the God who gave me everything, including

the eternal life that I'm about to enjoy.

And I sinned against him over and over and over.

And he had so much that he wanted to allow to grow up in my

life and so much that he wanted to cultivate spiritually, and I

just wouldn't. Let him have it.

Because it was mine. Because nobody else could see

it. You're going to stand before God

someday, and you're going to give account for that.

Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 2 and I'll say this.

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

Maybe you're the only one that knows that your heart is hard,

but maybe you're the only one that knows that your heart is

hardening. You might have had some areas

that have been soft, some things that you allowed God to do, but

the more you get away from Him, the more you backslide, the more

you allow your heart to be pulled in different directions.

This ground that used to be fertile, this ground that used

to be useful in God's service is hardening right now.

Maybe you had a prayer life that used to be yielding fruit.

Maybe your time in God's Word used to be something that

yielded fruit. Maybe you used to be one of

those that served the Lord with every ounce of energy that you

had. But for whatever reason, you

backed off. And now that ground may not be

absolutely useless and unusable, but it's getting to the place

where it's unused, and you need to allow God access to it again.

Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse #19 says Thine own wickedness shall

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee.

Know therefore, and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that

thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in

thee, saith the Lord. God of hosts says this in verse

#32 Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me. Days without number.

We must break up the fallow ground and maintain the ground

until Jesus comes. I wonder how many opportunities

have been neglected. As long as we cherish our sin,

we are preventing growth. Hearing truth is not enough,

because if it's not acted upon, it will be choked out.

Breaking up fallow ground requires a lot of work.

Turn over to Isaiah chapter 55. Stumps have to be removed.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

I most of you have been to, to, to our house and, you know, for

the different picnics and different things that we do over

there, the whole field that's next to our house, there was all

trees when we moved into that property.

And most of them were only, you know, 3-4 inches around.

Some of them maybe just a little bit bigger than that.

But it was, it was really, they were small enough that it, you

know, having a chainsaw out there didn't really help because

everything was just going to, if I just cut it off at the base,

it didn't help. Everything was just going to

keep growing back. I had to get everything out by

the roots. And So what I had to do with

every single one of those trees that had grown up and it was

thick. There was a lot it took me the

better part of an entire summer and the and the kids help they

they were dragging all the trees and everything to the burn pile.

We burned everything, but we had to dig down below the ground and

chop with an axe below the surface to break that, to break

the roots off completely, because if you don't do it,

they're going to keep coming back And see that's what happens

so often in our lives. We get to the point where we

decide we're going to do something about it.

And so we cut the tree off at the base or we just pluck that

weed and just pull it right off the top, but the root is still

there and it's going to keep coming back and it's going to

keep coming back and it's going to keep coming back.

We've got to ask God and we've got to allow God to get deep

below the soil and work in places where it actually hurts

to let him go in there. Hey, you, you listen, I think

about it like this when I'm, when I, you know, when I get to

the point where I'm like, man, all my pants are fitting tight.

I need to start losing a few pounds and then I start trying

to die and I'm, and I think, man, this is so hard.

I, you know, I, I can't, I can't lose weight.

It's, it's difficult to lose weight.

I, I want to eat. I want, you know this, I want

that. And then I stop and I think, you

know what, I had three, 4-5 months where I just ate

anything. I felt like it, that was easy,

right? That was the easy part.

I allowed myself to get into that spot.

Now it's going to be difficult to get it out.

And that's exactly what happened when you sin, Hey, it's easy to

sin. It's easy to let your

relationship with God go. It's easy to just not really

care about it. And Oh well, what happens

happens. I'm just in this in this

routine. I'm just doing the things that I

always do. Life is just going on.

And then the next thing you know, wow, I can't believe that

I'm this deep in all of these sins.

I, I need to get rid of these gods really convicting my heart.

I've got to do something about it.

I guess I'll just go in tomorrow and clean everything out of my

life. Doesn't work that way.

Those things have gotten in there deep.

You let it grow and they're way too long.

Now you've got to dig below the surface.

It's like an ingrown hair, right?

When you get something like that or an ingrown toenail, you got

to go in there and dig it out and it hurts, right?

There's a, there's a lot of things like if it's worth doing,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's going to hurt a lot of times,

right? Same thing with.

Exercise. When you start exercising, it

hurts, but you've got to do it if you expect something to come

of it. And the same is true in our

lives. He's saying break up your fellow

ground. You've let it get to the point.

You've backslidden. You let those things grow up in

there. It's not going to be an easy

thing to get it out. There's going to be some things

that are probably going to be exposed that hurt.

There's probably going to be some things that you've allowed

to grow in there that are not easy to pull out because they've

just become a way of life. They've become a fixture.

They've become part of that field that you've just been

allowing to grow there. It's going to take work to get

it out. But it's worth it to get it out

because now the field can be used.

What's been growing in your heart?

Hatred, lust, bitterness. There's so many things that we

allow to grow that we think, well, I can stop this anytime I

want to. It's like an alcoholic.

I can stop drinking if I want to.

I just, I just choose to drink. No, you're addicted to it and

you can't stop it when you want to.

Kind of the same thing is true with our sin.

It's not going to be easy, but it's worth it.

Isaiah chapter 55 and verse number six.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

Seek ye of the Lord while he may be found.

Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his

thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have

mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Now that's the wonderful thing about it, but I'll tell you

this, we don't like the first part.

And until you get past that first part, you can never get to

the second part of verse #7 Oh, I'm not wicked.

I've just got a few things in my life that shouldn't be there.

I'm not unrighteous, I've just got a few things.

No, you're wicked before God. You are unrighteous before God.

And we have to see ourselves that way.

We have to see our sin that way before a holy God, or we're

never going to get to the point where we allow Him in to really

uproot the things that need to be uprooted.

And we're never going to have that abundant pardon that He

wants to give us. As long as you see your sin as

not that bad, you will never get it out.

The same thing. What if a what if a farmer was

going through his field and he found a giant rock and he said,

well that's not that bad. I can just kind of go around it.

It's going to be there every single year when he comes back

to plow and it's going to break times on his plow.

It's going to be it's going to cause him a lot of trouble until

he just decides to get that rock out.

To a farmer, a rock is not not that big of a deal.

A rock is a huge deal and it has to be gotten out, and sometimes

with great effort, and only with great effort can it be gotten

out. But it needs to be that

hardness, that hardness that we have in our heart.

That's the point that that he needs us to come to if he's

going to be able to use US. Turn over to Psalm 51.

See, if you're serious about putting the field into

production, it's going to require a lot of hard work,

digging, leveraging horsepower to move the rocks to get to the

to get to the trees at the root and get them completely out of

there. But David says this in Psalm 51

and verse #17 The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken

and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise.

Maybe some of those things you're going to need help

pulling out of your life. You can't do it on your own.

Maybe you need to come to your pastor and ask for help.

Maybe you need to come to another mature church member and

ask for help in getting those things out of your life.

You know many times they've had experience pulling those rocks

out of their own life. Every field has them.

Every field has rocks till you pull them out.

Instead of being judgmental, you'll probably find that there

are a lot of help. I'm not saying it's going to be

easy. In fact, it's going to be very

difficult, can be quite painful many times, but it's absolutely

necessary for growth. A man dialed a wrong number and

and he got an answering machine and the answering machine said,

I'm not available right now, but I thank you for caring enough to

call me. I'm making some changes in my

life. Please leave a message.

If I don't call you back, you're one of the changes.

That's what it's going to take though.

The changes may not make other people happy, but there's only

one person that we should be trying to make happy.

I want to get to the point in my life where I work for the Lord

and I fight for the Lord, and I'm so busy working in His

service and doing the things that are pleasing to Him that

only every once in a while I lay my sword down and look up for a

smile. And I want Him to be smiling

when I look up because he's the only one that matters.

I don't, I don't. I don't try to be controversial

for the sake of being controversial.

Not even controversial. Confrontational is probably the

right word. I'm not trying to be

confrontational. I'm not trying to stir up

anything in inside of you. I don't like it.

But it's my responsibility to preach the entire counsel of

God. And I really don't care if

you're happy or not if as long as he's happy.

And I don't care if it pleases you or not, as long as he's

pleased. I'm not trying to displease you.

I'm not trying to make you mad. I'm not trying to get you

burning under the collar. I'm not trying to do any of

those things. But there's only one person that

I'm going to stand before, and it's not you, it's God.

And I want to be able to tell him that I did everything that I

could with what He gave me. And I want to be able to tell

Him that I used every opportunity that I had that He

gave me to share the gospel, to be right with him, to live for

him in a way that He wants me to live for him, to have the

relationship with him that He wants to have with me.

Because I want to give you this as the last point.

And very quickly, we never know when these opportunities will

end. He says break up your fallow

ground. It's high time to seek the Lord

till they come and reign righteousness upon you.

He's given us time right now, but you don't know when that

opportunity is going to end. Turn over to Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

3. The saying only one life will

soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will

last is true. You can spend your time and your

energy making money, fulfilling every desire, living for

pleasure, and you'll always come up empty.

Or you can allow the Lord to plow the spots that you've left

untouched for years. You can give Him access to the

darkest corners of your life. You can get rid of all the

things that are keeping your spiritual life from being what

God wants it to be. And when you start seeing that

growth and what could be produced in your life, when you

actually give those things over to God, you'll be thrilled.

You'll be amazed at what God can do with your life if you give

Him access. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

#20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above

all that we ask or think, according to the power that

worketh in US. Unto Him be glory in the church

throughout all ages, by Jesus Christ throughout all ages,

world without end. Amen.

That's our motivation, or at least it should be.

When our life produces fruit, it brings praise to the one who

cultivated it. Has has anybody ever walked into

a field that was producing beautiful ears of corn and said,

wow, this corn is so wonderful. I can't believe it planted

itself and grew up like this. Nobody ever says that because

everybody knows that it's not the corn that did it.

When you walk in the field and you say, wow, who planted this

man? They must have been a genius

when it comes to cultivation, and they must have been a genius

when it comes to fertilization and all of the different things

that are necessary. This is wonderful corn.

Who planted this? And that's exactly what happens

in the life of a Christian who is producing fruit.

They don't say, wow, look at that Christian.

He's such a wonderful person. Now, if we're doing it right,

all the glory belongs to him and our life will point others to

Christ because of the fruit that we're producing.

I heard a story about a famous painter, his name was Sir Edwin

Lancier. He was in the Victoria era when

he lived and painted, but he developed his talents very early

and actually at a young age, he had a lot of his paintings

showcased in the Royal Academy, but he was commissioned to do

all kinds of different things. He, he, he gave drawing lessons

to Queen Victoria, to Prince Albert.

I mean, this is the kind of famous guy that he was.

But he was best known for his depictions of the, the natural

life in the Scottish Highlands. And one day he was visiting a,

visiting a family in an old mansion in Scotland.

And one of the servants, as they were carrying the food out,

dropped an entire pitcher of soda water and it hit the ground

and it just splattered all over the wall.

And immediately they went and got rags and water and they

tried to wipe it, but it, it just, it left the stain on the

wall that they just, they couldn't get out.

And so they were trying to figure out what they were going

to do. I'm like, we're going to repaint

the wall that we're going to have to tear some of this out

and redo it. They just didn't know what they

were going to have to do. And so the family already had a

trip that was planned. And so they they left on that

trip. And while they were away, Edwin

Lands here, stayed behind. And he used a piece of charcoal

and he actually incorporated that giant stain into a huge

mural that he painted on the wall.

And when the family came back, they couldn't even remember

exactly where the stain was because there was so much beauty

around it and so much that he had actually been able to do in

incorporating that horrible stain into that canvas or the

wall that became a canvas. And you know, I think God works

much the same way in our lives. The things that we think our

weaknesses and handicaps, if we allow him to come in and do

something with it, can become our greatest strengths and the

very things that that he uses the most to bring glory to

himself. And that's what it's all about

anyway. God's grace can provide the

strength to meet every challenge, to overcome every

weakness, to help us be what he wants us to be.

If you aren't sure that you're on your way to heaven, if you've

never opened your heart up to the Lord to let Him come in and

save you, if you don't have that assurance that Jesus Christ is

your Savior, you need to get that settled today.

But if you do, and you know Christ is your Savior and you

know you're on your way to heaven, then what's holding you

back from living for Him? Won't you allow Him to go in and

break up that fallow ground? Are there areas in your life

that are unusable to God right now because you just haven't

given it over to Him? Are there large areas that you

haven't turned over to Him? Maybe you've given Him this

little corner and it's time that you surrender to be used by God.

Has there been a time when you've surrendered your life to

him? I'm not saying that you have to

say, oh, God's called me to preach.

I'm surrendering my life. That's the way we look at it

most of the time. Or God's calling me to the

mission field. I'm surrendering my life.

Now that ought to be something that we do every day.

There ought to be a moment in your life where you say, God,

this life is not mine. I'm surrendering it to you.

You do with my life what you want to do with my life.

It's yours. You can have it.

And then I take all the fences down around all of those fields

that I've built up for all of these years, and I say, God,

it's all yours. Break up the fallow ground.

Do what you need to do in that field.

It's yours. I want you to plant in it.

I want you to cultivate it. I want you to grow what you want

to grow in there. It's yours.

Have you surrendered your life to the Lord?

Oh, we put that focus on the kids.

Kids, you need to surrender your life to the Lord.

And I agree, they do. But what about the adults?

Have you surrendered your life to Him?

It's a scary thought. Oh, what if God calls me to the

mission field? What if He does?

Oh, what if God calls me to go do this?

What if He does? I've just got the safety of my

job and I've got this and I've got that, and if I surrender to

God and he calls me to go do something else, I just don't

know how, then you haven't. Surrendered.

And if you're not surrendered, then God can't use it.

If you haven't given every aspect over to Him, then you are

not surrendered. You've surrendered parts, but

you're not surrendered. So how about you this morning?

Got areas? Of your life.

That you need to turn over to the Lord.

Let him have things that you've been holding on to that you just

won't give him. I promise you, it's never going

to be valuable land until you give it over to Him.

And let him break up that fallow ground and let him use it in

your life. Let him do what he wants to do

with your life once you come. Submit to the plow this morning

so that God can use you, so that you can see growth in your life

that God so desperately desires for you.

Jeremiah and Hosea both reminded us, break up your fellow ground.

It's time to seek the Lord till He come and reign righteousness

upon you. That's what I want.

You want it, allow Him to do it. Surrender to Him and He will.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us and for an opportunity to be in your

word this morning and for the reminder that we have and, and

really the command that we have from your word to just to break

up that fallow ground to allow you to have access to it and use

it in a way that only you can. God, you have to speak to

hearts. You have to do the work.

We cannot do it. I can't do it.

You have to do it or there's conviction.

God, I pray that there would be decisions that are made to give

you access to every aspect of our life and may it be helpful

to us. Thank you again for all you do

for us in Jesus name, Amen. If you would stand at your seats

with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I want to give you

an opportunity to respond to the message this morning as the

piano plays. Invitations open, you come.