SERMON: SOWING NEW GROUND

 

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Hosea 10:12

 

Sow righteousness for yourselves,

    reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

    for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

    and showers his righteousness on you.

 

            -- the other day in my small group meeting, I was asked how my soul was -- in other words, how was I doing? -- and my answer was that I was tired and I didn’t like people -- which is not a good place for a Christian to be and is really not a good place for a pastor to be

            -- but I don’t think I’m alone -- I think 2020 has broken a lot of people -- since the start of this year, we’ve been overstressed -- we’ve been living in a constant state of fight-or-flight and our stress hormones have maxed out and it’s affected who we are and what we do

            -- I know in my own life it’s caused me to be somewhat short with people -- my patience has worn thin -- and so when I see people not following the rules or acting selfish or not doing what they’re supposed to do, it makes me irritable and I’m quick to take offense or to get angry or to speak out

            -- but it’s not just me -- I see that in the people around me -- I see how quick everyone is to take offense and to snap at people -- we see it in the stores -- we see it at work -- we see it on Facebook -- we see it everywhere now

            -- and the thing is that no one sees the problem -- everyone thinks they’re fine -- they don’t recognize that they’re not and that the way they’re acting and the way they’re living is not normal -- it’s not right

 

            -- it’s kind of like the movie, The Sixth Sense, with Bruce Willis -- remember that one? -- where the little boy said, “I see dead people?” -- Bruce Willis was one of the main characters -- the whole movie, he’s right there talking to the little boy and trying to help him with his issues -- and at the end, we find out that Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time -- he thought he was alive -- he thought he was acting normal -- he thought he was okay -- but he wasn’t

            -- how many of us are like him right now? -- going through life thinking we’re okay when we’re not -- doing things we shouldn’t and thinking they’re normal? -- how many of us are dead spiritually while we think we’re alive?

 

            -- that’s what was going on with the Israelites throughout most of the Old Testament -- for instance, think about that blank page in your Bible that divides the Old Testament from the New Testament -- from the last words of Malachi in the Old Testament until Matthew begins there is a period of 400 years in the life of Israel that we don’t have any record of

            -- for 400 years, the Israelites went through the motions of religion -- they still went to the Temple on the Sabbath for services -- they still went to Jerusalem for the three great feasts -- they still made all the sacrifices and the offerings -- but it was just 400 years of empty ritualism -- 400 years of religion -- and all that time, God never moved and never spoke and the people didn’t see a problem with that  

            -- anyone looking at that time from the outside could see that something was missing in the Israelite’s spiritual lives -- but they couldn’t see it -- they thought everything was good -- they couldn’t see how lost they were -- how far their relationship with God had drifted from the truth

            -- it’s like Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 2:6, the people “stopped asking, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt…’” -- they stopped looking for God and were satisfied with just going through the motions of religion

 

II.  Hosea 10:12

            -- we see a similar situation here in the book of Hosea -- Hosea is the first of the minor prophets -- they’re called the minor prophets because of the size of their books -- calling them a minor prophet has nothing to do with the importance of their message or their calling by God

            -- Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel and proclaimed God’s words in the waning days of the kingdom, right before they were taken into captivity by Assyria

            -- the northern kingdom was very far from God -- from the very beginning, the northern kingdom had turned away from God when Jeroboam, their first king, made a golden calf and set it up as the nation’s god -- the people fell into idolatry -- and although they still claimed to be followers of Yahweh -- although they still claimed to be God’s chosen people -- they were spiritually dead -- their hearts were far away -- their worship of God just the empty rituals of religion -- and they put their trust in idols and in their own strength instead of Him

            -- this is the setting of this verse that we opened with -- throughout Chapter 10, God is warning the nation of Israel about their actions -- He’s telling them to look at what they’re doing -- to see how far they had moved from Him -- and to come back in repentance and faith or else His wrath and punishment was going to fall on them

            -- Hosea 10:12 is God’s plea for Israel to come home -- to return to Him -- to once again be who they were called to be

            -- let’s take a look at this together now and see what we can learn from this call of God to Israel

 

            -- look at the first part of verse 12 -- Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground…

            -- in this verse, we’re introduced to the biblical concept of sowing and reaping -- now that’s something we know a lot about here in south Georgia -- there’s still a lot of farmers here that sow seeds every spring and then reap the harvest when it’s ready

            -- and we know that what we sow, we reap -- if we plant cotton, then we reap cotton -- if we plant squash, then we reap squash -- that’s the way of the world -- if you plant corn, you’re not going to harvest watermelons -- you reap what you sow

            -- well, the same is true spiritually -- the Israelites had been sowing seeds of idolatry and false religion -- seeds of injustice and hatred the mistreatment of others -- they had turned a blind eye to the poor and the needy -- they had turned away from God -- and they were starting to reap what they sowed

            -- Israel had been constantly at war with the nations around them -- they had suffered at the hands of their neighbors -- they had experienced drought and famine and plagues -- they had been mistreated by each other and by foreigners

            -- in verse 13 God tells them, “you have planted wickedness and you have reaped evil” -- and He warns them that the final harvest was coming -- if they did not repent and return to Him, Assyria was going to come and rule over the nation, carrying them into exile from the Promised Land

 

            -- so, God counsels them here to sow righteousness instead of wickedness, so that they would reap the fruit of unfailing love instead of the evil they had known

            -- the seeds of righteousness are a right relationship with God -- obedience to His commands and His ways -- the seeds of righteousness are works of piety -- acts of holiness -- doing good things for other people -- pouring out His love to those around you -- and growing in wisdom and in the knowledge of God -- reading His word and following His commands and communing with Him through prayer -- seeking Him with all your heart -- those are the seeds of righteousness God tells us to sow

 

            -- and notice how verse 12 makes this personal -- sow for yourselves righteousness -- this call to repentance wasn’t just for the nation, but for every person and every soul in that nation

            -- our relationship with God is a personal relationship -- just because you live in a Christian nation doesn’t make you a Christian -- just because you go to church every Sunday doesn’t make you saved -- just listening to someone preach God’s word doesn’t save you

            -- it is only when you sow for yourself seeds of righteousness -- when you come to Jesus in repentance -- turning from your wicked ways and your sins -- and asking for His forgiveness and deliverance -- that is when you find salvation -- that is when you sow seeds of righteousness

 

            -- but there’s something that has to happen before you can begin sowing seeds of righteousness -- notice that God tells them to break up their unplowed ground -- some translations say that they must break up their fallow ground -- He’s talking about the state of their hearts

            -- fallow ground is ground that is left idle and not actively farmed or tilled -- and it’s a common practice to occasionally let a field lay fallow for a season and then to plow it under, because it becomes more productive after that

            -- we see that in our spiritual lives -- God sometimes allows our hearts to lay fallow in order to grow us and mature us in our faith -- fallow times are periods of spiritual dryness -- times when God seems far away, although He isn’t -- times when it seems as if our prayers aren’t reaching past the ceiling -- times when we can’t see what God is doing

            -- these temporary periods of fallowness and spiritual dryness are beneficial because they force us to live on faith in the promises of God -- they deepen our faith -- they help us to learn to believe in God, not only when times are good and everything’s right, but also during those times when we can’t see Him or feel Him -- when all we can do is trust and believe in faith

            -- temporary fallow times deepen our faith and mature us as Christians -- so temporary times of spiritual dryness are normal -- but extended times of fallowness and spiritual dryness are not

 

            -- long periods of land laying fallow are not good -- leaving the land fallow for a long period causes it to grow hard -- it causes weeds and thorns to grow and cover the land -- long periods of fallowness are the result of an idle spiritual life or unconfessed sin

            -- fallow ground becomes hard ground -- unable to receive rain -- the ground can become so hard that if you try to plant seeds in it, they won’t come up -- they can’t break through the earth -- that’s why hard ground needs to be broken up -- breaking up the ground lets the rain  penetrate the soil and the seeds sprout and come up

            -- this is the condition of Israel that the prophet Hosea was speaking to here in this verse -- their land and their hearts had lain fallow for too long and grown hard and unyielding -- they had turned away from God and sown seeds of wickedness in two main ways

            -- first, they had become idolaters and had become satisfied with the empty rituals of religion

            -- and, secondly, they relied and gloried in their own strength -- “we can do it ourselves,” they proclaimed, “We don’t need God”

            -- the end result was hard fallow ground filled with the weeds and thorns of unrighteousness and sin

 

            -- so, God tells them to break up the fallow ground -- to turn under the weeds and thorns -- this is a call for the nation of Israel to repent of their wickedness and their idolatry and to return to Him  

            -- In his great sermon on this text, Charles Finney exhorts us to break up the fallow ground by returning to God -- putting aside our sins and our evil habits -- righting old wrongs and paying neglected debts -- forgiving those who harmed us

            -- until we break up the fallowed ground of our hearts -- until we return to God in repentance and seek His forgiveness -- we will not be able to sow seeds of righteousness in our lives -- we will not be able to reap the fruit of unfailing love

 

            -- look at the second part of this verse -- “for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you”

 

            -- breaking up our the fallowed ground of our hearts and sowing seeds of righteousness begins when we seek the Lord -- it is always the right time to begin seeking God’s presence -- as it says in the Psalms, “Today is the day of righteousness” -- today is the day we seek His presence

            -- this is a reminder to us that our religion must always be focused on our relationship with God -- it’s not about how often we come to church or how much we read the Bible or how many good works we do -- it’s all about seeking and knowing God in a real and personal way

            -- God tells us that if we seek Him, we will find Him -- if we seek Him with all our heart, He will be found by us

            -- we find Him through His word -- we find Him in prayer -- we find Him when we hear His voice call our name -- when His prevenient grace leads us home

            -- all we have to do is take just one step towards God, and we will find Him waiting there for us, just like the prodigal son

            -- when we repent of our sins -- when we turn towards God again -- when we begin breaking up the fallowed ground of our hearts, we will find God waiting for us, ready to shower righteousness and the fruit of His unfailing love on us

            -- what is this fruit of His unfailing love -- salvation -- the forgiveness of sins -- eternal life -- spiritual blessings -- the fruit of the Spirit -- a relationship with the Father

 

III.  Closing

            -- let’s bring this to a close

            -- Rick Warren points out that God exposes our spiritual dryness and the fallow ground of our hearts to us in three ways so that we might respond to Him and break up our fallow ground and sow seeds of righteousness

            -- first, God may allow our peace to dry up -- when He does that, He is dealing with who we are -- He is revealing that our lives are not aligning with His will and His ways -- He disturbs our peace so that we will ask, “What about myself needs to change?”

            -- next, God may allow us to lose our joy -- He does that when He wants to change what we’re doing -- we don’t enjoy what we did in the past -- what we used to like about our jobs doesn’t seem to be there anymore -- we don’t find joy or pleasure in our vocation or in what we do because God is calling us to make a change

            -- and, finally, God may make us uncomfortable -- He may make things difficult because He wants to change where we are -- when God is trying to get us to make a change in our lives, He makes things uncomfortable because we can’t stay where we are and go with God -- we can’t keep doing the things we’ve been doing and become the people God wants us to be

 

            -- God took away the peace and the joy and the comfort of the nation of Israel -- He allowed them to suffer the consequences of their actions so that they might see the true state of their hearts -- so they might see how far they had drifted from Him

            -- He spoke to them in their pain and in the midst of their suffering and called them to return to Him -- to break up the fallowed ground of their hearts so that they might sow better seeds -- seeds of righteousness -- and so that they might reap a harvest of unfailing love and spiritual blessings through Him

            -- He does the same for us -- it could be this time we are in is really a blessing from God -- a time when He’s trying to get our attention and call us back to Him -- a time when He’s trying to shine a light on our hearts so that we can see who we really are -- and so we can seek Him and find Him again and sow seeds of righteousness in our lives and in this world

            -- as we leave here today, I want to encourage you to spend some time in reflection on your life and on your relationship with God -- is it where it needs to be? -- are the ways that you are acting and feeling reflective of a yielding and righteous heart or a fallow and hard heart?

            -- seek God this week -- in His word -- in your prayers -- and in your lives -- so that you might experience His healing rain and the fruit of His unfailing love

            -- let us pray