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A brief bit of encouragement for your day from God’s Word. Today’s Scripture: Hosea 9-10 Speaker: Mike Gottemoller
Good morning, people of faith. We're going to be in Hosea chapter 10 this morning. I'm going to read just one verse, and then we're going to go to a couple other places with our challenge today. When I was a growing up, a young boy, I lived near a cornfield, and in the fall, they would turn the plants over after harvest and plow the field, and I liked to go out to this hedgerow and get some hedge apples and throw them around and hit them with a stick or whatever, and after they would plow that field, it would get very difficult sometimes for a young boy like me to just walk there, and the field was uneven, and the ground would get, if it got cold enough, the ground would get hard, and well, there's a term for that type of field that has been plowed and ready to be planted, although in the fall it wouldn't be planted, it'd be planted in the spring, but for a field that has been plowed and ready to be, seed to be put in it, whose seed is not put in it, is called fallow ground, and fallow ground is ground that becomes hard and is uneven and ready to be planted, but then didn't get planted, and so becomes kind of a worthless field for a time, and so in Hosea chapter 10, what's going on is Israel is in a very bad way.
Their kings are worthless, they're corrupt, they are not following God's law at all, and the whole nation of Israel has gone astray, and there is a call to the people in verse 12 of Hosea chapter 10. Let me read.
So for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you, and then it goes back after this to give the warning to the people if they don't do these things, and so I wanted to look at three ways for us today to break up the fallow ground that is that hardened ground of our own hearts where we have perhaps heard the word and not let the word grow in our hearts and have had our hearts prepared by the hearing and preaching and teaching of the word, and yet our hearts have become hard.
The first area is area of known sin. You know what you're doing is wrong in a particular area. It could be in a business dealing, it could be in with family members, or it could be in your private life that you have allowed things to creep in and take control where you ought not, and the word speaks to that in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 34.
It says, Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. When we openly and knowingly walk in known sin and we reject the teaching of the word that's been presented to us, we are not just endangering ourselves, but we are keeping the word from being spread because some do not have the knowledge of God.
So the first area where we can break up the fallow ground is to repent of known sin in our own lives. Second, there are times when there is sin in our lives that we are not aware of, that sometimes it just takes us by surprise.
It could be just some little thing or it could be a big thing, but we're just unaware of it going about our days, our lives. And to this, this should be our response to those types of things. Psalm 139, the last two verses, verses 23 and 24 say, Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. It is an okay and a good thing to say to the Lord, Search me. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong.
Guide me in the way that you want me to go. So the second way that we can break up that fallow ground in our own hearts is to ask the Lord if there is something that we have done that we're in an area that we need to grow in where we have done wrong.
And then finally, let me read to you from Matthew chapter 6 and verses 32 and 33. For after all these things the Gentiles seek, what is these things about what they're going to wear and what they're going to eat from verse 31.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So don't worry about the things that you're going to eat or wear or whatever, but seek first God's kingdom.
So way number three is to break up the fallow ground is to seek first his kingdom. So if you have known sin in your life, repent. If you don't know of any known sin, it is okay to ask God to show you if there's any evil way in you or any wicked way in you.
And finally, seek the Lord. Seek his kingdom. Where do we do that? We do that through his word. Let's think about these things and apply them to our lives this morning and let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.
We hear the challenge this morning to break up that fallow ground. I pray that you would break up that fallow ground, that you would be planting your word in our lives that it might grow and bear fruit, that we might be a blessing to others.
It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.